Future instruments will improve atmospheric measurements in both time and space. Although these data are expected to advance traditional Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) guidance at 48 hours and beyond, greater benefit may come from objective nowcasting systems that assist forecasters in identifying rapidly developing and isolated extreme weather events a few hours in advance. These systems should detect and retain extreme variations in the atmosphere and incorporate large volumes of high-resolution asynoptic data. Because they need to be extremely fast, they may use numerical approaches different from current NWP. A new objective nowcasting approach is presented that uses trajectories to optimize the impact and retention of satellite information. It is designed to detect and preserve intense vertical and horizontal variations observed over time. Real data tests have identified atmospheric details associated with the onset of significant weather events up to 6 hours in advance. Using full resolution moisture products from current GOES sounders to update and enhance current operational forecasts, the Lagrangian system captures and retains details (maxima, minima and extreme gradients) important to the development of convective instability, even after IR observations are no longer available due to cloud development. Examples of the issues and impact of using hyperspectral AIRS data are also discussed.
Development in the mid 80s of the High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS) for the high altitude NASA ER2 aircraft demonstrated the capability for advanced atmospheric temperature and water vapor sounding and set the stage for new satellite instruments that are now becoming a reality [AIRS (2002), CrIS (2006), IASI (2006), GIFTS (2005/6)]. Follow-on developments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that employ interferometry for a wide range of Earth observations include the ground-based Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) and the Scanning HIS aircraft instrument (S-HIS). The AERI was developed for the US DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, primarily to provide highly accurate radiance spectra for improving radiative transfer models. The continuously operating AERI soon demonstrated valuable new capabilities for sensing the rapidly changing state of the boundary layer and properties of the surface and clouds. The S-HIS is a smaller version of the original HIS that uses cross-track scanning to enhance spatial coverage. S-HIS and its close cousin, the NPOESS Airborne Sounder Testbed (NAST) operated by NASA Langley, are being used for satellite instrument validation and for atmospheric research. The calibration and noise performance of these and future satellite instruments is key to optimizing their remote sensing products. Recently developed techniques for improving effective radiometric performance by removing noise in post-processing is a primary subject of this paper.
Conference Committee Involvement (1)
Remote Sensing Applications for Aviation Weather Hazard Detection and Decision Support
13 August 2008 | San Diego, California, United States
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