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CIMSS-NOAA Weekly Report
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ASP TEAM WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 17, 2003

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

GOES Imager CSBT Product in ECMWF Operational System: As of January 14, 2003, the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is assimilating Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager data in their operational system. The GOES Clear Sky Brightness Temperature (CSBT) product is based on band 3 (6.7 µm) data of the Imager, screened for clouds and averaged at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS). ECMWF is using hourly GOES data over oceanic regions. Parallel runs have shown positive impact when these radiances are included. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is also evaluating these data, while efforts continue to have this product generated by National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Operations. (T. Schmit, E/RA2, 608-263-0291, T. Schreiner , CIMSS, 608-263-6754, G. Callan, E/RA2, 608-263-3951)

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, ORA:

Parallel Calibration of GOES-10 Imager: Parallel data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-10 imager were sent via GOES-12 from 13 January to 16 January, 2003 to assess a new calibration procedure that corrects for the known midnight calibration error. It was confirmed that the 3.9 µm imager band was the most affected (by 0.5K on average) between 07 and 09 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). A powerpoint presentation was prepared with preliminary brightness temperature time series and scatter plots. A completely parallel GOES-10 Clear-Sky Brightness Temperature (CSBT) product was also produced each hour and made available to global modelers for testing. This unique GOES VARiable (GVAR) data stream was also archived. (T. Schmit, E/RA2, 608-263-0291, T. Schreiner , CIMSS, 608-263-6754, M. Gunshor, CIMSS, 608-263-1146, D. Wade, CIMSS, 608-263-0527)

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, ARAD:

Revised Budget and Statement of Work Prepared for NASA LBA-ECO Program: The proposal titled “Land-cover land-use changes in the tri-frontier area of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru: implications for sustainable land use in southwestern Amazonia” submitted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA-ECO, Phase 2) was funded at a reduced level for three years; a revised statement of work and budget was prepared and submitted. The proposed effort is a joint collaboration with I. F. Brown (Woods Hole Research Center) serving as the principal investigator and five co-investigators from the U.S., Brazil, and Peru. E. Prins and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies will generate a 5-year half-hourly Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) fire product data set for South America, which will be made available to the research community for multiple land-use application studies. In addition, the WF_ABBA fire results will be compared with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) fire products and ground truth in South America to get a better handle on multi-sensor fire product applications and data fusion. (E. Prins, E/RA2, 530-271-2256)

CLAVR Status Meeting Convened: A meeting was held on January 7, 2003 in Suitland, Maryland between Office of Research and Applications (ORA) and Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD) personnel involved in the Clouds from AVHRR (CLAVR) project. Topics discussed included the need for improved geolocation algorithms in CLAVR for high resolution surface applications and the possible generation of a high resolution (1-4 km) sea surface temperature (SST) product from CLAVR. The current SST product has a resolution of roughly 8 km. (A. Heidinger, E/RA2, 608-263-6757)

Presentation Prepared for the GOFC/GOLD-Fire S.E. Asia Workshop: E. Prins prepared a Powerpoint presentation for the Global Observation of Forest Cover/Global Observation of Landcover Dynamics (GOFC/GOLD)-Fire Southeast Asia Workshop which will be held as a special session of the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Earth Monitoring and Disaster Warning Working Group (EM-WG) on January 21-24 in Fukuoka, Japan. The presentation is titled “Plan for GOES-9 Wildfire ABBA Fire Monitoring and Data Access for Southeast Asia.” It provides an overview of plans to generate Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-9) Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) fire products at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) for the Southeast Asia fire monitoring community once GOES-9 is activated at 155ºE. This effort will be funded by the National Weather Service (NWS) Program to Address ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations) Regional Transboundary Smoke (PARTS) and will be used to prepare for future geostationary fire detection with the Japanese Multi-functional Transport SATellite (MTSAT-1R) scheduled to be launched in 2003. (E. Prins, E/RA2, 530-271-2256)

Paper Reviewed for JGR-Atmospheres: A. Heidinger reviewed a manuscript for the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). The manuscript was titled "Retrieving Cloud Information from Passive Measurements of Solar Radiation Absorbed by Molecular Oxygen and O2-O2". (A. Heidinger, E/RA2, 608-608-6757)

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CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 17, 2003

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

MODIS Polar Winds in ECMWF Operational System: The real-time polar winds product derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) became part of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational weather forecasting system on January 14, 2003. For the past few months the MODIS winds have been tested in the "E-suite", the last pre-operational test of model, analysis, and data changes. Jean-Noël Thépaut of ECMWF stated that the 3D-Var (three-dimensional variational analysis) tests showed a dramatic improvement when the polar winds were assimilated. The 4D-Var tests showed a smaller, but still globally positive, impact. He summarized the results by saying "the MODIS winds experience can be considered as a great success". (C. Velden, CIMSS, 608-262-9168, D. Santek, CIMSS, 608-263-7410, J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, P. Menzel, E/RA2, 608-263-4930)

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, ORA:

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, ARAD:

New version Satellite Winds Code Released: Major advances in version 3.00 of the software to retrieve winds from satellite data include the addition of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)- 9 and GOES-12, and MODIS winds processing capability. This upgrade complements the current geostationary satellite winds production code in place at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and makes inroads into the realm of polar-orbiting satellites for the generation of winds over polar regions. Version 3.00 is also the first PC-compatible winds code from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), providing functionality for Linux users. Other improvements/additions include upgrades for CO2 slicing height assignments, middle-image targeting, implementation of the PLOD transmittance model for GOES, and added efficiencies to decrease run time. (G. Dengel, CIMSS, 608-265-2322)

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