CIMSS-NOAA Weekly Report
[ Archive ]
ASPB AND CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 4, 2006

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, STAR:

MTSAT Intercalibration Update:  Japan's geostationary imager, the Multi-Functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT)-1R, has undergone a series of calibration fixes, the most recent in mid-July, 2006, in order to remedy a cross-talk contamination issue in the 3.7 micrometer shortwave band.  In intercalibration comparisons with the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), the 3.7 micrometer band has shown great improvement in calibration accuracy.  Mean brightness temperature differences with AIRS are now on the order of 1.1 K, which may represent a slight improvement over when Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-9 was operating in that region.  There may still be a problem due to crosstalk in cold scenes since at those low temperatures the crosstalk from the 6.75 micrometer water vapor band overwhelms the signal in the 3.7 micrometer shortwave band, but this needs more testing. (M. Gunshor, CIMSS, 608-263-1146)

  (Click image to enlarge)

Winds from the GOES Sounder Retrieved Moisture Fields: An experimental approach to derive Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Sounder retrieval information is being developed at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. The new method utilizes the operational NESDIS AMV algorithm but applies it to constant pressure level moisture analyses derived from GOES Sounder. By their nature, the constant-altitude moisture fields overcome the problem of determining heights for the resulting tracked AMVs. Preliminary results demonstrating the feasibility of this new approach concept were presented at the 8-th International Winds Workshop, Beijing, China.  The scheme has been implemented for near real-time processing with GOES East and will soon include the GOES West Sounder as well.  (I. Genkova, NRC/NOAA-NESDIS Fellow, 608-265-8007,iliana.genkova@ssec.wisc.edu, S. Wanzong, CIMSS, C. Velden, CIMSS)

   (Click images to enlarge)

Figure caption: Two perspectives of wind vectors from the GOES Sounder retrieval moisture fields at constant pressure levels for 5 December 2003, 12 UTC.

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, CoRP

Direct Broadcast MODIS Winds Available in BUFR Format: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) polar winds data produced at direct broadcast sites are now available in Binary Universal Form for the Representation of Meteorological Data (BUFR) format, as requested by a number of numerical weather prediction centers.  The direct broadcast MODIS winds are currently generated at McMurdo, Antarctica, and Tromsø, Norway. (J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, jeff.key@noaa.gov, W. Straka III, CIMSS, H. Berger, CIMSS, J. Daniels, E/RA2, Y. Song, E/RA2, D. Santek, CIMSS, C. Velden, CIMSS)

"Enhanced-V" VISIT Training: The Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training (VISIT) distance learning lesson "The Enhanced-V: A Satellite Observable Severe Storm Signature" was offered on August 4, 2006 to the Lubbock, Texas National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office. Four NWS forecasters attended the teletraining session. (S. Bachmeier, CIMSS, 608-263-3958)

Seminar on Proxy Data Sets Based on the WRF Model: Jason Otkin of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) gave a seminar titled "WRF Model Simulated Proxy Datasets Used for GOES-R Research Activities." as part of the CIMSS seminar series.  In this research the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to generate simulated atmospheric profile datasets with fine horizontal and vertical resolution. The simulated datasets, which are treated as the “truth” atmosphere, are subsequently passed through a sophisticated forward radiative transfer model to generate simulated top of atmosphere (TOA) radiances across a broad spectral region. Atmospheric motion vectors and temperature and water vapor retrievals generated from the TOA radiances are then compared with the original model simulated atmosphere to demonstrate the potential utility of future hyperspectral wind and retrieval algorithms. (J. Otkin, CIMSS, 608-265-2476)

2006 IGARSS Conference: Bormin Huang served as co-chair of the 2006 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) Data Compression Techniques session in Denver, CO, July 31-August 4. The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) satellite data compression team presented two talks: "Lossless Multiwavelet Compression of Ultraspectral Sounder Data" and "Real-Time DSP Implementation of 3D Wavelet Reversible Variable-length Coding for Ultraspectral Sounder Data Compression". (Bormin Huang, CIMSS, 608-265-2231, bormin@ssec.wisc.edu)

Other Meetings and Telecons:
 (None)

VISITORS:

NEXT WEEK:  

LOOKING AHEAD:


Archived Weeklies Page