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How Appropriate They Are/Will Be Using Future Satellite Data Sources? Different Convective Indices - - - How appropriate they are/will be using future satellite data sources? Ralph A. Petersen1 1 Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA Will additional input from Steve Weiss, NOAA/NWS/Storm Prediction Center ✓ Increasing the Utility / Value of real-time Satellite Sounder Products to fill gaps in their short-range forecasting processes Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Start from the bottom and work up. 1 – The greatest amount of radiation is emitted from the earth’s surface 4 - Remember, Stefan’s Law: Emission ~ σTSfc 2 – Molecules of various gases in the lowest layer of the atmosphere absorb some of the radiation and then reemit it upward to space and back downward to the earth’s surface - Major absorbers are CO2 and H2O 4 - Emission again ~ σT , but TAtmosphere<TSfc - Amount of radiation decreases with altitude Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Start from the bottom and work up. 1 – The greatest amount of radiation is emitted from the earth’s surface 4 - Remember, Stefan’s Law: Emission ~ σTSfc 2 – Molecules of various gases in the lowest layer of the atmosphere absorb some of the radiation and then reemit it upward to space and back downward to the earth’s surface - Major absorbers are CO2 and H2O 4 - Emission again ~ σT , but TAtmosphere<TSfc - Amount of radiation decreases with altitude - Wavelength of radiation related to 1/T - Colder temperatures layers emit at longer wavelengths Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Start from the bottom and work up. 1 – The greatest amount of radiation is emitted from the earth’s surface 4 - Remember, Stefan’s Law: Emission ~ σTSfc 2 – Molecules of various gases in the lowest layer of the atmosphere absorb some of the radiation and then reemit it upward to space and back downward to the earth’s surface - Major absorbers are CO2 and H2O 4 - Emission again ~ σT , but TAtmosphere<TSfc 3 – Process repeats to the top of the atmosphere - Absorbing Gas concentrations change with elevation - CO2 fairly constant, H2O decreases with height Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere - Depends on IR wavelength and ‘observing width’ of sensors used on each satellite - Ideally, we would like thousands of ‘narrow’ observations at different wavelengths Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere Water Vapor - Depends on IR wavelength and ‘observing width’ of Absorbing Channels only shown here sensors used on each satellite - Ideally, we would like thousands of ‘narrow’ observations at different wavelengths - These are called weighting functions - Historically, satellite used radiometers that observed many fewer (and wider) spectral regions ( e.g., SEVIRI ) Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere Water Vapor - Soundings are obtained like ‘peeling an onion’ , starting Absorbing Channels only shown here from the top of the atmosphere an working down Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere Water Vapor - Soundings are obtained like ‘peeling an onion’ , starting Absorbing Channels only shown here from the top of the atmosphere an working down - For moisture, the upper-most channel detects the temperature of the radiation being emitted by upper-most water vapor in the atmosphere - The drier the atmosphere is, the farther down in the atmosphere the channel can ‘see’ Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere Water Vapor - Soundings are obtained like ‘peeling an onion’ , starting Absorbing Channels only shown here from the top of the atmosphere an working down - The next channel measures the temperature of the radiation being emitted by water vapor in the middle troposphere Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers Satellites observe radiation emitted by deeper layers of the earth’s atmosphere Water Vapor - Soundings are obtained like ‘peeling an onion’ , starting Absorbing Channels only shown here from the top of the atmosphere an working down - The bottom channel measures a combination of the temperature of the radiation being emitted by water vapor in the bottom of the troposphere and the temperature of the earth’s surface ✔ Problem: Because of the overlap between channels, it is very difficult to obtain one single solution Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers An Alternative Sounding Approach - Start with a ‘first-guess’ sounding - Climatology or NWP output - Calculate what the ‘outgoing radiation’ should be for this ‘first guess’ sounding, based on the temperature and moisture in layers corresponding to the ‘weighting functions’ of the satellite sensors Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers An Alternative Sounding Approach - The ‘first-guess’ radiances are then compared to the observed radiances in each channel Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers An Alternative Sounding Approach - The ‘first-guess’ radiances are then compared to the observed radiances in each channel - Adjustments are made to increase or decrease the temperature and/or moisture in deep layers depending on whether the the radiance observations are warmer or colder than those calculated from first guess Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR) Satellite Observations A Conceptual Tutorial All level of the atmosphere is continually emit radiation toward space. Satellites observe the net amount reaching space. • Conceptually, we can think about the atmosphere being made up of many thin layers An Alternative Sounding Approach - The ‘first-guess’ radiances are then compared to the observed radiances in each channel - Adjustments are made to increase or decrease the temperature and/or moisture in deep layers depending on whether the the radiance observations are warmer or colder than those calculated from first guess - This process is complicated when using channels that contain information about the vertical structure of both temperature and humidity Creating Temperature/Moisture Soundings from Infra-Red (IR)
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