Remote Sensing Capabilities - Today and Tomorrow The Bologna Lectures Paul Menzel NOAA/NESDIS/ORA 4 September 2001

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Remote Sensing Capabilities - Today and
TomorrowThe Bologna LecturesPaul
MenzelNOAA/NESDIS/ORA4 September 2001
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Satellite remote sensing of the Earth-atmosphere
Observations depend on telescope
characteristics (resolving power, diffraction)
detector characteristics (signal to
noise) communications bandwidth
(bit depth) spectral intervals
(window, absorption band) time of
day (daylight visible)
atmospheric state (T, Q, clouds)
earth surface (Ts, vegetation cover)
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Solar (visible) and Earth emitted (infrared)
energy
Incoming solar radiation (mostly visible) drives
the earth-atmosphere (which emits
infrared). Over the annual cycle, the incoming
solar energy that makes it to the earth surface
(about 50 ) is balanced by the outgoing thermal
infrared energy emitted through the atmosphere.
The atmosphere transmits, absorbs (by H2O, O2,
O3, dust) reflects (by clouds), and scatters (by
aerosols) incoming visible the earth surface
absorbs and reflects the transmitted visible.
Atmospheric H2O, CO2, and O3 selectively transmit
or absorb the outgoing infrared radiation. The
outgoing microwave is primarily affected by H2O
and O2.
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Solar Spectrum
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Earth emitted spectra overlaid on Planck function
envelopes
O3
CO2
H20
CO2
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Radiative Transferthrough the Atmosphere
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Clouds viewed from polar orbiting TIROS launched
1 Apr 1960
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POES (POLAR ORBITING OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL
SATELLITE) REGULAR, RELIABLE GLOBAL COVERAGE
THAT PROVIDES TIMELY DATA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
MONITORING AND FORECASTS QUANTITATIVE SOUNDINGS
AND RADIANCE MEASUREMENTS FROM SATELLITES IN
CIRCULAR SUN-SYNCHRONOUS ORBITS MEASUREMENTS OF
THE ENERGIES OF PARTICLES ALONG THE SPACECRAFT'S
ORBITAL PATH CONTINUOUS DIRECT BROADCASTS OF
SENSOR DATA DATA RELAY FROM IN-SITU SENSOR
PLATFORMS DETECTION AND RELAY OF MESSAGES FROM
EMERGENCY LOCATOR (SEARCH AND RESCUE) TRANSMITTERS
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Evolution
NATIONAL POLAR-ORBITING OPERATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE SYSTEM
Reduced number of satellite orbits, combined with
longer life satellites, reduces number of US
satellites by 50 over life of program!
METOP
0730
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Local Equatorial Crossing Time
Local Equatorial Crossing Time
Local Equatorial Crossing Time

• Today
• 4-Orbit System
• 2 US Military
• 2 US Civilian

• Tomorrow (2003)
• 4-Orbit System
• 2 US Military
• 1 US Civilian
• 1 European

• Future (2008)
• 3-Orbit System
• 2 US Converged
• 1 European

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Evolution of Leo Obs On December 18, 1999 Terra
was launched and the EOS Era began MODIS,
CERES, MOPITT, ASTER, and MISR reach polar
orbit Aqua and ENVISAT will follow in
2001 MODIS and MERIS leading to VIIRS AIRS
leading to IASI and CrIS AMSU leading to ATMS
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VIIRS, MODIS, FY-1C, AVHRR
CO2
O2
O3
H2O
O2
H2O
H2O
H2O
O2
H2O
H2O
CO2
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MODIS IR Spectral Bands
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Chlorophyll - MODIS and SeaWiFS
MODIS Chlor 243-250, 2000 U. Miami MODIS
tropics coverage is greater (time of day no
tilt loss). MODIS reveals global fine structure.
Color scales not identical, cal not final.
SeaWiFS Chlor 241-248, 2000 SeaWIFS Project
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SST - MODIS and AVHRR
MODIS 4 micron Night SST
Improved coverage in tropical regions. Color
scales are not identical, cloud mask is not
applied.
AVHRR Night SST
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MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) 0.6, 1.6, 11.0
um data over Madison in Jan 97
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MODIS has visible at 250 meter resolution
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250m MODIS
MODIS views the Chesapeake Bay
1 km AVHRR
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MODIS views the Ganges
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MODIS views the Mississippi
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MODIS views Baffin Island, Canada
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Observing Sea Ice Leads With MODIS
MODIS Band 1 Image of Western Arctic, 1 km
(subsampled)
MODIS Full Resolution, 250 m Pixels
75 km
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MODIS Image and snow map - November 3, 2000
HUDSON BAY
CLOUD
CANADA
USA
SNOW
BLACK HILLS
LAND
MODIS bands 1, 4, 3
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9.0 million sq. km of snow cover
10.8 million sq. km of snow cover
Nov 1-7, 2000
Nov 8-15, 2000
Change in maximum snow extent between two
composite periods seen above (1.8 million sq. km)
Snow on both
Snow on Nov 1-7 only
Snow on Nov 8-15 only
Clouds
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250 340
LST 1 Nov 2000 day
240 310
LST 1 Nov 2000 night
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MODIS estimation of aerosol optical thickness
(large gt 1 um, small lt 0.25 um)
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Ash Plume Detection Mt. Cleveland Eruption 19
Feb 2001
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MODIS has first ever 1 km resolution water vapor
images
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A Preview of ABI High Resolution Water Vapor
Imagery1 km MODIS 4x8 km GOES
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Four Panel Zoom of Cloud-Free Orographic Waves
revealed in Water Vapor Imagery
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Every 100 min MODIS covers polar regions
x
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? x
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Orbital Issues
How often can wind vectors be obtained from a
polar-orbiting satellites? The figure below shows
the time of successive overpasses at a given
latitude-longitude point on a single day with
only the Terra satellite. The figure at the
upper right shows the frequency of "looks" by two
satellites Terra and (the future) Aqua. The
figure at the lower right shows the temporal
sampling with five satellites.
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Winds from MODIS An Arctic Example
Cloud-track winds (left) and water vapor winds
(right) from MODIS for a case in the western
Arctic. The wind vectors were derived from a
sequence of three images, each separated by 100
minutes. They are plotted on the first 11 mm
(left) and 6.7 mm (right) images in the sequence.
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Measurements in the Solar Reflected Spectrum
across the region covered by AVIRIS
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AVIRIS Movie 1
AVIRIS Image - Linden CA 20-Aug-1992 224 Spectral
Bands 0.4 - 2.5 mm Pixel 20m x 20m Scene
10km x 10km
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Cuiaba Brazil mosaic on 25 August 1995 shows a
forest clearing fire. True color image, and
single band images in black and white.
500.5 nm
True color
1501.4 nm
1000.2 nm
2000.5 nm
2508.5 nm
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MODIS detects ship tracks
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0.64
1.64
1.38
11.01
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1.38
IRW
VIS
1.38 um test is finding high thin clouds not
found in other tests
1.38 cld msk
tri-spectral cld msk
cld msk
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Is 3 K gradient SST or clouds?
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Is cirrus related to air traffic?
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CrIS Spectral Coverage
B
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Interferometer measurements compared with physics
calculations
CO2 Lines
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These water vapor weighting functions reflect the
radiance sensitivity of the specific channels to
a water vapor change at a specific level
(equivalent to dR/dlnq scaled by dlnp).
Moisture Weighting Functions
Pressure
Weighting Function Amplitude
Wavenumber (cm-1)
UW/CIMSS
The advanced sounder has more and sharper
weighting functions
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IMG demonstrates interferometer capability to
detect low level inversions example over Ontario
with inversion (absorption line BTs warmer) and
Texas without (abs line BTs colder)
Spikes down - Cooling with height
Spikes up - Heating with height
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Cloud particle size is revealed in high
resolution infrared spectra
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Improved resolution on AMSU enables clear
depiction of the typhoon location
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AMSU-A 55.5 GHz Channel Hurricane Bonnie, August
25, 1998
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AMSU Temperature Retrieval Anomaly Cross Section
at 29 latitude, August 28, 1998
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AMSU Temperature Anomaly for Hurricane Floyd
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Hurricane Floyd 8-16 September 1999
Comparison of NOAA-15 Advanced Microwave Sounding
Unit (AMSU-A) limb corrected brightness
temperatures (oC) and aircraft reconnaissance
measurements of mean sea level pressure (MSLP)
extrapolated from flight level (700 hPa). Top to
bottom (Channels 8-5) 55.5 GHz, 54.94 GHz,54.4
GHz, 53.6 GHz
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Comparison of geostationary (geo) and low
earth orbiting (leo) satellite capabilities Geo
Leo observes process itself observes
effects of process (motion and targets of
opportunity) repeat coverage in
minutes repeat coverage twice daily (?t ? 30
minutes) (?t 12 hours) full earth disk
only global coverage best viewing of
tropics best viewing of poles same viewing
angle varying viewing angle differing solar
illumination same solar illumination visible,
IR imager visible, IR imager (1, 4 km
resolution) (1, 1 km resolution) one visible
band multispectral in visible (veggie
index) IR only sounder IR and microwave
sounder (8 km resolution) (17, 50 km
resolution) filter radiometer filter
radiometer, interferometer, and
grating spectrometer
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• the clouds moved -
• not the satellite
• Verner Suomi

After launch on 6 Dec 1966, ATS-1's geostationary
spin scan cloud camera started providing full
disk visible images of the earth and its cloud
cover every 20 minutes
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GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite) OBSERVES WESTERN HEMISPHERE ROUTINELY
AND FREQUENTLY PROVIDES IMAGE LOOPS FOR STUDYING
ORIGINS AND LIFE-DYNAMICS OF SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL
EVENTS THAT ARE SHORT LIVED SUPPLEMENTS IN SITU
DATA TAKEN AT WIDELY SEPARATED GROUND
STATIONS TRANSPONDS ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
TRANSMISSIONS FROM AUTOMATIC DATA COLLECTION
PLATFORMS
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Geo Observations are Evolving Meteosat is
being replaced by MSG GMS will be relaced by
MTSAT GOES Imager will become Advanced Baseline
Imager GOES Sounder will become Advanced Baseline
Sounder FY2B continues with FY2C
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1st GOES-11 image
17 May 2000 19 UTC
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Current GOES Imager
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Images of hurricanes help with intensity and
track forecasts
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High Density Winds associated with Hurricane
Bonnie
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5 min loop captures low level inflow into
developing cells
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Leading edge of T-storm anvil moves faster than
central region (which wind should NWP model
assimilate?)
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Current GOES Sounder Spectral Bands 14.7 to 3.7
um and vis
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GOES Sounder Spectral Bands 14.7 to 3.7 um and
vis
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GOES sounder spectral bands visible .65 um -
used to detect clouds longwave 13.4 - 14.7 um -
CO2 sensitive bands used for temperature
sounding 12.7 - 12.0 um - H2O sensitive bands
used to detect lower atm moisture midwave 11.0
um - window used for sensing clouds and earth
sfc 9.7 um - O3 sensitive band used to sense
upper atm ozone 6.5 - 7.4 um - H2O sensitive
bands used for moisture sounding shortwave
4.13 - 4.57 um - CO2 sensitive bands used for
lower atm temp sounding 3.74 - 3.98 um - window
used for sensing clouds, snow/ice
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Interactive Viewing of GOES Sounder DPI Time
Series UW/Madison/CIMSS NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ARA
D/ASPT
(de-stabilizing with time)
(example from Dec. 2, 1999)
(graph lines thick when sounding available, thin
when cloud obscured)
A new interactive web site (http//cimss.ssec.wisc
.edu/goes/realtime/gdpiviewer.html) allows users
to view time series of GOES derived product
imagery (Lifted Index (LI), Precipitable Water
(PW), and Convective Available Potential Entergy
(CAPE)) by clicking on a desired location within
the latest Derived Product Image (DPI).
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Evolution of stability seen in GOES LI DPI
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16
14
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(12 to 18 UT)
Java animation anigli3m.html
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Evolution of profiles retrieved from the GOES
Sounder
(12 to 18 UT)
Java animation anisks3m.html
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GOES shows severe atm instability hrs before OK
tornadoes
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View from space
OK tornado 3 May 99
1800 UTC
View from ground
530 CDT (2330 UTC)
2300 UTC
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Maximum temperatures forecast without (64 F at 21
UTC) and with (59 F at 19 UTC) GOES sounder data
for 20 April 97 in Madison, WI. Surface
observations report a maximum temperature of 58 F
at 20 UTC.
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Geo-Interferometer nears Raob-like depiction of
atmosphere
Analysis of NOAA global raob data (tropics and
mid-lat summer) VAS - past GOES - current G18 -
18 1/2cm-1 chs G50 - 50 1/2cm-1 chs GAS - ABS
2000 1/2cm-1 chs RAOB - T to
150mb (Q to 300mb)
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WV vertical structure revealed with
Geo-Interferometer
Two flight tracks from NAST-I during CAMEX-3
September 14, 1998
Altitude, km
--------------------------125 km------------------
-------
RH
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Significant Findings from Geo-Interferometer
OSSE Geo-Interferometer (Geo-I) sees into
Boundary Layer (BL) providing low level (850 RH)
moisture information Geo-Radiometer (Geo-R) only
offers information above BL (700 RH)
OSSE 12 hr assimilation followed by 12 hr forecast
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Significant Findings from Geo-Interferometer
OSSE Two polar orbiting interferometers (Leo)
do not provide the temporal coverage to sustain
forecast improvement out to 12 hours. Only the
hourly Geo-Interferometer (Geo-I) observations
depict moisture changes well enough for forecast
benefit.
OSSE 12 hr assimilation followed by 12 hr forecast
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GIFTS Simulation of Hurricane Bonnie Winds from
Water Vapor Retrieval Tracking
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Applications/Benefits of GOES Remote Sensing are
Ubiquitous (many fine resolution spectral bands
with continuous surveillance) disaster
mitigation from definition of mass and motion
fields improve watches and warnings for
convective severe weather improve hurricane
intensity and trajectory forecasts improve
flash flood and fire monitoring
agricultural benefits from 1-3 day fcst of heat
and rain events improve efficiency of pesticide
use over one growing season mitigated
environmental impact of nitrates leeching into
ground water lessen crop damage from heat stress
or frost enhance efficiency of planting,
germination, and harvesting transportation
safety and economy benefits from timely weather
info assist air traffic routing(fog, icing,
microbursts, head/tail winds) assist ship
routing (ocean currents, low level winds, ice
bergs, hurricanes) assist truck / train routing
(ice storms, snow, blowing snow, fog, flooding)
power allocation benefits from
regional/local insolation/temperatures enhance
consumption/regulation (lightning, ice storms,
flooding, squirrels) improve disaster crew
allocation (e.g., for restoration of power)
public health benefits from satellite imagery
and weather fcsts improve heat stress (and
sub-zero conditions) alerts increase information
on air quality (smoke and haze) improve ozone
alerts
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Sensors, Communications, and Computers
Remote Sensing of the Earth
Equivalent Voice Circuits
Computers on Internet
16
224
400 200 0
16 8 0
425
200 100 0
Number of Sensors
In Millions
In Billions
CORONA Released
1960 1970
1980 1990
2000
WWW
Mosaic Browser
Volcano and Fires Center
ETF/MEDEA
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LEO Satellite Plans
99
00
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0530
DMSP
NPOESS
AVHRR IASI SEM AMSU-A MHS GOME SARSAT DCS
ASCATT
Windsat/Coriolis
DMSP
0730 - 1030
METOP
POES
EOS-AM
NPP
1330
POES
NPOESS
EOS-PM
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NPOESS Products(NPOESS IORD Environmental Data
Records by Instrument)
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NPOESS Products(NPOESS IORD Environmental Data
Records by Discipline)
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Office of Research and Applications
must orchestrate the energy to try old
approaches on new data try new approaches on
old data try new approaches on new
data through international partnerships
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