P8.2 WEB-BASED SATELLITE PRODUCTS DATABASE FOR METEOROLOGICAL ANDCLIMATE APPLICATIONS

Dung Phan, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Rabindra Palikonda, Mandana M. Khaiyer, Michele L. NordeenAnalytical Services and Materials Inc., Hampton, VA, USA

Louis Nguyen*, Patrick MinnisNASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA

1. INTRODUCTION

The need for ready access to satellite data andassociated physical parameters such as cloudproperties has been steadily growing. Air trafficmanagement, weather forecasters, energy producers,and weather and climate researchers among others canutilize more satellite information than in the past. Thus, itis essential that such data are made available in nearreal-time and as archival products in an easy-accessand user friendly environment. A host of Internet websites currently provide a variety of satellite products forvarious applications. Each site has a unique contributionwith appeal to a particular segment of the public andscientific community. This is no less true for the NASALangley’s Clouds and Radiation (NLCR) website(http://www-pm.larc.nasa.gov) that has been evolvingover the past 10 years to support a variety of researchprojects This website was originally developed todisplay cloud products derived from the GeostationaryOperational Environmental Satellite (GOES) over theSouthern Great Plains for the Atmospheric RadiationMeasurement (ARM) Program. It has evolved into a siteproviding a comprehensive database of near real-timeand historical satellite products used for meteorological,aviation, and climate studies. To encourage the usercommunity to take advantage of the site, this papersummarizes the various products and projectssupported by the website and discusses future optionsfor new datasets.

2. DATA

The raw satellite datasets are taken from near-realtime streams accessed from the University of WisconsinSpace Science and Engineering Center through theMan-computer Interactive Data Analysis System(McIDAS, Lazzara et al., 1999). The Langley systemregularly ingests data from GOES East and Westimagers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA)Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)on NOAA-12,14, 15, 16, and 17, GOES-9 over thewestern Pacific, Meteosat-8 Spinning Enhanced Visible____________________________________________*Corresponding author address: Louis Nguyen, MS 420,NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681email: l.nguyen@nasa.gov.

and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), and Terra and A q u aModerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS). The SEVIRI data are currently delayed by 6hours. AVHRR data are retrieved for the western UnitedStates (US) from the NOAA NESDIS archive in near-real time and for other selected areas post facto.AVHRR and older Geostationary MeteorologicalSatellite (GMS) data taken over the Tropical WesternPacific (TWP) are collected post facto from the ARMExternal Data Center (http://www.xdc. arm.gov/). Thesedata are converted into a variety of multi-spectral GIFimages covering a variety of pre-specified regions and,for some domains, are analyzed prior to archiving. Theavailable satellite images are summarized in Table 1.CONUS refers to the continental US, while PACS refersto the Pan American Climate Studies (PACS)southeastern Pacific domain. Typically, the GIF imagesfor each domain include the 0.65, 10.8, and 3.9channels, the brightness temperature differencesbetween 10.8 and 3.9 and 10.8 and 12.0 µm as well astwo different pseudocolor combinations of channels.Images are also created for other selected wavelengthssuch as 6.7 or 0.87 µm. High-resolution multi-spectralimages are also available for more than thirteendifferent field campaign domains such as the NASACirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and CirrusLayers – Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE), the WB-57 Midlatitude Cirrus Experiment(MidCiX), and The Observing-system Research andPredictability Experiment (THORPEX).

Table 1. Real-time and archived satellite imagery available atthe NLCR web site.

Domain Satellite DateMidwest (ARMSGP)

GOES-12 Feb 00 - present

Pacific/West US GOES-10 Feb 00 - presentATReC/AIRS GOES-12 Nov 03 - presentNortheast US GOES-8/-12 May 00 - presentFlorida GOES-12 July 01 - presentMid-Atlantic US GOES-8/-12 May 00 - presentTWP GOES-9 Oct 03 - presentTWP GMS-5 Jan 00 – Apr 03Southeast US GOES-8/-12 May 00 - presentCONUS GOES-12 Feb 00 - presentCONUS AVHRR Mar 00 - presentCONUS MODIS Nov 02 - presentPACS/EPIC GOES-12 Nov 99 – Oct 01Europe/N Africa Meteosat-8 Apr 04 - present

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040129708 2020-07-21T12:28:06+00:00Z

Table 2. Real-time and archive satellite cloud productsavailable on the NLCR web site. VISST used unless indicatedotherwise.

Domain Satellite DateSGP GOES-10 Nov 03 - PresentSGP GOES-12 Jan 04 - PresentSGP GOES-8 Jan 00 – Apr 03SGP (LBTM) GOES-8 Apr 94 – Aug 03TWP GOES-9 Oct 03 - PresentTWP NOAA-16 Jul 03TWP (LBTM) GMS-5 Jan 98 – Apr 03East CONUS GOES-12 Nov 03 - PresentWest CONUS GOES-10 Nov 03 - PresentCONUS GOES-10/12 Mar 04 - PresentEurope/ N Africa Meteosat-8 May 04 - PresentCRYSTAL-FACE GOES-8 Jul 02ATReC/AIRS NOAA-16 Nov 03 - Dec 03ATReC/AIRS GOES-12 Nov 03 - Feb 04PACS GOES-8 Oct 99, 01; Jan-Dec

00

Cloud and radiation properties are derived for avariety of domains using the digital satellite datafollowing the procedures described by Minnis et al.(2004) using the Visible Infrared Solar-infrared Split-window Technique (VISST) and the approach describedby Minnis et al. (1995) using the Layered BispectralThreshold Method (LBTM) for older data. The LBTMyields regional (0.3°, 0.5°, or 1°) cloud amounts, heights,temperatures, optical depths, and cloudy and clear-skyvisible and shortwave albedos and infraredtemperatures and longwave fluxes for daytime data. Nooptical depths are derived at night, thus no correctionsare made for the semi-transparency of optically thinclouds at night, so their heights are underestimated. TheVISST and associated methods are used to derive pixel-level cloud properties such as phase, optical depth,cloud-top and base heights, pressures, andtemperatures, effective particle size, liquid or ice waterpath, icing probability, shortwave albedo, and longwaveflux. It also produces shortwave albedo, longwave flux,and skin temperature for clear pixels. Table 2summarizes the domains with cloud products available.Figure 1 shows an example of the visible (VIS) channelimage and cloud optical depths for the Europe/NorthAfrica domain.

For the (CONUS) and ARM SGP domains, cloudproperties are retrieved from 4 km GOES-East and–West data every 30 minutes and hourly for daytimeand nighttime images, respectively. During fieldexperiments or intensive operational periods (IOP),retrievals are performed every 15 minutes.

The ARM TWP domain covers 10°N to 20°S and120°E to 180°E. Cloud products have been derivedfrom GOES-9 hourly data since October 2003. NOAA-16 AVHRR cloud products were also processed forselected days in July 2003. Information about the otherdomains can be found at the website. The cloudproducts and satellite images are archived in an onlinedatabase and are available in ASCII, binary, netCDF,

Fig. 1. Meteosat-8 VIS image (top) and retrieved cloudoptical depth (bottom), 0700 UTC, 23 May 2004.

and GIF formats. They can be accessed at the web sitealso.

3. TOOLS

The satellite and cloud products can be acquired inindividual images or looped with animated GIF or JAVAapplet tools. These tools are available on the satelliteproducts web page (Fig. 2) along with several other aidsfor data visualization. An example of the looping appletis shown in Fig. 3.

Averages of each parameter are determined forseveral different surface locations for comparisons withsurface observations or along research aircraft flighttracks for comparisons with in situ or remote sensingdata. The results for one flight during a field experimentare plotted in Fig. 4. Figure 5 shows an example ofground site data retrievals. Flight track overlays are alsoavailable for field experiments. Surface radar data arealso available for selected locations.

An interactive orbit predictor is available todetermine the times when a given satellite passes overa particular location. “The Predictor” (see Fig. 2)provides viewing and illumination conditions for nearlyall meteorological satellites and can be upgraded toinclude other satellites upon request.

4. SUMMARY

This web site includes many features not detailedhere and will continue evolving in the coming years.

Fig 2. NASA Langley’s Clouds and Radiation satellite imagery and could products webpage.

Fig 3. Javascript tool to animation cloud products andsatellite imagery.

Fig 4. Example of GOES-12 VISST derived cloud productsmatched along Citation flight track on 30 November 2003during ATReC/AIRS II field campaign.

Fig 5. GOES-8 VISST derived cloud products over theWestern ground site during CRYSTAL-FACE field campaignin July 2002.

AcknowledgmentsThe research was support by the NASA Earth

Science Enterprise Office, Code YS Radiation SciencesBranch, the Environmental Sciences Division of U.S.Department of Energy Interagency Agreement DE-A102-97ER62341 through the ARM Program, and theNASA Advanced Satellite Aviation-weather Program.Many thanks to Marianne Koenig of EUMETSAT fordeveloping the McIDAS ADDE server code used to readSEVIRI data.

REFERENCESLazzara, M. A., J. M. Benson , R. J. Fox, D. J. Laitsch,

J. P. Rueden, D. A. Santek, D. M. Wade, T. M.Whittaker, and J. T. Young, 1999: The Man computerInteractive Data Access System: 25 years ofinteractive processing. Bull. Ameteor. Soc., 80, 271-274.

Minnis, P., W. L. Smith, Jr., D. P. Garber, J. K. Ayers,and D. R. Doelling, 1995: Cloud Properties DerivedFrom GOES-7 for the Spring 1994 ARM IntensiveObserving Period Using Version 1.0.0 of the ARMSatellite Data Analysis Program. NASA RP 1366, 59pp.

Minnis, P., L. Nguyen, W. L. Smith, Jr., and D. F.Young, M. M. Khaiyer, R. Palikondra, D. A.Spangenberg, D. R. Doelling, D. N. Phan, G. Nowicki,and J. K. Ayers, 2004: Real-time cloud, radiation, andaircraft icing parameters from GOES over the USA.13th AMS Conf. On Satellite Oceanography and Met.,Norfolk ,VA, September 20-24