Remote Sensing Capabilities Today and Tomorrow

The Bologna Lectures Paul Menzel NOAA/NESDIS/ORA 4 September 2001

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)

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.

Solar Spectrum

Earth emitted spectra overlaid on Planck function envelopes O3 CO2 CO2 H20

Radiative Transfer through the Atmosphere

Clouds viewed from polar orbiting TIROS launched 1 Apr 1960

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

N ATIONAL P OLAR-ORBITING O PERATIONAL E NVIRONMENTAL S ATELLITE S YSTEM

Evolution

Reduced number of satellite orbits, combined with longer life satellites, reduces number of US satellites by 50% over life of program!

METOP 0730 0530 0830 1330 Local Equatorial Crossing Time Today • 4-Orbit System - 2 US Military - 2 US Civilian 0730 0530 0830 1330 Local Equatorial Crossing Time Tomorrow (2003) • 4-Orbit System - 2 US Military - 1 US Civilian - 1 European 0530 0930 1330 Local Equatorial Crossing Time Future (2008) • 3-Orbit System - 2 US Converged - 1 European

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

VIIRS , MODIS , FY-1C , AVHRR O2 CO2 O3 O2 H2O O2 H2O H2O H2O H2O CO2 H2O

MODIS IR Spectral Bands

MODIS

SeaWiFS Chlor 241-248, 2000

SeaWIFS Project

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.

AVHRR Night SST

SST - MODIS and AVHRR

MODIS 4 micron Night SST Improved coverage in tropical regions. Color scales are not identical, cloud mask is not applied.

MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) 0.6, 1.6, & 11.0 um data over Madison in Jan 97

MODIS has visible at 250 meter resolution

MODIS views the Chesapeake Bay 250m MODIS 1 km AVHRR

MODIS views the Ganges

MODIS views the Mississippi

MODIS views Baffin Island, Canada

Observing Sea Ice Leads With MODIS

MODIS Band 1 Image of Western Arctic, 1 km (subsampled) MODIS Full Resolution, 250 m Pixels 75 km

MODIS Image and snow map - November 3, 2000

HUDSON BAY CLOUD CANADA USA BLACK HILLS MODIS bands 1, 4, 3 SNOW LAND

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

250 340 LST 1 Nov 2000 night 240 310 LST 1 Nov 2000 day

MODIS estimation of aerosol optical thickness (large > 1 um, small < 0.25 um)

Ash Plume Detection Mt. Cleveland Eruption 19 Feb 2001

MODIS has first ever 1 km resolution water vapor images

A Preview of ABI High Resolution Water Vapor Imagery 1 km MODIS & 4x8 km GOES

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

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.

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 m m (left) and 6.7 m m (right) images in the sequence.

Measurements in the Solar Reflected Spectrum across the region covered by AVIRIS

AVIRIS Movie #1

AVIRIS Image - Linden CA 20-Aug-1992 224 Spectral Bands: 0.4 - 2.5

m

m Pixel: 20m x 20m Scene: 10km x 10km

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

MODIS detects ship tracks

0.64

1.38

1.64

11.01

VIS 1.38

IRW

1.38 um test is finding high thin clouds not found in other tests

1.38 cld msk tri-spectral cld msk cld msk

Is 3 K gradient SST or clouds?

Is cirrus related to air traffic?

CrIS Spectral Coverage B

Interferometer measurements compared with physics calculations CO 2 Lines

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

UW/CIMSS

The advanced sounder has more and sharper weighting functions

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

Cloud particle size is revealed in high resolution infrared spectra

Variation with Particle Size (r eff ) (IWP= 10 g m -2 ; 10.8-10 km) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 700 800 22.5 micron 4.5 micron 900 1000 1100 Wavenumber (cm -1 ) 1200 1300

Improved resolution on AMSU enables clear depiction of the typhoon location

AMSU-A 55.5 GHz Channel Hurricane Bonnie, August 25, 1998

AMSU Temperature Retrieval Anomaly Cross Section at 29 latitude, August 28, 1998

AMSU Temperature Anomaly for Hurricane Floyd

Hurricane Floyd 8-16 September 1999 996 hPa 1003 hPa 1000 hPa 989 hPa 971 hPa 966 hPa 963 hPa 961 hPa 955 hPa 941 hPa 929 hPa 923 hPa 16 / 1333Z 15 / 1215Z 14 / 1238Z 14 / 0020Z 12 / 2302Z 12 / 1142Z 11 / 2324Z 11 / 1204Z 10 / 1047Z 9 / 2230Z 9 / 1111Z 8 / 2253Z Comparison of NOAA-15 Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) limb corrected brightness temperatures ( o C) 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

Comparison of geostationary (geo) and low earth orbiting (leo) satellite capabilities

Geo observes process itself (motion and targets of opportunity) repeat coverage in minutes (  t  30 minutes) full earth disk only best viewing of tropics same viewing angle differing solar illumination visible, IR imager (1, 4 km resolution) one visible band IR only sounder (8 km resolution) filter radiometer Leo observes effects of process repeat coverage twice daily (  t = 12 hours) global coverage best viewing of poles varying viewing angle same solar illumination visible, IR imager (1, 1 km resolution) multispectral in visible (veggie index) IR and microwave sounder (17, 50 km resolution) filter radiometer, interferometer, and grating spectrometer

“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

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

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

1st GOES-11 image 17 May 2000 19 UTC

Current GOES Imager

Images of hurricanes help with intensity and track forecasts

High Density Winds associated with Hurricane Bonnie

5 min loop captures low level inflow into developing cells

Leading edge of T-storm anvil moves faster than central region (which wind should NWP model assimilate?)

Current GOES Sounder Spectral Bands: 14.7 to 3.7 um and vis

GOES Sounder Spectral Bands: 14.7 to 3.7 um and vis

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

VALUE ADDED

THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAMS SHOWING PROFILES DERIVED FROM GOES SOUNDER hundreds of http://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/soundings/skewt/html/skewtus.html

show trends of

Interactive Viewing of GOES Sounder DPI Time Series UW/Madison/CIMSS NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ARAD/ASPT

(example from Dec. 2, 1999) (de-stabilizing with time) (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

16 14 18 (12 to 18 UT) Java animation: anigli3m.html

Evolution of profiles retrieved from the GOES Sounder

(12 to 18 UT) Java animation: anisks3m.html

GOES shows severe atm instability hrs before OK tornadoes

View from space 1800 UTC

OK tornado 3 May 99

View from ground 530 CDT (2330 UTC) 2300 UTC

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.

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) GOES Info Content for Moist Atmospheres 18 16

Temperature Water Vapor

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 VAS GOES G-18 G-50 Instrument GAS RAOB

WV vertical structure revealed with Geo-Interferometer

Two flight tracks from NAST-I during CAMEX-3 September 14, 1998

--------------------------125 km------------------------ RH %

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) Soundings + Winds 700hPa RH Validation

50 45 40 35 30 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Hour

CONV GEO-R GEO-I

Soundings + Winds 850hPa RH Validation

55 50 45 40 35 30 25 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Hour

CONV GEO-R GEO-I

OSSE 12 hr assimilation followed by 12 hr forecast

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.

LEO VS. GEO 850hPa RH Validation

55 50 45 40 35 30 0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Hour

14 16 18 20 22 24 CONV LEO GEO-I

OSSE 12 hr assimilation followed by 12 hr forecast

GIFTS Simulation of Hurricane Bonnie: Winds from Water Vapor Retrieval Tracking

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

Sensors, Communications, and Computers

Remote Sensing of the Earth 200 Equivalent Voice Circuits 400 Computers on Internet 16 16 224 425 8 200 100 CORONA Released 0 0 0 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 ETF/MEDE WWW Mosaic Browser Volcano and Fires Center A

0530 0730 - 1030

LEO Satellite Plans

12 13 14 15 VIIRS CMIS SES DCS GPSOS SARSAT TSIS ALT 16 17 18 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 DMSP NPOESS Windsat/Coriolis MOLS SSMIS SESS AVHRR AMSU-A SARSAT IASI MHS SEM GOME DCS ASCATT DMSP POES METOP MODIS MOPITT MISR ASTER AVHRR HIRS AMSU-A MHS SBUV SEM SARSAT DCS 1330 EOS-AM POES NPP VIIRS CrIS ATMS TBD NPOESS EOS-PM MODIS AIRS AMSU-A AMSR HSB VIIRS CMIS SES DCS GPSOS CrIS ATMS OMPS

NPOESS Products

(NPOESS IORD Environmental Data Records by Instrument) Atmospheric Vertical Moisture Profile Atmospheric Vertical Temperature Profile Imagery Sea Surface Temperature Sea Surface Winds Soil Moisture Aerosol Optical Thickness Aerosol Particle Size Albedo (Surface) Auroral Boundary Auroral Imagery Cloud Base Height Cloud Cover/Layers Cloud Effective Particle Size Cloud Ice Water Path Cloud Liquid Water Cloud Optical Depth/Transmittance Cloud Top Height Cloud Top Pressure Cloud Top Temperature Currents (Ocean) Downward Longwave Radiance (Sfc) Electric Fields Electron Density Profile Energetic Ions Fresh Water Ice Geomagnetic Field Ice Surface Temperature In-situ Plasma Fluctuations In-situ Plasma Temperature Insolation Ionospheric Scintillation Medium Energy Charged Particles Land Surface Temperature Littoral Sediment Transport Mass Loading / Turbidity Net Heat Flux Net Short Wave Radiance (TOA) Neutral Density Profile Neutral Winds Ocean Color/Chlorophyll Ocean Wave Characteristics Ozone - Total Column/Profile Precipitable Water Precipitation Type/Rate Pressure (Surface/Profile) Sea Ice Age and Ice Edge Motion Sea Surface Height/Topography Snow Cover/Depth Solar Irradiance Supra-Thermal - Auroral Particles Surface Type Fires Surface Wind Stress Suspended Matter Total Auroral Energy Deposition Total Longwave Radiance (TOA) Total Water Content Vegetation Index (NDVI) VIIRS CMIS CrIS/ATMS OMPS SES GPSOS ERBS Environmental Data Records (EDRs) with Key Performance Parameters TSIS ALT

NPOESS Products

(NPOESS IORD Environmental Data Records by Discipline) Atmospheric Vertical Moisture Profile Atmospheric Vertical Temp Profile Image ry Sea Surface Temp erature Sea Surface Wind s Soil Moisture Aerosol Optical Thickness Aerosol Particle Size Albedo (Surface) Auroral Boundary Auroral Imagery Cloud Base Height Cloud Cover/Layers Cloud Effective Particle Size Cloud Ice Water Path Cloud Liquid Water Cloud Optical Depth/Transmittance Cloud Top Height Cloud Top Pressure Cloud Top Temperature Currents (Ocean) Atmospheric Downward Longwave Radiance (Sfc) Electric Fields Electron Density Profile Fresh Water Ice Geomagnetic Field Ice Surface Tempe rature Energetic Ions In-situ Plasma Fluctuations In-situ Plasma Temperature Insolation Medium Energy Charged Particles Ionospheric Scintillation Land Surface Temperature Littoral Sediment Transport Net Heat Flux Net Short Wave R adiance (TOA) Neutral Density Profile Neutral Winds Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Ocean Color/Chlor ophyll Ocean Wave Characteristics Oceanic Terrestrial Space Ozone - Total Column/Profile Precipitable Water Precipitation Type/Rate Pressure (Surface/Profile) Sea Ice Age and E dge Motion Sea Surface Heigh t/Topography Snow Cover/Depth Solar Irradiance Supra-Thermal - Auroral Particles Surface Wind Stre ss Suspended Matter Total Auroral Energy Deposition Total Longwave Radiance (TOA) Total Water Content Turbidity Vegetation Index/Surface Type Climate Environmental Data Records (EDRs) with Key Performance Parameters

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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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