A study of the economic benefits of meteorological satellite data

Satellite data, while most useful in data poor areas, serves to fine tune forecasts in data rich areas. It consequently has a resulting significant economic benefit because, as previously stated, even one improved forecast per client per year can save each client thousands of dollars. Multiply this by several hundred clients and the dollar savings are sizeable. The great educational value which experience with satellite data gives undoubtedly leads to improved forecasts. Any type of future satellite data delivery system should take into account the needs and facilities of the user community to make it most useful

Application of lightning data to satellite-based rainfall estimation

Information on lightning may improve rain estimates made from infrared images of a geostationary satellite. We address this proposition through a case from the Cooperative Huntsville Meteorological Experiment (COHMEX). During the afternoon and evening of 13 July 1986 waves of showers and thunderstorms developed over and near the lower Tennessee River Valley. For the shower and thunderstorm region within 200 km of the National Weather Service radar at Nashville, Tennessee, we measure cold-cloud area in a sequence of GOES infrared images covering all but the end of the shower and thunderstorm period. From observations of the NASA/Marshall direction-finding network in this small domain, we also count cloud-to-ground lightning flashes and, from scans of the Nashville radar, we calculate volume rain flux. Using a modified version of the Williams and Houze scheme, over an area within roughly 240 km of the radar (the large domain), we identify and track cold cloud systems. For these systems, over the large domain, we measure area and count flashes; over the small domain, we calculate volume rain flux. For a temperature threshold of 235K, peak cloud area over the small domain lags both peak rain flux and peak flash count by about four hours. At a threshold of 226K, the lag is about two hours. Flashes and flux are matched in phase. Over the large domain, nine storm systems occur. These range in size from 300 to 60,000 km(exp 2); in lifetime, from about 2 1/2 h to 6 h or more. Storm system area lags volume rain flux and flash count; nevertheless, it is linked with these variables. In essential respects the associations were the same when clouds were defined by a threshold of 226K. Tentatively, we conclude that flash counts complement infrared images in providing significant additional information on rain flux

The land component of the global climate system with adequate spatial resolution. Final report, September 1, 1991--August 31, 1994

The focus of the work done under this grant has been to couple global circulation models (in particular, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model Version 2 (CCM2)) to a land-surface model at a much finer mesh than that used for the atmospheric processes. The end objective has been to incorporate into the CHAMMP modeling system a state-of-the-art land model on a mesh independent of the atmospheric model resolution. Efforts have emphasized the following: development and graphical displays of the fine-mesh land surface boundary conditions; the data structures required to carry out integrations on the land fine-mesh; the physical parameterization required to diaggregate model precipitation; analyses of the NCAR 10-year control simulation of the frozen version of CM2/BATS; implementation of changes in the cloud optical properties to mitgate excess incident solar radiation and temperatures over middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere summer; prototype development of the CCM2/BASTS fine-mesh treatment