Revisiting 3D Stereo Satellite Image Displays

Over 30 years ago, there were a number of development efforts to display 3D stereo satellite images and associated weather. Dr. Fritz Hasler showed how the GOES-east and west satellites could be remapped to generate true stereo pairs for obtaining cloud heights and he also showed how artificial stereo images could be generated using derived IR cloud heights to generate parallax shifts for the visible or infrared images. While there was a flurry of interest in the 1980s, the techniques had largely fallen from routine usage until recently. However, technology advances in both satellites and display technology has allowed for the possible routine use of 3D stereo images

Day/Night Visible Satellite Images

Visible satellite images are very helpful for a wide variety of users. In particular, they are helpful in identifying areas of clouds and fog for general aviation pilots who must fly within sight of ground. However, visible satellite images have several major drawbacks, such as at night the visible pictures are black. Another problem is that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between high clouds and low clouds. While the infrared channel can be used at night, frequently the low clouds and fog are near the temperature of the ground, so low clouds do not show up well on infrared images. Starting with the GOES-8 geostationary satellite series, the 3.9 micron channel has been available. At night the difference between the 3.9 and 11 micron channels detects emissivity differences rather than absolute temperature, so low clouds can be detected at night even if they are at the same temperature as the ground

Impacts of Interactive Processing Systems on the Forecasting Ability of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center (Appendix E)

The National Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) in Kansas City has the most modern interactive processing equipment of any operational forecast office in the United States. As such, the experiences of the NSSFC serve as the indication of some of the benefits which will be derived from interactive technology when it is applied in other forecast situations. The forecast products issued by the NSSFC have become more accurate and more timely. The forecaster\u27s efficiency and productivity has noticeably improved. These improvements have been made without the introduction of any new data sources, any major advances in meteorology, or any major advances in numerical modeling. The improvements have resulted from more rapid access to data and from having computers take over many of the housekeeping chores facing a forecaster leaving more time for meteorology

Characteristics of Water Vapor Tracked Winds

Wind measurements were obtained by tracking water vapor features on Meteosat and GOES-VAS 6.7 micron water vapor images. While pure water vapor features are fuzzy, there are discernible features which can be tracked. An investigation of preprocessing algorithms designed to bring out the features to be tracked showed that high pass filters tended to bring out the noise in the image, while low pass filters washed out the features. Sliced linear gray scale stretching under operator control gave the best enhancement to the water vapor features

Functional and Performance Requirements of the Next NOAA-Kansas City Computer System (Appendix G)

The NOAA computer system in Kansas City, Missouri, was scheduled for a computer upgrade and this is part of the report listing the critical functional and performance requirements for that system in 1984. The system needed to communicate with all the other offices at that center in Kansas City

Global Composite of Volcanic Ash “Split Window” Geostationary Satellite Images

Volcanic ash is exceptionally hazardous for jet aircraft in flight. Flying through ash can quickly damage the jet engines, causing surging, flame out and immediate thrust loss. Pilots can inadvertently penetrate volcanic ash clouds because airborne weather radar will not reflect off the small ash particles, and the visual appearance of an ash cloud may look very similar to an ordinary meteorological cloud. To aid pilots in avoiding ash cloud areas, the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW) agreements have developed under the guidance of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Wiggle 3D Displays of Weather Data

Weather is a time varying 3-dimensional phenomena, but the displays of weather data are inherently 2-dimensional. Since weather phenomena at one level can impact the weather at another level, it would be desirable to view weather on a 3D volume type of display. Initially weather displays were on paper and currently weather information is displayed on computer screens. The human mind can interpret 3D volume information in a number of ways. Having two eyes, the brain can detect the parallax differences between the images for the left eye being slightly different from the right eye. Objects that are closer to the observer have a greater parallax shift between the two eyes than distant objects. Hence 3D displays can be generated by generating separate displays for each eye. The two displays can be directed to each eye using colored filters (such as anaglyph red/cyan glasses), cross polarization filters (such as RealD 3D movie glasses), or electronic glasses which switch the lens on/off in sync with the display (such as 3D TV displays). While these displays are effective, they require the user to use special glasses with dedicated 3D terminals. They are generally not amenable to general purpose displays such as cell phones, tablets, or ordinary computer monitors. These displays also require that the user have two equally good eyes

Global Satellite Images for Aviation Operations

Flight planning and flight following dispatch operations require information on potential flight hazards. Hazards such as thunderstorms, turbulence, icing, fog, volcanic ash, etc., are potential problems which are not always forecast adequately by numerical models. Satellite images are used to monitor the weather conditions causing existing flight hazards, as well as being used to identify the development of new hazards

Lessons Learned from the CSIS [Centralized Storm Information System] (Appendix D)

Various attempts have been made to give up-to-the-minute meteorological observations to forecasters. However, the meteorologist\u27s inability to assimilate all the real-time data is a significant barrier to the improvement of short-term forecasts and warnings. Historically, failure to resolve this problem has plagued mesoscale forecast experiments. This article discusses the joint effort of NWS, NESS, NASA, and SSEC to develop a system to aid the forecaster in evaluating data

Numerical Model Derived Altimeter Correction Maps for Non-Standard Atmospheric Temperature and Pressure

Altimeter corrections for non-standard temperature pose a challenge because accurate calculations require detailed knowledge of the temperature structure of the atmosphere between the surface and the aircraft. By applying basic hypsometric formulae to high resolution numerical model temperature and moisture output, detailed maps of current and forecasted corrected D-values are created. Corrected D-values provide the altitude difference between the true altitude and the indicated altitude from a pressure altimeter. Unlike standard D-values, the corrected D-value corrects for non-standard pressure in addition to non-standard temperature and is therefore useful for flights below class A airspace. Maps of corrected D-value may help provide increased situational awareness for pilots during cold-weather operations as well as a useful educational tool for quantifying the effects of non-standard temperature on pressure altimetry