Current GOES Sounder applications and future needs

1
Current GOES Sounder applications and future needs
Jun Li (Jun.Li_at_ssec.wisc.edu
) Cooperative Institute for Meteorological
Satellite Studies (CIMSS), University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI Timothy J.
Schmit NOAA/NESDIS, SaTellite Applications and
Research (STAR), Advanced Satellite Products
Branch (ASPB) Madison, WI James J.
Gurka NOAA/NESDIS, GOES-R Program Office,
Greenbelt, MD Zhenglong Li CIMSS, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI Jaime Daniels and
Mitch Goldberg NOAA/NESDIS, STAR, Suitland,
MD W. Paul Menzel CIMSS, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

• The GOES Sounders have provided quality hourly
  infrared (IR) radiances and derived products over
  the continental U.S. and adjacent oceans for over
  13 years. The products derived include clear-sky
  radiances temperature and moisture profiles
  Total Precipitable Water vapor (TPW) and layer
  PW atmospheric stability indices such as
  Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) and
  Lifted Index (LI) cloud-top properties
  clear-sky water vapor winds via radiance
  tracking and total column ozone. These products
  are used for a number of numerical weather
  prediction (NWP), short range forecasts and
  nowcasts, for example, severe weather forecasts.
• Although the hyperspectral IR sounding system is
  not currently planned to be on the GOES-R series,
  the needs for future geostationary advanced
  sounder is valid. High temporal and spatial
  resolutions of geostationary advanced sounder are
  the unique aspects for severe weather forecast by
  
• depicting important water vapor variations
  spatially and temporally
• improving thunderstorm predictions
• better emissivity determination over land and
• better detection and retrieval of low level
  inversions.

Level 1 to Level 2
Level 2 to applications
Thanks also to Gary S. Wade, NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB Ji
nlong Li, CIMSS Xin Jin, CIMSS Many others
Current GOES Sounder spectral coverage.
22 UTC to 00 UTC 14 April 2006
23 UTC, 13 April To 03 UTC, 14 April 2006
Hail Storm (April 13 14, 2006), Madison, WI
The hail storm of April 13 14, 2006 caused
damage to many houses in Madison area in
Wisconsin. The storm produced large hails (left
picture). The GOES-12 Sounder 11 µm image at 22
UTC on 13 April shows that a super cell is likely
to be developed. The multispectral band
classification (Li et al. 2003, JAM) shows that
there are typical four classes of clear air mass
surrounding the super cell, two hours later (00
UTC, 14 April 2006) the dry air moves toward
east while the wetter air move towards north.
The clear sky atmosphere is very unstable from 22
UTC to 00 UTC, and the super cell starts to
develop. From 00 UTC on 14 April to 03 UTC on 14
April, the air masses continue to move and mixes
each other, the super cell develops fast and
becomes convective system. The soundings
observed by GOES Sounder before and during the
convective storm are very useful for short range
storm forecasts.
Operational Products from the current GOES
Sounder and their applications.
A latitude-longitude-altitude cube of 3D wind
products retrieved from simulated GIFTS
data Domain 20 x 20 degrees horiz.1000-400
hPa vertical. Illustrating data
density and vertical distribution
potentially achievable with geo IR sounder
Velden et al., Bull. Am. Meteorol.
Soc., 86, 205-223 (2005).
AIRS coverage overlays on GOES imager (Hurricane
Dean)
Why geostationary hyperspectral sounding? (1)
Water Vapor is the basic fuel for severe
thunderstorms. Large variations in atmospheric
water vapor occur over a scale of 10 km or better
in the horizontal and 1 km in the vertical, large
variations in water vapor occur over 10s of
minutes, thunderstorms form or decay in 10s of
minutes, severe thunderstorms form mostly over
land, and accurate temperature and moisture
profiles from satellite challenging due to land
emissivity variations. (2) To support regional
and convective-scale NWP over CONUS, through
unprecedented detail on 3D fields of wind,
temperature and humidity, at high
vertical, horizontal and temporal resolution.
(3) To support nowcasting and very-short range
forecasting (VSRF). For example, to use 3D
fields of wind, temperature and humidity for
monitoring moisture convergence and
convective instability, to help improve warnings
of location and intensity of convective
storms. (4) Geostationary hyperspectral sounder
(GHS) temperature, moisture and wind profiles are
critical for NWP and short range forecasts. GHS
will provide a 3-D picture of moisture with the
temporal and spatial scale necessary to forecast
individual thunderstorms, the hyperspectral
coverage from GHS will show the variations in
surface emissivity necessary for accurate
temperature and moisture profiles and radiance
data assimilation over land. GHS will show low
level temperature inversions, critical for severe
thunderstorm forecasts, provide 500 m to 1 km
vertical resolution for temperature and moisture
profiles.
Hyperspectral IR emissivity map derived from AIRS
(Li et al. 2007 GRL)