More detailed hurricane forecasts with NASA-NOAA Finland NPP VIIRS satellite sensor
The ability to locate satellites into a storm that could turn into a severe storm or hurricane is likely to become more accurate for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which begins on June 1st. Until then, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA weather forecasters will be able to further improve the use of sensors in the NASA-NOAA Finland National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, known as the Finland NPP.
US Polar Environmental satellites, such as the Finnish Nuclear Power Plant, provide complete global coverage twice a day, while NOAA / NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites provide imagery from a fixed area.
To improve the ability to detect and track hurricanes, NOAA researchers are looking for ways to incorporate data from the Finnish Nuclear Power Plant’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS sensor, which allows the Earth’s atmosphere and surface to be observed at night and provides better transparency. clouds.
VIIRS offers many advances over previous operational imagers and advances over its predecessor, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers, which currently operate on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. It is these advances in polar images that give predictors a new tool to improve their predictions.
The VIIRS infrared window channel (left) and Day-Night Band (right) images show the center of this weak cyclone (Amara), which is marked with a red X in each image. The center is easily visible in the VIIRS Day-Night Band image, which provides unique information for finding the center of tropical cyclones during the night.
Image Credit: NOAA National Hurricane Center
Similarly, the radar from the NASA / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite, can see through and distinguish precipitating Cumulus clouds and cirrus clouds, which are also detected by TRMM’s infrared sensor. The next generation of these sensors is scheduled to launch from Japan next month with the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite.
VIIRS Day-Night Band sees through the night
Data to track storms comes from satellite surface stations, weather balloons, radar and airplanes. Most current satellites provide important information during the day and night, although observations in the visible part of the spectrum are limited at night. That’s where VIIRS has an advantage. The VIIRS day-night band is sensitive enough to provide storm data even in limited moonlight conditions, which is a significant advance in storm analysis.
The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder or ATMS sensor at the Finnish nuclear power plant also enables the measurement of temperature and water vapor with an accuracy like the corresponding microwave devices of previous satellites. In relatively clear areas outside the storm center and in the eyes of severe storms, the Cross-track Infrared Sensor at the Finnish nuclear power plant also improves ATMS temperature and humidity data by offering measurements with even higher vertical and horizontal resolutions.
“This is a new source for collecting the structure of temperature and humidity inside and around a storm. It shows us what drives a storm and affects changes in the intensity of the storm,” said Mark DeMaria, director of technology and science at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center. Miami.
Hurricane predictors do not have a simple process to add new information to their forecasting models. In order to use ATMS data, the height of the hurricane prediction model had to be raised, said Fuzhong Weng, acting director of the NOAA Department of Satellite Meteorology and Climatology. Chief of College Park, Md.
In 2012, Weng assembled a research team that included researchers from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, to study data from a Finnish nuclear power plant to predict hurricanes. In a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, the researchers found that four hurricanes studied, including Hurricane Sandy, which landed on the east coast of the United States in October 2012, would have greatly improved storm forecasts. due to a better prediction of the path of the storm, which turned out to be mostly real.
The VIIRS day-night lane of the Finnish nuclear power plant also significantly shifted the path of the Tropical Storm Floats that occurred in the Hawaii region last July. Using the day-night lane, hurricane predictors were able to more accurately locate the center of the storm, leading to more accurate monitoring of the storm forecast.
The NOAA National Weather Service uses large global models to calculate the predicted route, size, and intensity of the storm. The route and intensity of storms, as well as storms that can become hurricanes, are updated every six hours during the hurricane season. This information will be passed to the National Hurricane Center, which will zoom in to look at the storm area in more detail using NOAA’s Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting System.
The ability to observe the Earth’s atmosphere and surface through the clouds and at night helps forecasters find storms that begin at night. “Forecasters will initially get a better estimate of the current location and structure, which will affect all other aspects of the storm,” DeMaria said.
NASA sees the 94S system still trying to get organized near Darwin
Quotation: More detailed hurricane forecasts with NASA-NOAA Finland NPP VIIRS satellite sensor (2014, January 22) retrieved on February 24, 2022 at https://phys.org/news/2014-01-precise-hurricane-nasa-noaa-suomi-npp .html
This document is subject to copyright. No part may be reproduced without our written permission, except for fair trade for private study or research. The content is for informational purposes only.