Identify and interpret fields and derived products
Steinar Eastwood presents the OSI-SAF products and shows climatological applications of the data.
The sea ice products from the EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility are widely used. In this presentation the sea ice products will be presented and examples of use in operational numerical weather and ocean modelling will be given.
Mária Putsay discusses how single channels and RGB types can be effectively used for snow detection.
Single channels and RGB types will be discussed and compared from the snow detection point of view: how effectively they can be used for this purpose, which benefits and limitations they have. Physical background will be discussed and several examples will be shown.
Ideally an RGB type is usable for snow detection if the snow-covered cloud-free surface has good colour contrast against both now-free surface and clouds. Practically, one problem may cause difficulty: ice clouds and snowy land often appear similarly. Not surprising: their physical properties are similar as both consist of ice crystals. The presentation discusses which RGB types show snow and ice clouds less similarly. Forecasters usually look at animations, this also helps to distinguish snow covered area from moving ice clouds.