Ivan Smiljanic (EUMETSAT) - Detecting low level moisture with FCI
Ivan Smiljanic shows how to detect low level moisture with the FCI.
This talk will provide insights into how FCI instrument can be used to detect moisture in the layers close to the surface. Up until the introduction of FCI instrument, the concept of low-level moisture estimation, using solely data from imagers on board GEO satellites was to high degree limited to so-called split window difference (e.g. SEVIRI BTD12.0-10.8). Perhaps the biggest down side of this approach is the fact that BT difference relies heavily on the vertical temperature profiles of the atmosphere (the temperature of moisture level). With introduction of water vapour absorption channel in the NIR spectral region this dependency is avoided. Hence the novel NIR0.91 FCI channels is seen as one of the crucial tools for nowcasting of severe storms, i.e. assessment of pre-conditions and moisture feeding dynamics of convective systems.