Satellite skills and knowledge for operational meteorologist

Pyroconvection is not a new concept. However, the idea that pyroconvection can be explosive enough to inject a smoke plume into the stratosphere that pollutes hemispherically, goes against the grain of textbook atmospheric physics. Since the discovery of forest fire smoke in the stratosphere, skepticism has given way to acceptance, understanding, excitement, and wonder. That is because pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb for short) research continues to make more discoveries, involve growing collaborations, and invite new questions.
This presentation will be an overview of pyroCb research. It will focus on observations from satellite sensors. Emphasis will be on platforms such as MODIS, AVHRR, GOES, TOMS, OMI, GOME 2, and CALIPSO. Also to be explored will be the curious historic connection between pyroCb and volcanic eruptions.

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Apart from the central desert areas, the Australian landscape, from the tropics of Far North Queensland to the southern tip of Tasmania has climatic conditions and vegetation which are conducive to wildfires throughout the year. The most volatile of these areas being the south eastern parts of Australia which includes the states of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. Australia has large tracts of wilderness which can only be monitored by aircraft and satellite and as such, remote sensing for bushfires within the landscape is virtually mandatory throughout the dry season in the tropics and the summer periods for the southern states. This talk looks at some of the ways that Satellite Remote Sensing has assisted emergency managers for preparedness, response and recovery, the three most important factors for any emergency operation.

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Dust sources are mostly located in remote areas and satellite observations are very suitable for their identification. Different methods inferring active dust sources have been developed in the recent past, which roughly can be separated into direct (e.g., back-tracking of dust plumes to their place of origin) and indirect methods (e.g., frequency of high atmospheric dust loading). Thereby, the accuracy of the identification methods varies with the temporal and spatial resolutions and the ambiguities of the satellite dust retrieval used. In concert with satellite-based dust source characterization, model simulations allow for a holistic assessment on dust sources and their controlling mechanism - ultimately providing insight into the multifaceted nature of the atmospheric dust life-cycle.

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Air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems in developing Asian countries like China. In this region, studies showed that the East Asian monsoon plays a significant role in characterizing the temporal variation and spatial patterns of air pollution, since monsoon is a major atmospheric system affecting air mass transport, convection, and precipitation. Knowledge gaps still exist in the understanding of Asian monsoon impact on the air quality in China under the background of global climate change. For the first time satellite observations of tropospheric ozone and its precursors will be integrated with the ground-based, aircraft measurements of air pollutants and model simulations to study the impact of the East Asian monsoon on air quality in China.

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Not only smoke tells you where the fire is. Small active fires 20 meters across, a minute fraction of the pixel size, are sensed by Meteosat from its lofty orbit. We explain how to spot them without burning your fingers. Thresholds, channels and future composite products might ignite your interest.

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South Africa is by nature a dry country, which has very short wet periods, mainly confined to the coastal areas and eastern half of the country. During the dry season, the hot, windy conditions result in a favourable environment for fires to spread uncontrollably and cause large scale damage to the local vegetation and to infrastructure. To be able to anticipate and forecast the risk of runaway fires in South Africa, a forecaster needs to have many sources of information, ranging from precipitation amounts to an understanding of the local vegetation. The inclusion of satellite imagery interpretation is an invaluable part of the forecasting process and the monitoring of fires can be done accurately and on a 24hour basis. This presentation will outline the risk the fires pose within South Africa and our forecasting processes dealing with this environmental hazard.

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In this presentation, we will show the result of detection of dust using COMS data. Several Asian dust cases will be presented and as well as some operation results.

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The eruption of Holuhraun in August 2014, in central Iceland, is the country’s largest lava and gas eruption since the Lakagígar eruption in 1783. Although very little volcanic ash was produced, large quantities of SO2 were released into the atmosphere. Two models have been used to simulate the dispersion and transport of SO2 for this event, the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the on-line coupled model WRF-Chem. Whereas in the FLEXPART calculations no anthropogenic emissions or aqueous-phase chemical reactions are considered, in the WRF-Chem calculations, both are fully included. The results of the simulations are evaluated against satellite (GOME2B and OMI) data, as well as ground based SO2 concentration data. The analysis is conducted on a data management platform, which is currently developed in the frame of the ESA-funded project TAMP “Technology and Atmospheric Mission Platform”: it provides comprehensive functionalities to visualize and numerically compare data from different sources (model, satellite and ground-measurements).

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In the session Jose talks generally about the solar channels, how to use them, what are the differences and where they are used. Later on the talk is about monitoring the vegetation and soil properties using the available solar and near-infrared channels. The presentation ends with examples of products for detecting dust and smoke.

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In the frame of the 2020 SEEMET course, Andreas Wirth gave an overview talk on the conveyor belts theory. The three main conveyor belt types are explained and application examples are shown.

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In the frame of the 2020 SEEMET course, Andreas Wirth gave an overview talk on the two main mid-latitude low pressure systems: the classical Norwegian cyclone and the more recent Shapiro-Keyser cyclone. Both models were shown side by side and the main differences were pointed out. A real case example of both cyclone types illustrated the stages of the cyclones' life cycle. Finally, a quick overview was given on Sting Jets, a phenomenon that often accompanies Shapiro-Keyser cyclones.

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Passive microwave (PMW) radiometry is recognized as the most suitable for global precipitation monitoring and quantification. The H SAF precipitation products portfolio is being extended to provide Level 3 (gridded) PMW-based precipitation products to facilitate and promote the use of MW-based products for several applications. One of these products (labelled as P-IN-PWM, or H68) provides instantaneous precipitation rate estimates, based on calibrated and merged PMW Level 2 instantaneous precipitation rate products. H68 provides precipitation rate estimates every half hour, on a regular grid at 0.25°x0.25° resolution over the extended H SAF area (LAT 60°S – 75°N, LON 60°W – 60°E). The calibration is based on the precipitation estimates provided by the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) DPR-GMI (Dual-frequency Radar and GPM Microwave Imager) combined product (2B-CMB). The H68 algorithm mainly consists of three modules (i.e. remapping module, adjustment module and merging module) that will be described. The other Level 3 PMW-based product that will be presented is P-DM-PMW (or H67), which provides as main output a 24 h mean precipitation rate based on the H68 product outputs. H67 provides data at the same spatial resolution as H68 at 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC of each day for the previous 24 hours. Examples of H68 and H67 product outputs and applications will be provided.

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