Applications of satellite remote sensing in numerical weather and climate prediction

Abstract

The year 2000 marks the 40 th anniversary of the launch of the first weather satellite. The images of cloud systems from the early satellites enabled forecasters to locate and monitor the movements of storms. Today's satellites provide a wealth of quantitative information about the constantly changing state of the Earth's atmosphere, ocean, and land surface. Significant strides are being made by operational centers around the world to effectively use these remotely-sensed observations in forecast models. The satellite measurements are used to initialize, provide boundary conditions for, and verify predictions of models. As an example of the state of the art, this paper reviews how satellite observations are used in the numerical weather and climate prediction models of the U.S. National Weather Service. The National Weather Service, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) develops regional and global weather prediction models, coupled ocean-atmosphere models for seasonal to interannual climate predictions, and a coastal ocean forecast model. A three dimensional variational data assimilation system is used to specify the initial conditions for the forecast models. Data from the following satellite instruments are currently used in one or more of these models: High Resolution Infrared Sounder (HIRS), Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) sounder, GOES, METEOSAT, and Geostationary Meteorology Satellite (GMS) imagers, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), ESA Remote-sensing Satellite-2 (ERS-2) scatterometer, Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Spectrometer/2 (SBUV/2), and Oceanic Topography Experiment (TOPEX) and ERS-2 altimeters.