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Investigation of water vapor motion winds from geostationary satellitesWater vapor imagery from geostationary satellites has been available for over a decade. These data are used extensively by operational analysts and forecasters, mainly in a qualitative mode (Weldon and Holmes 1991). In addition to qualitative applications, motions deduced in animated water vapor imagery can be used to infer wind fields in cloudless regimes, thereby augmenting the information provided by cloud-drift wind vectors. Early attempts at quantifying the data by tracking features in water vapor imagery met with modest success (Stewart et al. 1985; Hayden and Stewart 1987). More recently, automated techniques have been developed and refined, and have resulted in upper-level wind observations comparable in quality to current operational cloud-tracked winds (Laurent 1993). In a recent study by Velden et al. (1993) it was demonstrated that wind sets derived from Meteosat-3 (M-3) water vapor imagery can provide important environmental wind information in data void areas surrounding tropical cyclones, and can positively impact objective track forecasts. M-3 was repositioned to 75W by the European Space Agency in 1992 in order to provide complete coverage of the Atlantic Ocean. Data from this satellite are being transmitted to the U.S. for operational use. Compared with the current GOES-7 (G-7) satellite (positioned near 112W), the M-3 water vapor channel contains a superior horizontal resolution (5 km vs. 16 km ). In this paper, we examine wind sets derived using automated procedures from both GOES-7 and Meteosat-3 full disk water vapor imagery in order to assess this data as a potentially important source of large-scale wind information. As part of a product demonstration wind sets were produced twice a day at CIMSS during a six-week period in March and April (1994). These data sets are assessed in terms of geographic coverage, statistical accuracy, and meteorological impact through preliminary results of numerical model forecast studies.
Document ID
19960008976
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Velden, Christopher S. (Wisconsin Univ. Madison, WI, United States)
Nieman, Steven J. (Wisconsin Univ. Madison, WI, United States)
Wanzong, Steven (Wisconsin Univ. Madison, WI, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
June 1, 1994
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
NASA-CR-199773
NIPS-95-06428
NAS 1.26:199773
Meeting Information
Meeting: AMS Conference on Satellite Meteorology
Location: Monterey, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: June 1, 1994
Accession Number
96N16142
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG8-274
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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