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Weaver, Dostalek, Grasso, Bikos, Coleman
A paper entitled, “Left-moving thunderstorms in a high Plains, weakly-sheared environment,” by John Weaver (NOAA), Jack Dostalek (CIRA), and Loren Phillips (NWS) will be presented at the 18th Conf. on Weather Analysis and Forecasting in July 2001 by 2nd author, Jack Dostalek.
A poster presentation entitled, “Observations of a Severe Supercell Thunderstorm on 24 July 2000 using GOES-11 Sounder and Imagery” by J. Weaver, J. Knaff, D. Bikos, J. Daniels (NESDIS), and G. Wade (CIMSS) has been accepted for presentation at the 11th Conf. on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography to be held in October 2001. A formal version of this paper has now been accepted for publication in Wea. & Forecasting. The authors are currently addressing reviewer comments. An expanded discussion and new loops for this case have been added to:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/goes11/goes11_test/july24/july24.html
A paper entitled “A Satellite Perspective of the 3 May 1999 Great Plains Tornado Outbreak” by Dan Bikos, John Weaver and Brian Motta has been accepted for publication in the special issue on the 3 May event in Weather and Forecasting. Authors have addressed reviewer comments and the paper has been returned to the editor.
Figure 1. Single Field-of-View, surface-based CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) computed from GOES-11 sounder data for various times. Upper left is 22:16 UTC – 24 July 2000; upper right is 23:46 UTC – 24 July 2000; lower left is 00:46 UTC – 25 July 2000; and lower right is 01:47 UTC – 25 July 2000. Figure shows a persistent axis of unstable air in central Nebraska that formed along a low-level convergence boundary. A severe supercell thunderstorm propagated along this instability tongue in a manner similar to that described by Weaver and Nelson (1982), Mon. Wea. Rev., 707-718.
Figure 2. Single Field-of-View, surface-based CIN (Convective INhibition) computed from GOES-11 sounder data for various times. Upper left is 22:16 UTC – 24 July 2000; upper right is 23:46 UTC – 24 July 2000; lower left is 00:46 UTC – 25 July 2000; and lower right is 01:47 UTC – 25 July 2000. Data show a narrow tongue where the low-level capping inversion had eroded completely just ahead of the propagating supercell thunderstorm. A shortwave trough crossed into the region during the late afternoon, but these data imply that the shortwave had little if any effect on the cap.
Work continues on establishing an RSO data archive. An EXCEL file listing satellite name, date and times of RSO, the location, agency and reason for the call, and what severe weather occurred during the collection is nearly complete. The list begins with GOES-8 in November of 1996 and continues through October 2000. There are over 700 dates listed so far. A student hourly has started work on transferring imager data from certain cases onto CD-ROM. Case dates are being selected by Weaver and Bikos.
J. Weaver is working with Wendy Schreiber-Abshire and Matt Kelsh (COMET) on a web-based teaching module entitled “Urban Flooding: It can Happen in a Flash.” The module is designed to take about an hour to complete. It is based on the Fort Collins flood, and contains text, graphics photos and audio components. The work-in-progress can be previewed at: http://meted.ucar.edu/qpf/urbanf/index1.htm
The tropical rainfall potential (TRaP) product, which integrates the rain rate along the official forecast track of a tropical cyclone track, has been updated to use the AMSU-B rainfall rates, and the new version of the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast system. This product provides the forecaster rainfall potential estimates given two assumptions: that the rainfall rates persist, and the track forecast is good. An example of the output (rain rate, four 6-hourly rainfall estimates, and a 24-hour total) of this product is displayed in Figure 1 for Tropical Storm Allison which made landfall in east Texas on 6 June.
Click on image to enlarge
Figure 1: Using the AMSU-B rain rate estimated at 0811 UTC 5 June (top left) and integrating the rate over time along the official NHC forecast track for Tropical Storm Allison a tropical rainfall potential (TRaP) is created for 6-hour and 24-hour periods. Maximum 24-hour rainfall is estimated to be near 12.5 inches east and south of Houston, TX.
The real-time processing of AMSU data over tropical cyclones occurring in the east Pacific and Atlantic tropical cyclone basins has been upgraded to collect real-time data using input from the new version of the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting system. Data are also being collected and temperature retrievals are being made using the NOAA-16 AMSU instrument. Analyses can be seen at http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/tropic/amsustrm.asp
A project continues to investigate various ways to measure environmental vertical wind shear with routinely available data. Observed intensity changes are then evaluated with respect to the vertical wind shear and the sea surface temperatures. A final set of analyses with Hurricane Bertha was completed. The objective is to investigate the influence of environmental vertical wind shear on intensity change. Three independent quantitative analyses using routinely available data are compared. IR cloud asymmetries, numerical model winds, and high-density winds are analyzed throughout the hurricane’s life cycle. Bertha was chosen for the case study because of multiple intensity maxima, and variable vertical shear with respect to both direction and magnitude. A draft of a paper for journal submission, “Three Approaches to Quantitative Observations of Environmental Vertical Wind Shear with Hurricane Bertha,” was completed. It is currently in internal review with final revisions underway. Additional preliminary work on vertical wind shear has also been completed with Hurricanes Opal, Erika, and Floyd.
A project continues to archive IR images with tropical cyclones in a common format on CD-ROM. Images are saved in 4 km Mercator remap McIDAS format at 30-minute intervals. Three additional Southern tropical cyclones have been added to the archive since 1 April 2001. They were the first “named” storms of the season in each of three regions: North Indian, Eastern Pacific, and Atlantic. The end period for tropical cyclones in the archive typically coincides with the last advisory from the particular warning center. However, with Tropical Storm Allison 2001, due to its large impacts in the US following landfall, the archived data set includes the long period during which the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison were tracked, and major flooding occurred.
A new version of a poster was improved to make it usable when printed as page-size format as well as poster size. It has common format enhanced IR images of the 23 intense Atlantic hurricanes at maximum intensity during 1995-2000 (Figure 2). The file was provided to scientists at Hurricane Research Division for inclusion in their article on the topic.
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Figure 2. Infrared images of 23 intense hurricanes at their maximum intensity.
An effort by J. Knaff, J. Kossin, M. DeMaria, and V. Larson to document what appears to be a subclass of tropical cyclones termed “annular hurricanes” or “doughnut hurricanes” continues. The documentation of these hurricanes, which are symmetric with little or little outer rainband activity, and have large eyes is being prepared for publication. The time series plots of azimuthally averaged brightness temperatures shows these aspects, namely that when the eye becomes large and prominent the fluctuations of brightness temperatures at greater radii decrease dramatically (see Figure 3). Also interesting are the transitions of these storms to an annular state. Figure 4 shows the transition of Hurricane Howard from a small-eye storm to an annular hurricane. This mixing process is not unique to annular hurricanes, but rather the end of mixing marks the beginning of the annular structure These storms tend to be longer lived than typical hurricanes (Figure 5) and thus result in large negative forecast biases shown in Figure 6.
Figure 3: Time vs. azimuthally averaged, storm-relative brightness temperatures for six annular hurricanes. Atlantic Storms Luis (right top), and Edouard (left top), and eastern Pacific hurricanes Darby (right middle), Howard (left middle), Beatriz (right bottom) and Dora (left bottom) are shown. Note time on the ordinate is variable and radius (km) is on the abscissa. (figure supplied by J. Kossin)
Figure 4: Imager of the eye/eyewall region of Hurricane Howard over the 25 hour period encompassing its transition from a small-eye structure to a large-eye, annular structure. The times between the images are variable and chosen to accent the fascinating mixing process that accompanies the formation of annular hurricanes. (figure supplied by J. Kossin)
Click on images to enlarge
Figure 5: Composite time series of the intensity associated with average Atlantic hurricanes that did not encounter cold water or make landfall (56 cases) as reported by Emanuel (2000) and doughnut hurricanes (6 cases), normalized by mean maximum intensity. Compositing was done relative to the time of maximum intensity.
Figure 6: Hurricane intensity forecast biases associated with the 1995- 2000 hurricane seasons in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific compared to those of the doughnut hurricanes. Values are represented in knots. SHIPS is the statistical hurricane intensity prediction scheme and NHC is the official forecast.
Work continues with the upper-level wind datasets in hurricanes created by tracking cloud elements in the super rapid scan imagery, which was performed by C. Velden at CIMSS, University of Wisconsin. Recent work has concentrated on the role of convection in the evolution of the tangential wind and vorticity fields at the top of the cyclone. Preliminary result suggest that convection produces a uniform divergence field which speeds the tangential wind ahead of the convective towers and slows the tangential wind behind these convective towers as they rotate in the eyewall region of a hurricane. Over a period of hours this divergence field resembles an annular ring of divergence surrounding convergence in the eye and the vorticity field is maximized in the eye (Figure 7)
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Figure 7: The temporal average divergence and vorticity at 150 mb for the period 1304 UTC to 1535 UTC on 12 September 1999 resulting from winds derived from 3 minute interval imagery. Note Hurricane Floyd is located at the center of the images.
Datasets for studying global tropical cyclones are being collected and archived in a real-time basis. Routine datasets include high-density cloud drift winds, ERS-2 and QuikScat winds, hurricane reconnaissance, surface and upper air reports, and AMSU quick look data sets.
The typical cyclone genesis parameter web site has been activated for the 2001 hurricane season: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/gparm/genesis.asp
J. Dostalek, J. Knaff, and M. DeMaria are among the co-authors of a paper entitled “A Three Dimensional Temperature and Wind Analysis of a Polar Low Utilizing the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit,” which was submitted for publication in The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. Rich Moore of the Colorado State University is the lead author.
An article entitled “Total Precipitable Water Measurements from GOES Sounder Derived Product Imagery” by J. Dostalek and T. Schmit (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies) has been accepted for publication in the journal Weather and Forecasting. The article includes a statistical evaluation of the GOES total precipitable water (TPW) product and two examples comparing TPW fields as given by the GOES DPI and the Eta model. Figures 1 and 2 are taken from the paper and show the evolution of the TPW fields for 14-15 April 1998. The sequence of images shows that the GOES DPI indicated a faster return of moisture into the Southern Plains than the Eta model. This quicker return was in qualitative agreement with the assessment of a Storm Prediction Center forecaster, who suggested the Eta model had underdone the boundary layer moisture fields. The paper was formerly entitled “GOES Sounder Derived Product Imagery: Comparisons to Radiosondes and Use in Forecasting Severe Convection.”
Figure 1. Time sequence from 13:00 – 18:00 UTC on 14 April 1998 of GOES-8 TPW DPI with contours of Eta model forecast TPW.
Figure 2. Continuation of Fig. 1 for the period 19:00 – 00:00 (15 April) UTC.
Several RAMM Team members attended the GOES-R Users Workshop held in Boulder, CO, May 22-24, 2001. The first two days were dedicated to formal presentations describing the planned capabilities of the new GOES series satellites, and to applications by GOES Users. On the third day, the conference was divided into breakout sessions on nine topic areas. M. DeMaria provided a summary of the session on Research, Education and Training when the full group re-convened at the end of the workshop.
The Summer Sea Breeze Climatology project for northern Florida started its sixth season this June. The study aims to create a regime-based sea breeze cloud frequency climatology designed to aid forecasters in predicting the timing and extent of convection under various background wind regimes. Ken Gould with the NWS in Tallahassee, Florida is the focal point for regime designation in Florida. Imagery are archived at CIRA for future processing. The data collection and regime designation will run through August.
Processing of the U.S. climatologies continues on schedule. Products completed include monthly large sector composites for March, April and May 2001, and wind regime composites for February, March and April 2001. Monthly wind regime composites covering the past four years has been completed for February, March and April 2001.
The three-year (1998-2000) composites of cloud cover percentage based on wind regimes for the Wakefield, VA area have been completed. Examples from this work are shown below. The data was processed for three different time periods, including May through October, May through July, and August through October. Time series loops for each period are available for each wind regime; in both a sector covering most of the Mid-Atlantic states and a smaller sector centered on the Wakefield forecast area. These time series loops may be viewed on the CIRA website, at:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/CLIM/Wakefield/windr.html. Click on images to enlarge
Figure 1. Northwest wind regime for 1545 UTC, May-July, 1998-2000.
Figure 2. Southwest wind regime for 1545 UTC, May-July, 1998-2000.
Figure 3. Northwest wind regime for 1545 UTC, May-July, 1998-2000, Wakefield sector.
Figure 4. Southwest wind regime for 1545 UTC, May-July, 1998-2000, Wakefield sector.
Current work is concentrating on left moving thunderstorms. Documented left moving thunderstorms are few in the literature. Our goal is to improve the documentation by reporting on left movers that were detected by GOES imagery and WSR-88D radar.
A statistical typhoon intensity forecasting scheme, called STIFOR5D, which utilizes climatology and persistence to produce forecasts out to 120 hours was supplied to B. Sampson at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey CA. This is in partial fulfillment of grant received from the Navy to develop a Statistical Typhoon Intensity Prediction System (STIPS). STIFOR5D will be used as both an operational and verification tool at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii.
Cooperative research and interaction continues with Dr. William Gray’s project at CSU. The focus is on providing satellite data information to aid in their ongoing hurricane research using aircraft flight level and GPS dropsonde data sets.
An additional Tropical RAMSDIS system has been provided to the Colorado State University Weather Lab for better access and use by CSU students, faculty and staff.
Collaboration continued between J. Dostalek and T. Schmit of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies in Madison, WI on the Weather and Forecasting article entitled “Total Precipitable Water Measurements from GOES Sounder Derived Product Imagery.” The article has been accepted for publication.
A statistical hurricane intensity forecasting schemes for both the eastern Pacific and Atlantic hurricane basins (SHIFOR5D), which utilize climatology and persistence to produce forecasts out to 120 hours were supplied to J. Gross at the Tropical Prediction Center, Miami, FL. This is in fulfillment of grant received from the Insurance Friends of the Hurricane Center to develop a Statistical Hurricane Intensity Forecast out to 5-days for verification purposes, as TPC is experimenting with in-house 5-day intensity and track forecasts during the 2001 hurricane season. SHIFOR5D is also being used as an operational tool at TPC. The 5-day version of the Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme (SHIPS) was also implemented at TPC.
Bard Zajac provided subject matter expertise to John Jensenius (WCM Portland, ME), one of the organizers of the NWS Lightning Safety Awareness Week held from June 18-22. Zajac reviewed materials developed by Jensenius for the event. Information can be found at: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/
Zajac also provided expertise to Von Woods, forecaster at NWS Atlanta. Woods is developing an experimental product to access the current and short-term threat of lightning. Zajac sent Woods information on lightning climatology including plots of monthly and hourly lightning activity over Atlanta as well as a set of papers that document lightning activity over Georgia. This climatology should help Woods establish relationships between lightning activity and lightning threat.
B. Motta participated in a conference call directed at defining a Winter Weather Professional Development Series Outline for the NWS. From this outline, key aspects of training will be selected for one Winter Weather training workshop to be held at COMET.
Brazil Project:
A few data ingest problems were encountered with the system in Brazil. Three days of troubleshooting efforts revealed that a few files were modified, and the directory structure was changed that disabled the system to ingest data. Once the files were changed back to their original form and the directory structure repaired, the data started to flow once more.
A clone of the Brazil RAMSDIS system was created. This will be used to make improvements and modifications to the current capabilities, and to test new map data source that will be implemented on their system.
Japanese Interaction:
Software to determine the over-flight times of the NOAA -15 and NOAA-16 Satellites was made available to K. Bessho, a researcher at the Meteorological Research Institute/ Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). The information will be used to retrieve and archive AMSU data during an upcoming JMA field experiment, called BAIU HUNTER 2001 set to begin 10 June. The hope is to have Aerosonde observations concurrent with AMSU over-passes during the experiment.
Mitch Reconstruction Project:
In early April, Global Imaging was selected as the contractor to install the GOES ingest system in Costa Rica. The installation is planned for July of 2001. RAMSDIS workstations will be installed by CIRA in Costa Rica and six other countries in Central America shortly after the ingest system is functioning.
A RAMSDIS-NT with Windows2000 Operating System was re-configured for stability improvements. For the seven countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize), seven different configuration specifications were made to retrieve/ingest the satellite data. A few programs were modified with improvements, or to correct a problem.
The Factory Acceptance Test with Global Imaging Corporation was successfully completed. The tasks entailed specification of the datasets on the server, satellite data transfer for 12 hours, and the data integrity check using a programming algorithm. Three RAMSDIS-NT systems were used to retrieve/ingest Satellite data from the server in San Diego, CA for at least 12 hours. The tests revealed that the data server was configured differently from the NESDIS servers, but it passed our exam. The RAMSDIS-NT systems were setup with three different data retrieval configurations, and it passed as well. One major item was modified, and that was to reduce the amount of product completion ratio specification for the ingest to 65% from 90% so that the datasets that were at least 65% complete could be ingested onto the client end. The RAMSDIS-NT systems were shipped to the following three countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The first series of this site visit will include the three countries above, and the second part will include the four other countries. Each site visit will entail installations of two RAMSDIS-NT systems and training in the computer systems realm. The following are the items that were shipped to each of the three countries:
Items per site:
2 – Dell Precision 220 System ($2,425 each) (25x17x24, 40 lb) (8471.49)
2 – 17 inch (M781p) Monitors (Included in above) (21x21x22, 40 lb) (8471.49.1035)
1 – HP DeskJet 970 Cxi ($295) (20x18x10, 20 lb) (8471.49.3400)
2 – Trip-Lite UPS ($102 each) (24x18x12, 35 lb) (8504.40.8010)
1 – Parallel Printer Cable ($25)
2 – Extra DeskJet ink cartridge ($37.50 each)
2 – Generic 3 button mouse ($14)
(Total Value of: $5,500.00)
A one-week training seminar was held in Costa Rica April 23-27. Two participants from each of seven Central American countries (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize) attended. Bernadette Connell, CIRA, Rosario Alfaro, CIRA visiting scientist, and Vilma Castro, University of Costa Rica, presented lectures and labs. Since each country is to receive two RAMSDIS-NT systems in July 2001, part of the training focused on RAMSDIS system basics. Another aspect of the training focused on the use and applications of the Autoestimator in Central America. Other lectures and labs reviewed information on the GOES Imager Channels, detection of volcanic ash, dust and ship trails, satellite climatologies, fire detection, the Dvorak technique, and the interpretation and use of water vapor imagery. Dr. Sadi Laporte was an invited expert lecturer from the Costa Rica Electrical Institute and gave an overview of hydrological applications that require interactions with meteorologists. There was also a VISIT demonstration and a session on building JAVA loops. All of the lecture materials were available in both English and Spanish. Four of the lab exercises (Autoestimator, GOES Imager Channels, Satellite climatologies, and Fire detection) involved use of digital imagery on the RAMSDIS-NT systems. An ingest system provided continuous imagery throughout the week and attracted viewers during breaks and after lunch. A lot of information was packed into the short week. The participants worked hard and were excited about receiving the RAMSDIS systems in the future.
RMTC Project:
GOES-8 imagery for March 2001 through May, 2001 were sent to the Regional Meteorological Training Centers (RMTCs) in Costa Rica and Barbados. The archives are being used to study at cloud frequency during the rainy and dry seasons and detect local variations from year to year. The archived imagery also provides access to examples for use in satellite focused training efforts. Click on images to enlarge.
Figure 1. Monthly cloud frequency composites for March – May 1997-2001 by a 10.7 um temperature threshold technique for Costa Rica.
Figure2. Comparison of cloud frequency derived by temperature threshold of 10.7 um imagery for March – May of 1998 – 2001 for Barbados.
SICA Project:
A new project funded by USAID through SICA (System of Integration for Central America) was established. The funding for this project allows for the dissemination of satellite rainfall products and fire products on the web before the satellite ingest system becomes operational in Costa Rica. See http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/SICA/main.html
J. Weaver reviewed the following papers this quarter – “OK-FIRST: An example of Successful collaboration between Meteorology and Public Safety on 3 May 1999,” for Weather and Forecasting; “Taking shelter: Estimating the safety benefits of safe rooms,” for Weather and Forecasting; and “Synoptic regulation of the 3 May 1999 tornado outbreak,” also for Weather and Forecasting.
D. Hillger attended two committee review meetings as an outside faculty member for Tomoko Koyama, a Master’s degree candidate of Dr. T.H. Vonder Haar.
Two proposals to NOAA from CIMSS were reviewed by D. Hillger and returned with comments and a numerical evaluation.
A manuscript describing changes in the GOES-M Imager and its products was reviewed by D. Hillger for an editor of the National Weather Digest.
Meetings/Conferences:
| Traveler | Destination | Meetings/Conferences | Funding | Dates | Trip Reports |
| B. Motta | Washington, DC | IST Meeting/e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/13-18 | |
| B. Zajac | Washington, DC | ST Meeting/e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/13-18 | |
| D. Bikos | Washington, DC | ST Meeting/e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/13-18 | |
| V. Castro | Darmstadt, Germany | CGMS Meeting | RMTC | 5/14-19 | |
| S. Burton | Darmstadt, Germany | CGMS Meeting | RMTC | 5/14-19 | |
| M. DeMaria | Washington, DC | ORA Team Leader Meeting | GIMPAP | 6/4-7 | Trip Report |
| M. DeMaria | Boulder, CO | TRMM Risk-Benefit Assessment Meeting | 6/18-19 |
Visitors:
| Visitor(s) | Date of Visit | Affiliation | RAMMT Contact |
| Scott Fulton | Friday, April 6 | Clarkson University/Pottsdam, NY | M. DeMaria |
| Jeff Wilson | Thursday, May 24 | Australian Bureau of Meteorology | M . DeMaria |
A RAMSDIS-NT system was configured for the EUMETSAT facilities located in Darmstadt, Germany. The system was shipped to Gordon Bridge and utilized for the WMO Focus Group Training in May. Vilma Castro of the RMTC-Costa performed the system demonstration.
CIRA supported Dr. Vilma Castro from the Regional Meteorological Training Center (RMTC) in Costa Rica and Mr. Selvin Burton from the RMTC in Barbados to travel to a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) meeting held in Darmstadt, Germany (May 16-18). The meeting was organized by Dr. James Purdom, former director of the NESDIS Office of Research and Applications to establish an international effort for the exchange of satellite data. The lessons learned by the RMTCs during the last several years of interaction with CIRA were used as guidance for a wider international effort in the first meeting of this WMO focus group.
A decision was made at this meeting to establish a Virtual Laboratory (VL) to foster the international exchange of satellite data and training material. For this purpose, web servers will be established at EUMETSAT, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) in Melbourne, Australia and at CIRA in Fort Collins, CO within the next year.
Jeff Wilson from the BMTC visited CIRA on May 25, 2001. He gave a seminar on training activities in Australia and provided a summary of a recent WMO meeting on the creation of an international virtual laboratory for satellite meteorology training. He also met with several RAMM Team members to discuss NESDIS/CIRA involvement in the international virtual lab.
Default test schedules for GOES-M are posted on the web at:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/goesm/test_schedules.htm
The test schedules, accompanying sectors, and image times are based on GOES-11 Science Tests from last summer. Changes to the schedule were requested in order to coordinate them with satellite operations. GOES-M is scheduled for launch on 15 July and Science Tests are scheduled for 10 September thru 14 October. Primary focus of the tests should be on the effect on GOES Imager products with the change to the new band-6 at 13.3 um, replacing band-5 at 2.0 um, as well as higher resolution for the water vapor band. Please send suggestions for changes to the test schedule to: hillger@cira.colostate.edu. Mailing address is also on the website.
In order to respond to the request made by Brazilian scientists for modifications and improvements to the RAMSDIS units deployed in Brazil in August of 2000 for use in fire detection, a clone system has been set up at CIRA.
Permissions problems in the RAMM Team Web page directories were encountered. As a result, the entire directory that contains the RAMM Team web information was modified to allow all the personnel to make modifications to the web contents. This adds extra responsibilities to the staff, but allows for an easier maintenance of the web site.
A new web page was designed for Central America to display satellite rainfall estimation products (provided by the ORA Hydrology Team) as well as fire detection products. The site may be viewed at:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/sica/main.html
This project has been funded by USAID through SICA (System of Integration in Central America) and is part of a larger effort for recovery efforts due to devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. The web page has both English and Spanish versions.
The following web pages are still available:
Hurricane Mitch: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/MitchProject/default.htm
Wakefield Wind Climatology: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/clim/Wakefield/windr.html
Temporal and Spectral Differences of Water Vapor Radiances: http://cassiopeia.cira.colostate.edu
GOES data for tropical storm Allison was made available for the Houston/Galveston NWS office. The data was retrieved from our ongoing Tropical RAMSDIS archive.
A new satellite interpretation discussion page entitled “GOES Rapid Scan Operations During the May 29, 2001 White Deer, Texas Tornado” can be viewed at:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/picoday/010618/010618.html
Tropical RAMSDIS has continued operation this quarter. In addition to tropical cyclones, other tropical weather systems are viewed. Improvements and upgrades are being implemented with the goal of having them ready for the active portion of the Atlantic hurricane season beginning in early August. One of the improvements is the addition of a combined visible / 3.9 micrometer image loop to allow improved viewing of low clouds at night and good continuity of animation near sunrise and sunset.
A reduced capability version of tropical RAMSDIS was set up and enabled in the weather laboratory of the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. This demonstration RAMSDIS will allow students and faculty of the department to more freely access satellite data. The system will ingest and display imagery for the Western Hemisphere, covering the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone basins.
Since AWIPS has been commissioned for nearly two years, the time has come to end the NWS component of the RAMSDIS project, which has been delivering satellite data to Forecast Offices since 1994. As of 8/01/01, CIRA/RAMM will no longer support NWS RAMSDIS field workstations unless a joint research project is underway. Notification of the project end has been sent to participating Forecast Offices. CIRA/RAMM will continue to support NOAA Research Offices and WMO RAMSDIS systems.
In order to respond to the request made by Brazilian scientists for modifications and improvements to the RAMSDIS units deployed in Brazil in August of 2000 for use in fire detection, a clone system has been set up at CIRA.
The new capabilities of the graphic user interface (GUI) for RAMSDIS/McIDAS-NT were adapted and used for four laboratory exercises at the one-week Hurricane Mitch training held in Costa Rica April 23-27. The GUI allowed for quick loading of case materials, as well as easy comparison of imagery from multiple loops and image analysis.
A very large fire in northern Florida covering the area of approximately 27 GOES visible pixels was captured on the special RAMSDIS On-Line (ROL) set up to monitor fires in Florida. Image loops show both shortwave infrared and visible albedo sequences covering 2 hours on 25 May 2001. See:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/KFIntranet/Weeklies/2001/whmay25.htm
D. Hillger updated software that often failed to generate surface weather contours on experimental products that are displayed on RAMSDIS On-Line.
Hardware and software to support AWIPS case study playback on a PC-based system has arrived. The latest working version of D2D has been obtained from the COMET and will be installed on the RAMMT real-time ingest AWIPS workstation in early July to facilitate climatology application development.
An application to incorporate the ongoing RAMMT climatology work into AWIPS is being developed. Software has been created to utilize information from the AWIPS Eta model in determining local wind regimes. The software is currently being tested, then efforts will begin to port RAMMT climatology derivation and display software to AWIPS. When complete, the application will be tested at National Weather Service field sites that are currently participating in joint climatological studies with RAMMT.
Efforts are underway to process case study radar data from the NOAA Warning Decision Training Branch on the new HP C3000 AWIPS workstation. The data has been unloaded and processed according to WDTB specifications.
A VISIT one-page PowerPoint slide was developed for use in presentations and reports. It answers three frequently asked questions: 1) What is VISIT? 2) What has it accomplished? and 3) What has happened in the last quarter?
Click on images to enlarge
A revised version of a training session on subtropical storms has been completed. We expect to review it with contributors and requestors before making it available to the larger community.
From January to June 2001, Bard Zajac and John Weaver presented the VISIT teletraining session entitled “Lightning Meteorology I: Electrification and Lightning Activity by Storm Scale” 23 times to 71 NWS forecast offices with 496 attendees. Other NOAA groups have attended the session including NWS Headquarters, Eastern Region HQ, Southern Region HQ, Tropical Prediction Center, Warning Decision Training Branch, and Central Weather Service Unit Chicago.
D. Bikos, J. Weaver and B. Motta have developed a VISIT teletraining session entitled “Mesoscale Analysis of Convective Weather Using GOES RSO Imagery.” The training session utilizes two severe weather case studies on how to effectively use GOES RSO imagery in the pre-storm environment as well as the warning decision making process. The session has been beta-tested and will be administered beginning in July.
During this quarter, 56 VISIT teletraining sessions were administered. A total of 327 offices participated in these training sessions (some offices took more than 1 session). There were a total of 1,107 participants in these sessions.
Click on image to enlarge
Figure 1. Cumulative number of VISIT certificates of completion issued since VISIT sessions began in April 1999. The total number as of June 21, 2001 is 5,405.
Web versions of certain VISIT sessions may be visited at the following addresses:
Boundary Detection: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/boundaries/title.asp
CONUS Cloud to Ground Lightning Climatology: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/lightning/title.asp
Convective Initiation by Low-Level Boundaries: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/visit/lessons/bndry2/viewmaster.html
Detecting Boundaries: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/boundaries1/title.asp
Elevated Mesoscale Ascent: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ascent/title.asp
GOES enhancements/color tables in AWIPS: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/istpds/awips/awips_1.html
Lake-effect snow (student guide, web based session link temporarily on this page): http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/les/title.asp
Mesoscale Analyses and Techniques: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/mesoana/title.asp
NDIC: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ndic/title.asp
Rapid Scan Operations: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/rso/title.asp
Tropical Satellite Imagery and Products: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/tropical/title.asp
QuikSCAT: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/qscat/title.asp
J. Weaver is working with Wendy Schreiber-Abshire and Matt Kelsh (both at COMET) on a web-based teaching module entitled “Urban Flooding: It can Happen in a Flash.” The module is designed to take about an hour to complete. It is based on the Fort Collins flood, and contains text, graphics photos and audio components. The work-in-progress can be previewed at: http://meted.ucar.edu/qpf/urbanf/index1.htm
J. Weaver is refining and adding to the material in his Warning Decision Making course taught at COMET in Boulder, Colorado. His presentation currently lasts about 1-½ hours and is entitled “Understanding Mesoscale Aspects of Convective Weather using Satellite Imagery.”
B. Connell gave a presentation on April 3rd on the GOES satellite and the characteristics of its channels to a Remote Sensing class at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Since the Remote Sensing class focuses mainly on earth resource topics, the students were presented with the perspective of how meteorologists view and use satellite imagery
J. Weaver continues as the NOAA representative on the City of Fort Collins = Disaster Resistant Community steering committee. His goal is to assure that weather information is utilized as a potential mitigation tool.
J. Weaver gave an invited presentation on thunderstorm electrification to a group of about two dozen physicians at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver on May 18th.
J. Weaver presented a talk on careers in meteorology to a group of about 50 students at Centennial High School from Fort Collins, Colorado on June 1st.
J. Knaff and J. Weaver prepared and delivered presentations on June 20th discussing Hurricanes and Severe Weather, respectively, for Colorado State University’s Kids in College program. Presentations lasted about one hour.
Published:
DeMaria, M., J.A. Knaff, B.H. Connell, 2001:A tropical cyclone genesis parameter for the Tropical Atlantic. Weather and Forecasting, 219-233.
Zajac, B.A. and S. A. Rutledge, 2001: Cloud-to-ground lightning activity in the contiguous United States from 1995-1997.
Mon. Wea. Rev., 999-1019.
| To Submitted |
Accepted:
Campbell, G.G. and J.F.W. Purdom, 2001: Asynchronous stereo height and motion retrieval from satellite observations. J.
of Atmos. and Oceanic Technology.
Chase, T.N., J.A. Knaff, and R.A. Pielke Sr., 2001: Changes in global monsoon circulations: Evidence for a diminishing
hydrological cycle? Int. J. Climatol.
Connell, B.H., K. Gould, J.F.W. Purdom, 2001: High resolution GOES-8 visible and infrared cloud frequency composites over Northern Florida during the summers 1996-1999. Weather and Forecasting.
DeMaria, M., J.A. Knaff, and B.H. Connell, 2001:A tropical cyclone genesis parameter for the Tropical Atlantic, Weather
and Forecasting.
Ellrod, G., B.H. Connell, D.W. Hillger, 2001: Improved detection of airborne volcanic ash using multi-spectral infrared
satellite data. J. Geophys. Res.
Grasso, L.D. and E.R. Hilgendorf, 2001: Observations of a severe left moving thunderstorm. Weather and
Forecasting.
Kaplan, J., M. DeMaria, 2001: A note on the decay of tropical cyclone winds after landfall in the New England area. J. of
Applied Meteorology.
Pielke, R.A., T.N. Chase, T.G.F. Kittel, J.A. Knaff, and J. Eastman, 2001: Analysis of 200 mb zonal wind for the period
1958-1997. J. Geophysical Research.
Weaver, J.F., J.F. Dostalek, and L. Phillips, 2001: Left-moving thunderstorms in a high plains, weakly-sheared
environment. 18th conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting and the 14th Conference on Numerical Weather
Prediction, 30 July-2 August, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Back to the top
Bikos, D.E., J.F. Weaver, B.C. Motta, 2001: A satellite perspective of the 3 May 1999 Great Plains Tornado Outbreak.
Weather and Forecasting.
Combs, C., 2001: Wind Regime Cloud Cover Composites of Convective Development over the Wakefield, VA Region.
11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Connell, B.H., V. Castro, 2001: The use of mesoscale climatologies for monitoring and forecasting weather in Costa Rica.
11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
DeMaria, M., J. Demuth, J.A. Knaff, 2001: Real-time validation of an AMSU tropical cyclone intensity and size estimation algorithm. 11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Dostalek, J.F., and T.J. Schmit, 2001: Total precipitable water measurements from GOES Sounder derived product
imagery. Weather and Forecasting.
Grasso, L.D., 2001: Simulation of a left moving cell following storm splitting. Mon. Wea. Rev.
Grasso, L.D. and J.F. Weaver, 2001: Horizontal vorticity budget along a simulated supercell outflow boundary. Mon.
Wea. Rev.
Hillger, D.W., J. Clark, 2001: Principal Component Image analysis of MODIS for volcanic ash. 11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Hillger, D.W., J. Clark, 2001: Simulation of GOES-M 5-band imager using MODIS data. 11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Knaff, J.A., J.P. Kossin, M. DeMaria, V.E. Larson, 2001: Nature’s axisymmetric hurricane – “The Doughnut.” J. of
Atmospheric Science.
Motta, B.C., 2001: Model trends and satellite imagery in forecasting. 18th Conference on Weather Analysis and
Forecasting and the 14th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction, 29 July-2 August, Fort Lauderdale, FL Amer.
Meteor. Soc.
Motta, B.C., D.E. Bikos, B. Zajac, S. Bachmeier, T. Whittaker, J.F. Weaver, R.M. Zehr, B. Grant, J. LaDue, A. Mostek, P. Wolf, R. Grumm, D. Baumgardt, S. Jascourt, B.B. Bua, 2001: Recent Training and Results from the Virutal Institute for
Satellite Integration Training. 11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison,
WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Nolan, D.S., M.T. Montgomery, and L.D. Grasso, 2001: The wavenumber one instability and trochoidal motion of
hurricane-like vortices. J. of the Atmospheric Sciences.
Weaver, J.F., J.A. Knaff, D.E. Bikos, G. Wade, J.M. Daniels, 2001: Satellite observations of a severe supercell
thunderstorm on 24 July 2000 taken during the GOES-11 Science Test. Bull. of the Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Weaver, J.F., J.F. Dostalek, L. Phillips, 2001: Left-moving thunderstorms in a high plains, weakly-sheared environment. Weather and Forecasting, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Zehr, R.M., 2001: Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Analysis Using Satellite Sensors. 11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 15-18 October, Madison, WI, Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Click on images to enlarge
Figure 1. Participants and instructors for the Hurricane Mitch Training, April 23-27, 2001.
Figure 2. Dr. Vilma Castro instructs class at the Hurricane Mitch Training.
Received:
| Participant | Dates | Place | Course |
| Don Hillger | April 6 | CSU/Fort Collins, CO | 1-meter resolution imagery from the Ikonos-2 commercial remote sensing satellite |
| Debra Molenar | April 17-20 | San Diego, CA | IEEE 18th Symposium on Mass Storage |
| Don Hillger | April 20 | CSU/Fort Collins, CO | Aesthetics in PowerPoint Presentations |
| Hiro Gosden | May 1 & 3 | CSU/Fort Collins, CO | Dreamweaver 4.0 |
Given:
| Participant | Dates | Place | Course/Talk |
| M. DeMaria | April 18 | CSU/Atmospheric Science Department | Class lecture: “Satellite Applications to Tropical Cyclone Analysis and Forecasting.” |
| M. DeMaria | April 4-May 3 | TPC/NHC Miami, FL | Insurance Friends Workshop |
| Bernadette Connell | April 23-27 | San Jose, CA | RMTC Satellite Meteorology |
| Rosario Alfaro | April 23-27 | San Jose, CA | RMTC Satellite Meteorology |
D. Bikos has trained hourly employee Asha McClurg for the task of VISIT certificate of completion production and Jessica Lockwood on recording of VISIT evaluations, and is assisting in the training of Daniel Coleman (with B. Zajac and N. McClurg) in techniques of subsecting satellite data.
| Date | Presentor | Topic |
| April 4 | Mark DeMaria | Satellite Applications to Tropical Cyclone Analysis and Forecasting for Dr. Tom Vonder Haar’s graduate-level satellite meteorology class in the Colorado State University Department of Atmospheric Science |
| May 9 | Hiro Gosden | RAMMT Infrastructure and ORA Intranet sites |
| May 25 | Jeff Wilson/BMRC | Computer Techniquest in Satellite Meteorology Training |
| May 30 | Mark, DeMaria | Recent Improvements in Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction – CSU/Mile High Hurricane Society |
| June 25 | Ray Zehr | Observational Analysis of Vertical Wind Shear Influences on Tropical Cyclone Intensity Change – CSU/Mile High Hurricane Society |
Installation of D2D and D3D AWIPS software on the VISIT displaced real time (DRT) case study workstation has been completed. This workstation will be used for AWIPS two- and three-dimensional display software for meteorological case study development.
Efforts are still underway to upgrade RAMMT systems to Windows 2000 and McIDAS 7.8
The latest HP security patches have been installed on all RAMM HP workstations.
A complete list of CIRA/RAMM hardware has been compiled and made available on the Infrastructure Web page.
A complete list of licenses software available to CIRA/RAMM has been compiled and is installed on the nfrastructure Web page.
The Infrastructure Group monthly meeting notes have been reorganized to Web format and are installed on the Infrastructure Web page.
Hardware and software to support AWIPS case study playback on a PC-based system has arrived. The latest working version of D2D has been obtained from the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET), and will be installed on the Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team (RAMMT) real-time ingest system in early June to facilitate climatology application development.
A new Pentium III 933 MHz system was created for Ray Zehr.
A sound card was added to John Weaver’s system for use with the COMET and VISIT projects.
Emergency repairs were completed on the Ulysses HP data server after a lightning strike. McIDAS-X 7.8 software was also installed on the server to facilitate MODIS data analysis.
Hardware has been ordered and received for the upcoming GOES-12 checkout.
The recent upgrade of the RAMMT 170 GB Snap drive has proven incompatible for use with the AWIPS software. An operating system downgrade caused the disk to crash, and it was determined by Quantum Tech. Support that the disk was from a series that had hardware bugs. A replacement disk is being shipped and should be installed by the end of June.
An HP C3000 workstation has been configured for the use as the ingest and processing system for the RAMM real-time simulated AWIPS, and will also function as a VISIT case study processing system.
A student hourly (Jessica Lockwood) has been hired to assist with infrastructure support tasks.
Mid-year performance review meetings were held with all NOAA RAMM Team staff members.
RAMM Team personnel have been invited to be co-investigators in an MIT proposal to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to use satellite altimeter measurements over the ocean to study tropical cyclone intensity change. The project is being lead by Dr. Kerry Emanuel of MIT, with co-investigators from the University of Rhode Island and representatives from private industry.
Installation of D2D and D3D AWIPS software on the VISIT displaced real time (DRT) case study workstation has been completed. This workstation will be used for AWIPS two- and three-dimensional display software for meteorological case study development.
Efforts are still underway to upgrade RAMMT systems to Windows 2000 and McIDAS 7.8
The latest HP security patches have been installed on all RAMM HP workstations.
A complete list of CIRA/RAMM hardware has been compiled and made available on the Infrastructure Web page.
A complete list of licenses software available to CIRA/RAMM has been compiled and is installed on the infrastructure Web page.
The Infrastructure Group monthly meeting notes have been reorganized to Web format and are installed on the Infrastructure Web page.
Hardware and software to support AWIPS case study playback on a PC-based system has arrived. The latest working version of D2D has been obtained from the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET), and will be installed on the Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team (RAMMT) real-time ingest system in early June to facilitate climatology application development.
A new Pentium III 933 MHz system was created for Ray Zehr.
A sound card was added to John Weaver’s system for use with the COMET and VISIT projects.
Emergency repairs were completed on the Ulysses HP data server after a lightning strike. McIDAS-X 7.8 software was also installed on the server to facilitate MODIS data analysis.
Hardware has been ordered and received for the upcoming GOES-12 checkout.
The recent upgrade of the RAMMT 170 GB Snap drive has proven incompatible for use with the AWIPS software. An operating system downgrade caused the disk to crash, and it was determined by Quantum Tech. Support that the disk was from a series that had hardware bugs. A replacement disk is being shipped and should be installed by the end of June.
An HP C3000 workstation has been configured for the use as the ingest and processing system for the RAMM real-time simulated AWIPS, and will also function as a VISIT case study processing system.
A student hourly (Jessica Lockwood) has been hired to assist with infrastructure support tasks.
Mid-year performance review meetings were held with all NOAA RAMM Team staff members.
RAMM Team personnel have been invited to be co-investigators in an MIT proposal to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to use satellite altimeter measurements over the ocean to study tropical cyclone intensity change. The project is being lead by Dr. Kerry Emanuel of MIT, with co-investigators from the University of Rhode Island and representatives from private industry.
| Team Member | Destination | Purpose | Funding | Dates |
| Brian Motta | Washington, DC | IST Meeting, e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/16-18 |
| Dan Bikos | Washington, DC | IST Meeting, e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/16-18 |
| Bard Zajac | Washington, DC | IST Meeting, e-learning Conference | VISIT | 4/16-18 |
| Debra Molenar | San Diego, CA | IEEE Mass Storage Meeting | GIMPAP | 4/17-20 |
| Bernadette Connell | San Jose, Costa Rica | Satellite Meteorology Course | MITCH | 4/16-27 |
| Rosario Alfaro | San Jose, Costa Rica | Satellite Meteorology Course | MITCH | 4/16-27 |
| Mark DeMaria | Miami, FL | Insurance Friends Workshop | Insurance Friends | 4/30-5/3 |
| Vilma Castro | Darmstadt, Germany | CGMS Meeting | RMTC | 5/14-18 |
| Selvin Burton | Darmstadt, Germany | CGMS Meeting | RMTC | 5/14-18 |
AMS: American Meteorological Society
AMSU: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit
ARAD: Atmospheric Research and Applications Division
AWIPS: Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System
CAMEX: Convection and Moisture Experiment
CG: Cloud to Ground
CIMSS: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
CIRA: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere
COMET: Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training
CONUS: Continental U.S.
CRAD: Climate Research and Applications Division
CSU: Colorado State University
EUMETSAT: European Meteorological Satellite
FEMA:Federal Emergency Management Agency
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
GIMPAP: Goes I-M Product Assurance Plan
GOES: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
HRD: Hurricane Research Division
IR: Infrared
LAPS: Local Analysis and Prediction System
LES: Lake Effect Snow
McIDAS: Man Computer Interactive Data Access System
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCAR: National Center for Atmospheric Research
NDIC: Natural Disaster Information Cards
NESDIS: National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service
NHC: National Hurricane Center
NIDS: NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NWS: National Weather Service
NWSFO: National Weather Service Forecast Office
OM: Office of Meteorology
ORA: Office of Research and Applications
PACJET: Pacific Landfalling Jets Experiment
POES: Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite
POP: Product Oversight Panel
RAMMT: Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team
RAMS: Regional Atmospheric Modeling System
RAMSDIS: Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Team Advanced Meteorological Satellite Demonstration and Interpretation System
RMTC: Regional Meteorological Training Center
ROL: RAMSDIS Online
SAB: Satellite Applications Branch
SOCC: Satellite Operations Control Center
SOO: Science Operations Officer
SRSO/RSO: Super Rapid Scan Operation/Rapid Scan Operation
STEPS: Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Preciptation Study
TPC: Tropical Prediction Center
USWRP: United States Weather Research Program
UTC: Universal Time Coordinated
VISIT: Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training
WMO: World Meteorological Organization
WV: Water Vapor
