Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

The RAMM Branch produces tropical cyclone wind field products that use winds computed from temperature profiles generated from microwave satellite retrievals from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU).  Up to this point a statistical retrieval scheme over 10 years old has been used.  In order to use NESDIS’ current operational Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MIRS) profiles to generate wind fields for tropical cyclones, several programs and scripts written in Linux, Python, and Fortran have been updated or created.  Real-time generation of wind fields from the AMSU MIRS data is now running at CIRA. (J. Dostalek)

Code developed at the RAMM Branch for estimating the wind field from satellite retrievals of temperature has been running operationally for many years at NCO.  This code uses measurements from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU).  AMSU’s successor, the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), is part of the instrument payload on the Suomi-NPP satellite.  As part of a PSDI project, the code which computes the wind field from the AMSU retrievals was modified to process the ATMS profiles.  Changes were made to the shell scripts and Fortran programs used in the processing.  In addition, new code written in Python was developed to read the ATMS profiles.  The code, along with the necessary documentation was sent to NESDIS for testing and eventual operational implementation.  (J. Dostalek)

D. Bikos is developing a product that incorporates satellite data and model wind information to forecast tropical cyclone recurvature.  The satellite data is based on a technique by Dvorak (1995) which identifies the distance between the tropical cyclone center and a curved moisture boundary as seen in the GOES water vapor imagery.  An example illustrating this technique is depicted in Figure 1.  The contours are the gradient of brightness temperatures within a specified range from the water vapor imagery, while the yellow line illustrates the distance between the gradient associated with the curved moisture boundary and the storm center just before recurvature took place.  The model wind information is based on a technique by Hodanish and Gray (1993), which considers the mid- and upper-level zonal winds at a distance and direction relative to the tropical cyclone center.  Analysis of the mean u-component of the wind at mid-levels for 30 tropical cyclones has yielded encouraging results for thresholding wind values that relate to probability of recurvature (Fig. 2). (D. Bikos)

Fig. 1:  Tropical cyclone Fabian at 17:45 UTC 5 September 2003 just prior to recurvature.  The contours are the gradient of a specified range of brightness temperatures from the water vapor imagery, while the yellow line shows the distance between the gradient associated with the curved moisture boundary and the cyclone center.

After analysis of 36 tropical cyclones, it was found in some of these events the wind field from the vortex was affecting the wind analysis at 6 degrees (or sometimes even at 8 degrees) from the storm center.  It was determined that the wind field to be used for statistical analysis must not have effects from the vortex itself, so that a derived wind field, representative of the environment around the storm, is needed.  Currently, work is ongoing in developing an automated procedure that removes the wind field associated with the vortex.  (D. Bikos)

Fig. 2.  350-500 mb u component of the wind (m s-1) averaged west,northwest, and north octants at 6 degrees from the tropical cyclone center between -24 and +12 hours from the time of recurvature.  Values of u are averaged from 30 tropical cyclones that recurved. 

Development of the S-NPP Tropical Cyclone Products developed under the JPSS PSDI program is nearing completion.  The goal of this project was to adapt AMSU-based TC intensity and structure estimates, currently running operationally at NCEP, to use MIRS ATMS retrievals from the S-NPP polar-orbiting satellite.  Using a bias-correction of the AMSU-based algorithm, this new product has been successfully adapted to use ATMS data and has been found to provide intensity and structure estimates with accuracy similar to the AMSU-based algorithm.  The S-NPP Tropical Cyclone Products Code Review was completed in May and the Delivered Algorithm Package has delivered in June.  The DAP will be implemented in NDE this summer and is scheduled to be promoted to operations in October 2013.  (A. Schumacher, M. DeMaria, J. Dostalek, S. Longmore, J. Knaff, R. DeMaria)

A manuscript entitled “An objective satellite-based tropical cyclone size climatology” by J. Knaff, S. Longmore and D. Molenar was revised and resubmitted for publication in the Journal of Climate.   The paper describes a methodology to estimate tropical cyclone (TC) size (the radius where the TC and environment are indistinguishable) based on latitude, and patterns in infrared (IR) imagery.  This method is then used to create a global climatology of TC size.  The figure below (Figure 1) compares the IR of the largest and smallest hurricane-strength TCs in our 1978-2011) global database.  Note here that the smallest hurricane’s enhanced cold cloud region fits within the eye of the largest hurricane. 

This method may prove useful for scaling tropical cyclones with respect their size in order to isolate specific regions of the TC.  For instance lightning activity in the outer rainbands favors intensification, while eyewall convection suggests a TC has reached its maximum intensity.  In the case below the radius enclosing the eyewall region of Typhoon Abe is on the order of 250 km, while for Hurricane Kay it is on the order of 25 km. (J. Knaff, S. Longmore, D. Molenar)

Figure 1: IR images of Typhoon Abe (1990) located at 25.2oN, 124.8oE with an intensity of 90 kt on 30 August 1990 at 0000 UTC and Hurricane Kay (1998) located at 16.0oN, 123.8oW with an intensity of 65 kt on 13 October 1998 at 1800UTC.   These represent the largest and smallest hurricane intensity TCs in our dataset. Spatial units are km.

Mark DeMaria and Samantha Lynch successfully implemented the Harris Corner detection algorithm.  Using water vapor imagery as input, the algorithm was used to produce a field representing likely corner and edge locations.  An algorithm was developed to utilize this field to generate another field, called the “mask” that represents which pixels do or do not belong to the feature representing the high level trough. To create the mask, the corner and edge locations are extracted and used to generate a convex polygon that includes all the points.  All the pixels beneath this polygon in the mask are marked as belonging to the high level trough.  The temperature values at each pixel of the original water vapor imagery are then examined.  If the temperature is below a threshold of 242K, then the corresponding pixels in the mask are then marked as not belonging to the high level trough.  This algorithm is in the process of being improved to generate more effective masks. The figure below (Figure 2) shows an example of a water vapor image and the corresponding Harris corner detection field. Positive areas indicate corners and negative areas indicate edges. (M. DeMaria, R. DeMaria, S. Lynch)

Figure 2. Color enhanced GOES water vapor image for Hurricane Ike (left) and Harris corner detection output (right).

Progress has been made on the tasks related to application of JPSS Imagers and Sounders to Tropical Cyclone Track and Intensity Forecasting. About 200 TC cases of the MIRS temperature and moisture retrievals were obtained from NESDIS/STAR in the same format as in the future operational NDE system. Methods were developed to read and process data from operational format, convert retrieved mixing ratio to relative humidity (RH), analyze the data in storm-centered coordinates, perform azimuthal averages and generate perturbation fields. Figure 1 shows an example of 700 hPa RH field for Hurricane Leslie from the 2012 Atlantic season. Also shown are radial-height cross sections of the azimuthally averaged RH, T anomaly, and RH anomaly fields. The structure of the temperature and moisture field looks very reasonable, with increasing RH near the storm center. These should provide good input to the Maximum Potential Intensity (MPI) algorithm. (G. Chirokova, M. DeMaria, R. DeMaria, J. Dostalek)

Figure 1. ATMS MIRS temperature and moisture retrievals for a case from Hurricane Leslie, including the 700 hPa relative humidity field (RH) (upper left), and radial-height cross sections of RH (upper right), temperature anomaly (lower left), and RH anomaly (lower right).

A new statistical method to estimate surface winds from infrared imagery has been developed.  The method makes use of aircraft-based surface wind analyses 1995-2012 and the CIRA tropical cyclone (TC) image archive.  This method improves upon past methods which related radial profiles of azimuthally average winds and IR imagery and then applies a wave-number one asymmetry based on TC motion by explicitly predicting azimuthal wavenumbers 0, 1 and 2.  Predictors for this method include storm translation speed, storm intensity, and the first 12 principle components of the coincident motion-relative IR image. Wind fields estimated using this method for Hurricane Wilma (2005) when the storm had a very small eye are shown in Figure 3.   (J. Knaff)

Figure 3:  Examples of 2-D TC surface winds estimated from single IR image.  The IR image with isotach estimates is shown on the left and wind speeds and wind barbs are shown on the right.  Note the very small eyewall feature corresponds to a small radius of maximum wind while the region with winds exceeding 34-kt is still rather large and the rather large wind asymmetries near the highest winds.

For several years NCAR and CIRA have been hosting tropical cyclone workshops.   The latest workshop, organized by J. Knaff, was held at CIRA on 16 May.  The agenda of topics discussed and participants is listed below.

Also Attending:    George Bryant (NCAR), Sue Van Den Heever (CSU), Andrea Schumacher (CIRA), Greg Holland (NCAR),Vandana Jha (CSU).  (J. Knaff)

J. Knaff presented (remotely) information about two proposed Proving Ground products at the NHC Proving Ground Training Workshop held 24-25 April.   The two new products included DEBRA (A Dust Enhancement with Background Reduction Algorithm), developed by S. Miller (CIRA) and TC-CIMIR (Combined Infrared and Microwave Imagery RGB), developed by J. Knaff.  Other presenters included S. Monette (CIMSS), K. Fuell (SPoRT) and J. Kerkmann (EUMETSAT).  Other remote participants included M. DeMaria, M. Folmer (FPC/OPC), and C. Velden (CIMSS).  (J. Knaff)

M. DeMaria attended a conference call to discuss NOAA interactions with Environment Canada. Representatives from nearly all of NOAA’s line offices were in attendance along with Environment Canada. The projects are divided into four theme areas (Arctic, Climate, Marine Forecasting, and a Hydrology). RAMMB is initiating a project to work with the Canadian Hurricane Center to provide feedback on experimental and operational products for tropical cyclones that are becoming extra-tropical. These products include the GOES sounder and MSG versions of the RGB Air Mass product, the objective tropical cyclone classification algorithm that uses GOES and global model forecast input, and the multi-platform tropical cyclone surface wind analysis. (J. Knaff, M. DeMaria)

J. Knaff contributed to the NOAA State of the Climate 2012 section on ocean heat content.  The report will be published in August. (J. Knaff)

VIIRS Captures Flooding Events: The “Natural Color” RGB composite of the VIIRS high-resolution Imagery bands I-1, I-2 and I-3 has proven useful for detecting significant river and lowland flooding events. During the week of 14 April, large areas of the U.S. Midwest and Great Lakes regions received 4-7 inches of rainfall on ground that was already saturated due to recent snowmelt. This led to significant flooding, particularly along the Illinois River and its tributaries, which VIIRS was able to capture. In the figure below, rivers not normally visible became visible after exceeding their banks.

Figure: S-NPP/VIIRS images of west-central Illinois before and after significant flooding occurred in the Illinois River basin. Tributaries of the Illinois River, including the Apple, Macoupin, and La Moine rivers are visible in the image from 21 April, when they are normally too small to be seen.

VIIRS also captured flooding along the Shiawassee River in Michigan, as seen in the figure below.

Figure. Flooding along the Shiawassee River near the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge is visible in this pair of “before and after” images from S-NPP/VIIRS.

Also during the month of April, rapid snowmelt occurred in western Russia following record snowfall in March. This snowmelt occurred when the ground was still frozen in many areas and unable to absorb the water, which caused extensive river flooding. The city of Tambov experienced its worst flooding in 130 years. An animation of VIIRS images was created that shows one area of extensive flooding caused by the snowmelt. This animation is available for viewing on the JPSS Imagery and Visualization Team blog at: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/blog/index.php/uncategorized/record-russian-spring-snowmelt/ or through the direct link: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/russia_snowmelt_animation.gif

The use of VIIRS in flood detection continues to be explored. (C. Seaman)

GOES-14 and -15 Super Rapid Scan:  Super Rapid Scan Operations, or SRSO, was called for GOES-15 to support the IFloodS Field Campaign on several days in May and June.  GOES-14 also gathered a few days of 1-minute data.  CIRA collected the data from its groundstation and provided real-time imagery to forecasters for the field experiment, as well as NWS offices whose AWIPS is unable to pull in and display 1-minute data.  The data was also converted to N-AWIPS format and provided to the Storm Prediction Center operations.  May 20 also happened to be the day of the Moore, OK, tornado; this loop shows the 1-minute data over Oklahoma: http://ga2.cira.colostate.edu/lindsey/g15_moore_srso_vis_loop2.gif and the image below was from the time of the tornado. (D. Lindsey)

Figure.  GOES-15 image from 20 May 2013 at 2015, at the same time as a large tornado was tearing through Moore, Oklahoma.  This image was part of a series of 1-minute data collected that day.

GOES/VIIRS Comparison of Thunderstorm Tops:  The GOES-14 1-minute imagery from 13 June allowed for a nice comparison between GOES and VIIRS because we were able to match the scan times between the 2 imagers.  The figure below shows the GOES-14 10.7µm band (4-km resolution) on the right, and the VIIRS I-band 5 (11.45 µm; 375 m resolution) on the left.  The highlighted thunderstorm top in northeastern Tennessee is 21.7 °C colder in VIIRS compared to GOES, primarily due to the smaller VIIRS pixel size.  This shows that GOES IR imagery comes nowhere close to resolving the small-scale details associated with individual thunderstorm tops.  (D. Lindsey)

Figure:  VIIRS I-band 5 (left) and GOES-14 band 4 (right) at approximately the same time from 13 June 2013.  The highlighted thunderstorm top had a brightness temperature in VIIRS 21.7 °C cooler than in GOES.  This difference is due almost exclusively to the smaller pixel size with VIIRS.

GOES to WRF Animation in AWIPS:  A new synthetic imagery application has been developed in AWIPS that shows a real-time GOES loop up to the current time, and then smoothly transitions into forecast synthetic imagery from the NSSL WRF.  Viewing the synthetic imagery in this manner allows for an easy comparison between the observed GOES and the forecast imagery at the current time.  Scripts for this application were provided to the Riverton, WY, NWS office, where it’s currently being tested.  (D. Lindsey)

Storm Prediction Center Spring Experiment: CIRA provided synthetic imagery from both the NSSL WRF and the NAM Nest models to the SPC for its annual Spring Experiment in May and June.  Training materials were also provided prior to the experiment.  Data in both AWIPS-2 and N-AWIPS format was delivered.  L. Grasso attended the experiment in person, and the feedback on the synthetic imagery was positive as usual.  CIRA was also involved in providing the Air Mass RGB product.  A portion of the feedback on these products can be found in these blog entries: http://goesrhwt.blogspot.com/search/label/Simulated%20Satellite%20Imagery and http://goesrhwt.blogspot.com/search/label/Sounder%20Airmass   (D. Lindsey and L. Grasso)

Real-time synthetic imagery is being produced from both the 4 km NSSL WRF-ARW and the 4 km nested NAM.  This is the first convective season that imagery from both models is being produced. As a result, a comparison of anvils between observed GOES-13 at 10.7 µm and synthetic GOES-R at 10.35 µm (NSSL WRF-ARW) and synthetic GOES-13 at 10.7 µm (nested NAM) can be conducted. Figure 1 displays an observed GOES-13 image from 11 April 2013 at 0015 UTC. Note the areal extent and temperatures of the anvils extending northward from Arkansa to Illinois then eastward to Pennsylvania. Figure 2 displays a synthetic GOES-13 image from 11 April 2013 at 0000 UTC from the 4 km nested NAM. Lastly, figure 3 shows a synthetic GOES-R image from 11 April 2013 at 0000 UTC. A subjective comparison suggests that the 4 km nested NAM produces better anvil characteristics than the NSSL WRF-ARW. (L. Grasso, D. Lindsey)

Figure 1: Observed GOES-13 10.7 µm image from 11 April 2013 at 0015 UTC.

Figure 2: Forecast NAM synthetic GOES-13 10.7 µm image from the 11 April 2013 at 0000 UTC.

Figure 3: Forecast NSSL WRF-ARW synthetic GOES-R 10.35 µm image from the 11 April 2013 at 0000 UTC.

Associate Editor:  D. Lindsey accepted a nomination to become an Associate Editor of the Journal of Operational Meteorology, a new journal from the National Weather Association.  (D. Lindsey)

Hollings Scholar: Dakota Smith, an undergraduate meteorology major from Penn St. Univ. and a Hollings Scholarship recipient, arrived in Fort Collins and began work on his summer project.  D. Lindsey is serving as a co-mentor for Dakota, along with Prof. Scott Denning from the Colorado St. Dept. of Atmospheric Science. (D. Lindsey)

Training metrics for the quarter:

• Teletraining:

13 VISIT teletraining sessions have been delivered.  There were 21 teletraining signups, 80 students participated.

• Learning Management System (LMS) audio / video playback modules:    

Registrations:  210
Completions:  145

LMS totals from January 2005 through June 26, 2013:

Registrations:  6756
Completions: 4418

Definitions used in LMS metrics:

Registrations:  The number of students who either clicked on the course, or actually took the course, but did not complete the quiz or achieve a passing grade upon taking the quiz.  A student may have registered for multiple courses.

Completions:  The number of students that achieved a passing grade on a quiz for a course.  A student may have completed multiple courses this way.

New training that debuted this quarter:

• Updated version of “Tropical Cyclone Track Model Guidance used by NHC” (by Mike Brennan, Jaime Rhome, Chris Landsea (NHC), Mark DeMaria (NESDIS/StAR)  and Andrea Schumacher (CIRA).

New training forum:

• VISIT Satellite Chat – Virtual interactive training sessions that are intended to:

a) be brief, target length of 30 minutes.
b) demonstrate satellite products that can be applied to operational forecasting.
c) exchange ideas across both operational and academic sides.
d) identify new training topics based on specific participant needs.
e) incorporate seasonal examples that are timely, and use real-time data (where applicable).

As of March 31, 2013, there have been 17 VISIT Satellite Chat sessions for a total of 52 NWS forecast office signups.  We started in February 2012 with one morning chat session and in September went to two chat sessions: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  This allowed for more flexibility in participation from NWS offices, as well as other researchers and trainers.

Recorded versions of past satellite chat sessions are available here:
http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/visit/satellite_chat/

Ongoing development of new VISIT training sessions:

• Utilizing Synthetic Imagery from the NSSL 4-km WRF-ARW model in temperature forecasting related to sky cover.
• Orographic Rain Index (ORI)

VISIT web-page traffic:

• The following is a summary of VISIT web-page traffic for the quarter (from Google Analytics), there were 3180 pageviews for the quarter:

Collaboration:

D. Bikos will be collaborating with many different training offices (including COMET) and local, regional and national operational offices of the National Weather Service. 

VISIT Meteorological Interpretation Blog – (http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/visit/blog/) – Continue to build and administer the VISIT Blog – a web-log program intended to initiate increased communication between the operational, academic, and training communities.  The blog averages about 400 pageviews per month.

The following table shows a breakdown of the metrics for each VISIT teletraining session valid April 1999 – June 26, 2012.  The participant count is collected after each teletraining session, the student is mailed a certificate of completion if they reply to an evaluation email with names.  For a complete list and description of each VISIT session see this web-page.

Meetings and Calls

D. Bikos was invited by Carven Scott (MIC at Anchorage, AK WFO) to lead teletraining on applications of synthetic imagery from the NSSL WRF-ARW model.  The May 6 teletraining dealt with extra-tropical cyclogenesis applications and the May 29 teletraining teletraining was on fog and low stratus applications.  Attendees included Alaska WFO’s, WSO’s, and the Anchorage CWSU and VAAC.  Interest in synthetic imagery is high in Alaska and they are interested in working with CIRA on producing high-resolution synthetic imagery over Alaska.

D. Bikos was an invited presenter at the EUMETRAIN World Wide Weather Briefing – Event Week 2013.  There were multiple presenters from across the globe to focus on weather related forecasting challenges for their particular region.  The focus on this presentation was severe thunderstorm forecasting, with an emphasis on satellite imagery interpretation.  The web-site for this event includes a recording of all presentations:  http://www.eumetrain.org/events/www_briefing_2013.html

VISIT/SHyMet had conference calls on April 4, May 13 and June 24.

E. Szoke, D. Bikos and B. Connell attended the GOES-R Proving Ground conference calls.

B. Connell attended the NOAA/WMO Train the Trainers workshop on 6 and 7 April at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland prior to the NOAA Satellite Conference.  She gave a presentation on “GEONETCast Americas Training Channel: VLab Training”.  The workshop focused on all aspects of GEONETCast broadcast including the capability to send training materials.

B. Connell attended the NOAA 2013 Satellite Conference at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland on 8-12 April.  She presented two posters “Training Videos Through GEONETCast?  What will they think of next!” and “Satellite Training Activities: What’s new and what’s ongoing?”

A member of the VISIT/SHyMet team from CIRA participated in the COMET monthly satellite training calls.  (D. Bikos, E.Szoke, B. Connell)

1. Preparations for proposed SHyMet course:  GOES-R Instruments and Products

A preliminary organizational call was held between the SHyMet teams at CIRA and CIMSS 19 November to discuss how the course should be structured and executed, what in-house training modules were candidates for the new course, and how do we decide which external training modules to include in the course.  A second call was held on 30 November and invited Satellite Champions, COMET, SPoRT, and other researchers to
Provide input on training that they have that would be relevant for the new SHyMet course.  More recently, a conference call was held on April 22 to consider what training modules could be included, as well as identification of potential training material.

Course structure:  A customized / personalized training experience with training needs assessed during signup.

Course execution:  Assign the individual modules at the time of registration.  The web-pages will group the various topics but we will ask the student at the time of registration their training needs, then determine which modules to assign.

Current list of in-house modules (containing 70% or more GOES-R PG product content):

• Introduction to GOES-R (abbreviated version of GOES-R 101)
• Forecaster Training for the GOES-R Fog/low stratus (FLS) Products.
• Synthetic Imagery in Forecasting Cyclogenesis.
• Synthetic Imagery in Forecasting Low Clouds and Fog.
• Objective Satellite-Based Overshooting Top and Enhanced-V Anvil Thermal Couplet Signature Detection.
• Synthetic Imagery in Forecasting Severe Weather.
• Synthetic Imagery in Forecasting Orographic Cirrus.
• The UW NearCasting Product.
• Convective Cloud-top Cooling and UW Convective Initiation.

Potential External Modules:

A. GOES-R Satellite Liaisons (Amanda Terborg, Michael Folmer, and Chad Gravelle):

• Cloud Top Cooling
• RGB air mass / dust product
• CIMSS ABI WES case content
• Fog / low stratus (already included above)

B. COMET (Patrick Dills and Wendy Abshire)

• GOES-R Benefits of next generation monitoring (multiple parts).
• ABI module (early 2013 release).
• Companion module for GLM (future release).

Potential reference material containing less than 70% GOES-R content:
RGB products explained, Atmospheric dust, Forecasting dust storms, Volcanic ash observation tools and dispersion models, GOES channel selection (version 2), GOES channel selection (version 2),  Satellite monitoring of atmospheric composition, and Multispectral applications: monitoring the wildland fire cycle.

We will need introductory modules to briefly give an overview of how GOES-R preparations got to where they are now. We will include why there might be more than one product, as well as what to expect before and after launch.

2. The following 4 courses continue to be administered:

1. SHyMet Severe Thunderstorm Forecasting.  Released March 2011. Consists of 7 core courses and 4 optional courses: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/shymet/severe_topics.asp

Core courses:

• Mesoscale Analysis of Convective Weather Using RSO Imagery.
• Use of GOES RSO Imagery with other Remote Sensor Data for Diagnosing Severe Weather across the CONUS.
• GOES Imagery for Forecasting and Nowcasting Severe Weather.
• Water Vapor Imagery Analysis for Severe Weather Forecasting.
• Synthetic Imagery in Forecasting Severe Weather.
• Predicting Supercell Motion in Operations.
• Objective Satellite-Based Overshooting Top and Enhanced-V Anvil Thermal Couplet Signature Detection.

Optional courses:

• Monitoring Gulf Moisture Return.
• The UW Convective Initiation Product.
• Coastal Severe Convective Weather.
• Topographically Induced Convergence Zones and Severe Convective Weather.

2. Tropical SHyMet.  Released August 2010.
Consists of 7 courses:  http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/shymet/tropical_intro.asp

• Basic Satellite Interpretation in the Tropics.
• Ensemble Tropical Rainfall Potential (eTRaP)
• An Overview of Tropical Cyclone Track Guidance Models used by NHC
• An Overview of Tropical Cyclone Intensity Guidance Models used by NHC
• Satellite Applications for Tropical Cyclones : Dvorak Technique
• ASCAT Winds
• AWIPS OB9 Blended TPW Products

3. SHyMet For Forecasters Learning Plan:  Released January 2010.  It consists of 6 core courses and 3 optional courses.
http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/shymet/forecaster_intro.asp :

This Development Plan includes:

1. Introduction to remote sensing for hydrology (NWS FDTB)
2. Interpreting Satellite Signatures (CIMSS)
3. Satellite Applications for Tropical Cyclones: Dvorak Technique (RAMMB/CIRA)
4. Aviation Hazards (CIRA)
5. Water vapor channels (CIMSS)
6. GOES-R 101 (CIRA)

Optional modules

7. Regional Satellite Cloud Composites from GOES (CIRA)
8. Volcanic Ash Hazards (Part 1)  (CIRA)
9. Volcanic Ash Hazards (Part 2) (CIRA)

4. SHyMet Intern Learning Plan: Released April 2006
The SHyMet Intern course consists of 9 modules.
(http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/shymet/intern_intro.asp ). 

Metrics for the 4 SHyMet courses:

Non-NOAA:
Intern:  44 Registrations; 14 known completions

Figure 1.0 Updated SHyMet Intern course completions which reviewed CIRA registration information prior to the current Commerce Learn Center Learning Management System as well as continuing CIRA registrations and CLC LMS module completions.

SHyMet Intern saw the highest number of completions during its first year (2006), but a recent more in depth evaluation of completions from the CLC LMS show that 2010 was another good year.  Note that a more in-depth post evaluation of the information coming out of the CLC LMS doubled the number of course completions that we were aware of.

3. International training that builds on efforts of the VISIT and SHyMet Programs, and enhances communication and exchange of information with international training partners:

B. Connell participated in a virtual meeting of the VLMG on 14 June for the Virtual Laboratory for Training and Education in Satellite Meteorology (VLab) (http://vlab.wmo.int).  The VLab was established under the WMO Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) to promote effective use of satellite meteorology throughout the WMO member countries.  The VLab consists of members from major satellite operators across the globe collaborating with WMO centres of excellence.  Topics at this meeting that the US supports as well as benefits from in exchanging training information included feedback from the 7th WMO meeting of the Expert Team on Satellite Utilization of Products, The 2012 WMO Survey on the Use of Satellite Data,  Competence Requirements for Aeronautical Meteorological Personnel, and tools for satellite data visualization and processing.

4. Community Outreach: 

B. Connell and Matt Rogers participated in the 22nd Annual Fort Collins Children’s Water Festival held on 15 May 2013 that was for 3rd graders in the Poudre School District.  We had 20 minutes to entice kids to look up, observe the clouds, name the different types of clouds, and also discover what a cloud feels like.  We met with groups from 7 schools.  (D. Bikos, B. Connell, E. Szoke)

Monthly International Weather Briefings
The WMO Virtual Laboratory Regional Focus Group of the Americas and Caribbean conducted 3 monthly English and Spanish weather briefings (18 April, 23 May, and 13 June 2013) through VISITview using GOES and POES satellite Imagery from CIRA (http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/rmtc/focusgroup.asp ).   We used GoToWebinar for voice over the Internet.  There were participants from the U.S.: CIRA, the International Desk at NCEP, NWS Training Division, NWS/NHC, and UCAR/IA-NWS as well as outside the continental U.S.: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Panamá, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.  The participants include researchers and students as well as forecasters and other trainers.  All sessions were well attended as represented by 11, 9, and 12 countries reaching 37, 48, and 51 participants respectively for April, May, and June.  Mike Davison at NCEP International Desk led the discussions.  Typically, the sessions include a look at Water Vapor imagery for a synoptic overview of Central America and the Caribbean as well as for South America.  The IR 10.7 µm imagery and Visible imagery are used to look more closely at weather features.  We looked at MJO patterns and the outlook, Total Precipitable Water (TPW) patterns, Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and anomalies.  Imagery from a recent weather feature is often highlighted.  Heavy rains over northern parts of South America were a persistent theme through all three months.  The Atlantic tropical season is already showing interesting tropical waves.  Participants provided comments and questions related to the local weather in their regions.  Recordings of the session can be found here:  http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/rmtc/fg_recording.asp  (B. Connell)

During the last three months, Barbados has also been conducting monthly briefings for the Eastern Caribbean to introduce forecasters in training to the operational forecasters from the region.  CIRA has been assisting with the logistics of the sessions and providing imagery through the rammb server listed above.

Sharing of Imagery and Products
Imagery for Central and South America and the Caribbean can be viewed at one location through RAMSDIS Online – look for the 4-week archive feature:  (http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/rmtc.asp). 
Look for information on our activities on the VLab/ Regional Training Center web page. http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/training/rmtc/

GEONETCast Americas VLab Training Channel
CIRA in collaboration with Paul Seymour of NOAA’s Direct Readout Service have initiated and started sending training materials through a GEONETCast Americas channel called “VLab Training”.  In April, May, and June, the Focus group recordings were transmitted through the VLab Training channel.  We continue to do this on a monthly basis and are also evaluating what other training can be sent through GEONETCast.  (B. Connell, D. Watson, K. Micke)

New JPSS Imagery Cal/Val Website: A new web page has been created to feature specific calibration and validation determinations from the checkout of VIIRS imagery from Suomi NPP.  The first entry on the new cal/val page is about VIIRS geo-location accuracy, as determined by long-term (one year plus) loops created from VIIRS imagery.  The loops give a qualitative assessment of the navigation accuracies of VIIRS I-band, M-band, and DNB imagery.  From this analysis it appears that any geo-location errors are less than the width of one VIIRS pixel and the geolocation has been very stable over the last 15 months of data.  Further studies of specific cal/val issues will be featured on this page in the future.  See http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/calval/  (D. Hillger, C. Seaman)

Beginner’s Guide to VIIRS Imagery Data:  Thanks to C. Seaman, many of the details of VIIRS Imagery can now be found in one place.  A new “Beginner’s Guide to VIIRS Imagery” is now posted on the VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team website http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/, with a link to the guide near the top of the page.   Dr. Seaman is also the creator of the NPP VIIRS Imagery Blog found at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/blog/.  The new beginner’s guide is a compilation of many details about VIIRS imagery, with the information conveniently available in one place, rather than having to search numerous documents for the same information.  This guide was the result of working with VIIRS Imagery ever since the launch of NPP.  Topics range from VIIRS granule file names, to data types and units, the differences between SDRs and EDRs, and display software options.  The Imagery Team welcomes any feedback on the guide’s content, or anything additional that users might like to see added to the guide. (D. Hillger, C. Seaman)

NOAA Satellite Conference posters:  The EDR Imagery and Visualization Team was represented at the NOAA Satellite Conference by three posters:

• T-58: VIIRS Imagery: Applications and Outreach at CIRA; by Curtis Seaman, Don Hillger, and Steve Miller.
• T-59: Suomi NPP VIIRS Imagery after 1 Year; Don Hillger, Tom Kopp, Steven Miller, Daniel Lindsey, and Curtis Seaman.
• T-74: McIDAS-V, visualization and data analysis for Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership; William Straka, Tommy Jasmin, Thomas Rink, Dan Lindsey, Don Hillger, Steve Miller, and Thomas Achtor.  (D. Hillger)

Rayleigh-corrected VIIRS True-Color Imagery Fixed:  An error was found in the script used to generate Rayleigh-corrected true-color images from VIIRS granules.  That error resulted in washed-out true-color images, not because of the applied Rayleigh-correction, but because of an error that displayed the true-color/RGB image with the wrong color table.  From this date forward, much better examples of Rayleigh-corrected true-color images can now be found at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/npp_viirs.asp.  The older online images will not disappear, but will eventually be replaced by newer ones, as in the accompanying image.  This and other online images and image combinations are used to monitor the VIIRS Imagery by creating user-friendly image products from various spectral bands.  (D. Hillger)

Figure 1: VIIRS Rayleigh-corrected true-color image of a section of northwestern Africa on 3 April 2013 at 1342 UTC.  This image shows the multi-colored sands of the Saharan Desert, as well as small areas of turquoise waters along the African coast.

NOAA Technical Report Review:  NOAA Technical Report 142 “VIIRS SDR User’s Guide” has been produced by the VIIRS SDR Team.  The document was reviewed and feedback was provided to C. Cao, the primary author.  The VIIRS SDR Team is still accepting feedback and will revise the document accordingly.  The EDR Imagery Team is considering an equivalent NOAA Technical Report.  That report would be based on the “Beginner’s Guide to VIIRS Imagery Data” produced by Curtis Seaman.  The PPT of the Beginner’s Guide is available on the Imagery Team website http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/.  While the VIIRS SDR Team publication includes details on the workings of VIIRS, the EDR report will cover more of the details needed to view VIIRS imagery by end users, as well as details on the production of Near Constant Contrast (NCC) Imagery produced from the VIIRS Day-Night-Band.  (D. Hillger)

Feedback on McIDAS-X Handling of VIIRS Geo-locations:  In studying the geo-locations of individual VIIRS Imagery pixels, some incorrect latitudes and longitudes were found in the Sensor Data Records as handled by McIDAS-X using data served from the Atmosphere PEATE.  It is believed at this time that the incorrect latitudes and longitudes are the result of geo-location interpolation that is necessary when latitudes and longitudes are not saved for each pixel when a VIIRS bands is saved as an AREA file.  While this is not a VIIRS issue, and most of the geo-locations are fine except for edge-of-scan locations where pixels may overlap between adjacent scans, those geo-locations are being mishandled by McIDAS-X due to current file size limitations.  A PowerPoint presentation was prepared and a conference call was held with D. Santek and R. Dengel at UW/SSEC to explain the problem and discuss possible solutions.  Further analysis will take place to see if the problem does not occur with smaller sub-granule-size files, as expected.  (D. Hillger)

VIIRS Data Meeting:  Several of the VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team at CIRA met with visitors from Boulder’s ESRL on 24 May 2013.  Visitors included B. Lipschutz, J. Stewart, S. Schranz, C. MacDermaid, and C. Matsumoto, who were interested in CIRA’s access to and use of VIIRS data. The visitors are considering adding VIIRS as another dataset into ESRL’s NOAA Earth Information System (NEIS). The main obstacle might be the data volumes involved with VIIRS, as even CIRA does not access all VIIRS granules.  (D. Hillger, S. Finley)

VIIRS Cal/Val Information: A new web page has been created to feature specific calibration and validation determinations from the checkout of VIIRS imagery from Suomi NPP.  The first entry on the new cal/val page is about VIIRS geo-location accuracy, as determined by long-term (one year plus) loops created from VIIRS imagery.  The loops give a qualitative assessment of the navigation accuracies of VIIRS I-band, M-band, and DNB imagery.  From this analysis it appears that any geo-location errors are less than the width of one VIIRS pixel and the geolocation has been very stable over the last 15 months of data.  Further studies of specific cal/val issues will be featured on this page in the future.  See http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/npp/calval/  (D. Hillger, C. Seaman)

1. GOES-14 data was ingest and archived at CIRA during the recent GOES-13 outage.  Ingest transition went smoothly, but RAMSDIS Online product transition did not.  Efforts are underway to determine a standardized method for users to access the CIRA GVAR ingest so that satellite switches do not require as much software modification.
2. An additional Linux workstation has been configured for NDE application transition to operations.
3. An additional Linux workstation has been configured for use in NCP RGB capability evaluation. 
4. The Alaska region VIIRS ingest capabilities are broken in the latest version of AWIPS2, so all AWIPS2 workstations have been transitioned back to the previous version.
5. A Change Request has been submitted to Raytheon to allow for updates of simulated satellite imagery in the AWIPS2 database.  If the CR looks like it will take too much time, plugin development and submission through the Raytheon code review process will be attempted.
6. RAMMB AWIPS2 Simulated WRF imagery is now being ingested in Buffalo, NY at Eastern Region Headquarters.
7. The U.S. west coast AWIPS1 ORI product has been ported to AWIPS2, and real-time data dissemination has been activated.
8. D. Molenar participation in the bi-weekly AWIPS2 EPDT and Developer’s Forum conference calls is ongoing.
9. D. Molenar participation in the monthly SNPP-NDE telecons is ongoing.  A request has been submitted to ESPC to allow more timely access to the VIIRS SDR’s.   Efforts are underway what, if any, impact the VIIRS IDPS transition will have on CIRA’s GRAVITE data ingest.
10. D. Molenar participation in the monthly STAR ITAC telecon is ongoing.
11. D. Molenar participation in the monthly JPSS project meeting is ongoing.
12. A major CIRA network overhaul has been completed.  Sporadic performance issues remain.  If they can’t be resolved, a request for line check out will be submitted to CSU ACNS.
13. NOAA quarterly laptop inventory has been completed.  Efforts are underway to surplus several old NOAA computer systems.
14. A new Dell computer has been procured through STAR IT Refresh.
15. 2014 CIRA hardware needs evaluation has been completed.  Hardware quotes, proposal budgets and CSU Justification forms have been submitted. (D. Molenar)

To Accepted and Submitted Publications        To Awards and Citations        To Presentations and Posters

Published:

• Refereed

DeMaria, M., J.A. Knaff, M.J. Brennan, D. Brown, R.D. Knabb, R.T. DeMaria, A.B. Schumacher, C.A. Lauer, D.P. Roberts, C.R. Sampson, P. Santos, D. Sharp, K.A. Winters, 2013: Improvements to the Operational Tropical Cyclone Wind Speed Probability Model. Wea. Forecasting. 586–602. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-12-00116.1 (June)

Knaff, J.A., M. DeMaria, C.R. Sampson, J.E. Peak, J. Cummings, W.H. Schubert, 2013: Upper oceanic energy response to tropical cyclone passage. J. Climate, 26, 2631–2650. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00038.1 (April)

Lin, I-I, G.J. Goni, J.A. Knaff, C. Forbes, M.M. Ali, 2013: Tropical cyclone heat potential for tropical cyclone intensity forecasting and its impact on storm surge.  Journal of Natural Hazards. 66, 1481-1500.  doi:10.1007/s11069-012-0214-5 (April)

• Nonrefereed

Hillger D.W., T. Kopp, S.D. Miller, D.T. Lindsey, C. Seaman, 2013: Suomi NPP VIIRS Imagery after 1 Year, NOAA Satellite Conference for Direct Readout, GOES/POES, and GOES-R/JPSS Users, 8-12 April, College Park, MD.

Miller, S.D., 2013: A Dynamic Enhancement Background Reduction Algorithm (DEBRA) Applicable to GOES-R ABI, NOAA Satellite Conference for Direct Readout, GOES/POES, and GOES-R/JPSS Users, 8-12 April, College Park, MD.

Seaman, C., D.W. Hillger, S.D. Miller, 2013: VIIRS Imagery: Applications and Outreach at CIRA, NOAA Satellite Conference for Direct Readout, GOES/POES, and GOES-R/JPSS Users, 8-12 April, College Park, MD.

Straka, W., T. Jasmin, T. Rink, D.T. Lindsey, D.W. Hillger, S.D. Miller, T. Achtor, 2013: McIDAS-V, visualization and data analysis for Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, NOAA Satellite Conference for Direct Readout, GOES/POES, and GOES-R/JPSS Users, 8-12 April, College Park, MD.

Accepted:

• Refereed 

DeMaria, M., C.R. Sampson, J.A. Knaff, K.D. Musgrave, 2013: Is Tropical Cyclone Intensity Guidance Improving? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Goni, G., J.A. Knaff, and I-I Lin (Taiwan) , 2013: [The Tropics] Tropical cyclone heat potential [in “State of the Climate in 2012.”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Hillger, D.W., T. Kopp, T. Lee, D.T. Lindsey, C. Seaman, S.D. Miller, J. Solbrig, S.Q. Kidder, S. Bachmeier, T. Jasmin, and T. Rink, 2013: First Light Imagery from Suomi NPP VIIRS.  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 

Knapp, K.R., J.A. Knaff, C. Sampson, G. Riggio, A.D. Schnapp, 2013: A pressure-based analysis of the historical western North Pacific tropical cyclone intensity record. Mon. Wea. Rev.

Zhang, M., M. Zupanski, M-J Kim, J.A. Knaff, 2013:  Assimilating AMSU-A Radiances in TC Inner Core with NOAA Operational HWRF and a Hybrid Data Assimilation System: Danielle (2010). Mon. Wea. Rev.

• Nonrefereed

Brummer, R.L., D.T. Lindsey, L.D. Grasso, D.W. Hillger, 2013: Synthetic Satellite Imagery Development at CIRA, 2013 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference & 19th American Meteorological Society AMS Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology Conference 16-20 September, Vienna, Austria.

Chirokova, G., M. DeMaria, R.T. DeMaria, 2013: Applications of JPSS Imagers and Sounders to Tropical Cyclone Track and Intensity Forecasting. 2013 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference & 19th American Meteorological Society AMS Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology Conference 16-20 September, Vienna, Austria.

Seaman, C., D.W. Hillger, S.D. Miller, D.T. Lindsey, 2013: Suomi-NPP VIIRS Imagery: RGB Applications and Product Development at CIRA, 2013 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference & 19th American Meteorological Society AMS Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology Conference 16-20 September, Vienna, Austria.

Submitted:

• Refereed 

Apodaca, K., M. Zupanski, M. DeMaria, J.A. Knaff, L.D. Grasso, 2013: evaluating the potential impact os assimilating satellite lightning data utililizing hybrid (variationalensemble) methods. Tellus.

Grasso, L.D., D.W. Hillger, M. Sengupta, 2013:  Demonstrating the Utility of the GOES-R 2.25 µm band for Fire Retrieval. Geophysical Research Letters.

Jin, Y., S. Wang, J. Nachamkin, J.D. Doyle, G. Thompson, L.D. Grasso, T. Holt, J. Moskaitis, H. Jin, R.M. Hodur, Q. Zhao, M. Liu, and M. DeMaria, 2013: Evaluation of Microphysical Parameterizations for Tropical Cyclone Prediction. Monthly Weather Review.

Knaff, J.A., S. Longmore, D.A. Molenar, 2013: An objective satellite-based tropical cyclone size climatology. Journal of Climate.  

Knapp, K.R., J.A. Knaff, C. Sampsong, G. Riggio, A. Schnapp, 2013. A pressure-based analysis of the historical western North Pacific tropical cyclone intensity record. Mon.Wea.Rev.

Lang, T.J., S.A. Rutledge, B. Dolan, P. Krehbiel, W. Rison, D.T. Lindsey, 2013: Lightning in Wildfire Smoke Plumes Observed in Colorado during Summer 2012. Mon.Wea.Rev.

Quiring, S., A. Schumacher, and S. Guikema, 2013: Incorporating Hurricane Forecast Uncertainty into Decision Support Applications, Bull. of the American Meteorological Society.

Schmit,T.J., S.J. Goodman, D.T. Lindsey, R.M. Rabin, K.M. Bedka, M.M. Gunshor, J.L. Cintineo, C.S. Velden, A.S. Bachmeier, S.S. Lindstrom, and C.C. Schmidt, 2013: GOES-14 Super Rapid Scan Operations to Prepare forGOES-R. JARS.

Seaman, C.J. and S.D. Miller, 2013: VIIRS Captures Aurora Motions, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Van Cleave, D., J.F. Dostalek, and T. Vonder Haar, 2013: The Dynamics and Snowfall Characteristics of Three Types of Extratropical Cyclone Comma Heads Categorized by Infrared Satellite Imagery. Weather and Forecasting.

• Nonrefereed 

Awards and Citations: M. DeMaria has been named a nominee of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Award which is presented annually by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service to celebrate excellence in our federal civil service.

Presentations:

B. Connell attended the NOAA 2013 Satellite Conference at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland on 8-12 April.  She presented two posters “Training Videos Through GEONETCast?  What will they think of next!” and “Satellite Training Activities: What’s new and what’s ongoing?”

B. Connell participated in the virtual meeting of the WMO Virtual Laboratory for Education and Satellite Meteorology (VLab) Management Group on 14 June.  Topics at this meeting that the US supports, as well as benefits from in exchanging training information, included feedback from the 7th WMO meeting of the Expert Team on Satellite Utilization of Products, The 2012 WMO Survey on the Use of Satellite Data,  Competence Requirements for Aeronautical Meteorological Personnel, and tools for satellite data visualization and processing.    

B. Connell attended the NOAA/WMO Train the Trainers workshop on 6 and 7 April at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland prior to the NOAA Satellite Conference.  She gave a presentation on “GEONETCast Americas Training Channel: VLab Training”.  The workshop focused on all aspects of GEONETCast broadcast including the capability to send training materials.

Knaff, J.A. 2013: Statistically estimating  tropical cyclone surface winds from 2-dimensional satellite imagery. NCAR/NOAA/CSU TC workshop, Fort Collins, CO.

Knaff, J.A. 2013: CIRA/RAMMB NHC Proving Ground products, National Hurricane Center,  24 April, 2013.

Posters:

Seaman, C., D.W. Hillger and S.D. Miller: VIIRS Imagery: Applications and Outreach at CIRA, NOAA 2013 Satellite Conference, 8-12 April 2013, College Park, MD.

Notes:

D. Lindsey accepted a nomination to become an Associate Editor of the Journal of Operational Meteorology, a new journal from the National Weather Association. 

*Spring Experiment 6-10 May 2013, NWC, Norman, OK. While there, Louie Grasso met with Steve Koch (Director: NSSL) to discuss a collaborative effort for the next round of GOES-R proposal writing. He also met with Ming Xue (Director: CAPS) to discuss continued collaboration for the next round of GOES-R proposal writing.

Dakota Smith, an undergraduate meteorology major from Penn St. Univ. and a Hollings Scholarship recipient, arrived in Fort Collins the week of June 7 and began work on his summer project.  D. Lindsey is serving as a co-mentor for Dakota, along with Prof. Scott Denning from the Colorado St. Dept. of Atmospheric Science. (D. Lindsey)

Several of the VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team at CIRA met with visitors from Boulder’s ESRL on 24 May 2013.  Visitors included Bob Lipschutz, Jebb Stewart, Sher Schranz, Chris MacDermaid, and Cliff Matsumoto, who were interested in CIRA’s access to and use of VIIRS data. The visitors are considering adding VIIRS as another dataset into ESRL’s NOAA Earth Information System (NEIS). (D. Hillger)

Dr. Brooke Anderson, who has been offered a faculty position in the CSU Department of Radiological and Environmental Health, visited CIRA the week of May 24 to discuss access to tropical cyclone data. (M. DeMaria, J. Knaff)

Yi Jin from the Naval Research Laboratory visited CIRA during the week of 13-17 May 2013. During her visit she (1) learned how to run the CRTM version 2.0.5, (2) acquired observed GOES-13 data for the past few Atlantic hurricane seasons, (3) acquired code to read the observed GOES-13 data,  (4) met with John Knaff, Mark DeMaria, and Steve Miller, and (5) delivered a seminar on her work. (L. Grasso)

Alex Fierro from OU/CIMMS visited CIRA from April 16-19 as part of the GOES-R visiting scientist program. He presented a seminar on the assimilation of lightning data in WRF model simulations of several severe weather cases. He also met with several RAMMB and CIRA scientists to discuss lightning data assimilation methods and applications of lightning observations for tropical cyclone analysis and forecasting. (M. DeMaria, J.Knaff, J. Dostalek, M. Zupanski, G. Chirokova)

Geoffrey Stano of SPoRT, Huntsville, AL, visited CIRA April 16. (E. Szoke)

Sung-Rae Chung and Eun Jeong Cha from the Korea Meteorological Administration National Meteorological Satellite Center (KMA/NMSC) visited CIRA on 15-16 April. The purpose of the visit was to learn how cooperative institutes, such as CIRA and CIMSS, operate and to increase collaborations between NMSC and CIRA and CIMSS. KMA is exploring the idea of creating their own cooperative institutes in Korea. Chung and Cha gave a seminar on current activities at NMSC including preparations for the launch of KOMPSAT-2A, a geostationary satellite with an instrument similar to GOES-R ABI. The KOMPSAT version will contain a 0.55 um channel (green-wavelength visible channel) and exclude the ABI’s 2.25 um channel. A polar orbiting satellite is in the early planning stage, but the instruments to be included on the satellite have not been determined. C. Seaman and L. Grasso met with Chung and Cha to discuss synthetic satellite imagery, including synthetic “true color” imagery, and RGB applications for their ABI-like instrument. The ability to create real “true color” imagery will be important for validation of CIRA’s synthetic “true color” imagery. (C. Seaman, L. Grasso)

Hugh Morrison visited CIRA April 25 to collaborate with Dan Lindsey and Louie Grasso. (D. Lindsey, L. Grasso)

J. Knaff conducted a phone interview with M. Klempner from the Daily Planet.  Now in its 18th season, Daily Planet is the first nightly primetime science magazine show in the world. (J. Knaff)

M. DeMaria represented Al Powell at the HEOB review meeting by teleconference on May 8th. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a progress report on the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP) to the oversight committee. The 10-year program is starting its fifth year, and is close to achieving its 5-year goals in terms of hurricane track and intensity forecast error reductions. NESDIS’ contributions have been satellite data assimilation improvements through the JCSDA and statistical post-processing work at CIRA. The HFIP funding to NESDIS is expected to increase a little in FY13. (M. DeMaria)

Mid-year review meetings were held with all RAMMB staff supervised by M. DeMaria the week of April 5. (M. DeMaria)

The entire RAMM Branch viewed the documentary “Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story” that chronicled the battle over racial discrimination in housing in Yonkers, NY, in the 1980s.  (D. Lindsey, J. Knaff, D. Hillger, D. Molenar, and M. DeMaria)