Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

Published:

• Refereed

Lai, C., J. Yue, J. Xu, W. Straka III, S. D. Miller, X. Liu, 2017: Suomi NPP VIIRS/DNB imagery of nightglow gravity waves from various sources over China. Advances in Space Research, 59(8), 1951-1961, doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.01.041

Sampson, C., E. Fukada, J. A. Knaff, B. Strahl, M. Brennan, T. Marchok, 2017: Tropical cyclone gale wind radii estimates for the western North Pacific. Wea. Forecasting. 32(3), 1029-1040, doi: 10.1175/WAF-D-16-0196.1.

• Nonrefereed

See Presentations and Posters.

Accepted:

• Refereed

Bender, M., T. Marchok, C. Sampson, J. A. Knaff, M. Morin, 2017: Impact of storm size on prediction of storm track and intensity using the 2016 Operational GFDL Hurricane Model. Wea. Forcasting.

Grasso, L. D., D. T. Lindsey, K. -S. Lim, A. Clark, D. E. Bikos, 2017: Evaluation of and Suggested Improvements to the WSM6 Microphysics in WRF-ARW Using Synthetic and Observed GOES-13 Imagery. Mon.Wea.Rev.

Hawkins, J. D., S. D. Miller, J. E. Solbrig, R. Bankert, M. Surrat, K. A. Richardson, 2017: Tropical Cyclone Characterization via Nocturnal Low-Light Visible Illumination. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Kliewer, A. J., S. J. Fletcher, A. S. Jones and J. M. Forsythe, 2017:  Comparison of Gaussian, logarithmic transform and mixed Gaussian-lognormal distribution-based 1DVAR microwave temperature-water vapor mixing ratio retrievals.  Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, doi:10.1002/qj.2651.

Lang, T. J., S. A. Rutledge, B. Dolan, P. Krehbiel, W. Rison, D. T. Lindsey, 2017: Lightning in Wildfire Smoke Plumes Observed in Colorado during Summer 2012. Mon.Wea.Rev.

Lengaigne, N., H. Menon, J. Vialard, M. Mangeas, D. Menkes, M. M. Ali, I. Suresh, and J. A. Knaff, 2017: Global assessment of tropical cyclones intensity statistical-dynamical hindcasts. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Nachamkin, J. E., Y. Jin, L. D. Grasso, and K. A. Richardson, 2017: Using Synthetic Brightness Temperatures to Address Uncertainties in Cloud Top Height Verification. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.

Xu, X., J. Wang, Y. Wang, J. Zeng, O. Torres, Y. Yang, A. Marshak, J. Reid, S. D. Miller: 2017: Passive remote sensing of altitude and optical depth of dust plumes using the oxygen A and B bands: first results from EPIC/DSCOVR at Lagrange-1 point. Geophysical Research Letters. In press.

• Nonrefereed

Submitted:

• Refereed 

Chavas, D., K. Reed, J. A. Knaff, 2017: The physical relationship between the central pressure deficit and maximum wind speed in a tropical cyclone. Nature.

Dostalek, J. F., W. Schubert, M. DeMaria, 2017: Derivation and Solution of the Omega Equation Associated with a Balance Theory on the Sphere. AGU’s Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Goni, G., J. A. Knaff, I-I Lin, 2017: [The Tropics] Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential/ Oceanic Heat Content, [in NOAA “State of the Climate 2016”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Grasso, L. D., D. W. Hillger, M. Sengupta, 2017:  Demonstrating the Utility of the GOES-R 2.25 µm band for Fire Retrieval. Geophysical Research Letters.

Neetu, S., M. Lengaigne, H. B. Menon, J. Vialard, M. Mangeas , C.E. Menkes, M. M. Ali, I. Suresh, J. A. Knaff, 2017: A global assessment of tropical cyclones intensity statistical-dynamical hindcasts. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Taraphdar, S., L. R. Leung, S. Hagos, K. Balaguru, J. A. Knaff, 2017: Why is the United States experiencing less frequent landfalling major hurricanes in the recent decades? Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Trabing, B., J. A. Knaff, K. D. Musgrave, 2017: Hurricane Observations Using Long-Range Lightning Detection Networks. Wea. Forcasting.

Nam, S., D. T. Lindsey, S. D. Miller, 2017: Tracking oceanic nonlinear internal waves in the Indonesian Seas from geostationary orbit. Remote Sensing of the Environment.

• Nonrefereed 

Grasso, L. D., 2018: GOES-16 ABI Channel Differencing used to Reveal Cloud-Free Zones of ‘Precursors of Convective Initiation.’ 22nd Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 98th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, 7-11 January, Seattle, WA.

Grasso, L. D., 2018: GOES-16 ABI Observations of Lower Tropospheric Structures of Water Vapor at 1.38 µm. 22nd Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, 98th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, 7-11 January, Seattle, WA.

Presentations and Posters:

Knaff, J. A., 2017: Creating estimates of surface wind structure for historical best tracks. Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) Workshop on Tropical Cyclone Best Tracks, May 22, Asheville, NC.

Knaff, J. A., 2017: Three remote presentations to the SPSRB describing current (upgrades to multi-platform tropical cyclone surface wind analysis and upgrades to the tropical cyclone formation product) and future (MetOp-C tropical cyclone products) products. Satellite Product Annual Review, 29 June.

Lindsey, D. T., 2017: ABI First Light Highlights. NOAA Testbed & Proving Ground Workshop and the GOES-16: The First Results Workshop, 25-27 April, Kansas City, MO.

Lindsey, D. T., 2017: 45-min seminar to the GOES Team highlighting the early results from the GOES-16 ABI. There were approximately 100 scientists, engineers, and technicians in attendance. Lockheed Martin, 27 June, Littleton, CO.

Miller, S. D., 2017: CIRA Satellite Algorithm Development. CIRA Council & Fellows Meeting, 9 May, CIRA Fort Collins, CO.

Miller, S. D., 2017: In Pursuit of the Shadows: VIIRS Day/Night Band Research Enabling Scientific Advances and Expanded Operational Awareness of the Nocturnal Environment. Annual JPSS-PGRR Project Review, 23-25 May, College Park, MD.

Molenar, D. A, S. P. Longmore, A. B. Schumacher, J. Torres, 2017: Summary of the status of various satellite display and analysis capabilities in N-AWIPS and AWIPS2, with outlines of the strengths and weaknesses of each. RAMMB/CIRA Satellite Ingest and Display Evaluation (SIDE) Workshop, 1-4 May, Fort Collins, CO.

Seaman, C. J., 2017: VIIRS Imagery Applications for Fire Weather Monitoring. Alaska Fire Science Consortium (ASFC) Remote Sensing Workshop. Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA), University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 4-6 April, Fairbanks, AK.

Seaman, C. J., 2017: VIIRS Imagery Applications for Fire Weather Monitoring. Virtual Alaska Weather Symposium (VAWS), Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP), 12 April, Fairbanks, AK.

Awards: NASA Honor Award (Group Achievement) awarded to Steve Miller and Dan Lindsey on May 1. Citation: For excellence resulting in the successful GOES-R satellite launch, providing the nation’s foundation for the world’s highest quality weather monitoring and forecasting. (NASA’s most prestigious award.)

Andrea Schumacher received an Outstanding Communications GOES-R Satellite Liaisons award. The GOES-R Quarterly Award ceremony was held 19 May 2017 at the NASA Goddard facility.

Notes

* The purpose of the visit was to see GOES-S and GOES-T in their clean room, and D. Lindsey was asked to give a 45-min seminar to the GOES Team highlighting the early results from the GOES-16 ABI. There were approximately 100 scientists, engineers, and technicians in attendance, and the talk went well.

Finnish Ambassador visits CIRA: Kirsti Kauppi, Finnish Ambassador to the U.S., visited Colorado State University (CSU) and CIRA on 26 April 2017. The primary reason for the visit was to continue Finnish efforts nationwide to celebrate the Finnish Centennial of independence. As part of a nationwide program of local visits, the Ambassador honored Chandra Venkatachalam, CSU Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and CIRA Fellow, for his efforts that have earned him Insignia of Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The Ambassador was accompanied by Juha Mäkikalli, Honorary Consul of Finland, Sanna Kangasharju, Press Counselor of the Embassy of Finland, Kirsi St. Marie, President of the Finlandia Foundation of Colorado, Kevin Petty, Chief Science Officer of Vaisala, Jessica Mackaro, Marketing Specialist of Vaisala, and David McLean, Dean of CSU’s Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering.

Figure: Finnish Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsti Kauppi addresses an audience of CSU/CIRA staff. (Photo by M. Rogers)

After holding a ceremony for Chandra Venkatachalam at CSU’s main campus, the delegation drove to CIRA. Steve Miller and Matt Rogers led the delegation on a tour of the CIRA facilities. The tour was followed by a reception at CIRA attended by the majority of all CIRA employees. The Finnish Ambassador Kauppi, CSU’s Dean of Engineering David McLean, and Vaisala’s Chief Science Officer Kevin Petty gave short speeches highlighting what a pleasant working environment CSU and CIRA seem to provide to its employees and encouraging everybody to believe in the importance of their contributions to the environment and to make collaboration an important part of their work. Vaisala is contributing a C-band polarimetric deployable radar to Colorado State University to facilitate research collaborations between the University, its NOAA partners, and Vaisala. Many CIRA employees, including our visiting Finnish scientist Jaakko Nuottokari, had the opportunity to talk directly with Ambassador Kauppi. (S. Miller. M. Rogers, R. Brummer)

International Visitor at CIRA: Jaakko Nuotokari, who works for the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), is visiting CIRA in Fort Collins from 18 April through 19 May 2017. Jaakko is the manager of the Northern Europe Aviation Meteorology Consortium (NAMCon, http://www.namcon.aero/ ) consisting of National Meteorological Services of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, and Estonia, for the joint provision of aviation weather services to the Northern Europe Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) NEFAB and DK-SE FAB. Jaakko Nuottokari’s tasks at NAMCon include the overall responsibility in the design, implementation and management of the consortium and its several development projects and representation of the consortium interests in EU and international forums. Jaakko’s research interest is in the area of “Numerical weather prediction methods of lightning threat, winter precipitation, visibility, and cloud base.” While in Fort Collins, Jaakko will also work with Chandrasekara Venkatachalam, Professor at CSU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Before he came to CIRA on 18 April, Jaakko already spent one month at UCAR in Boulder working with James Pinto. (S. Miller, R. Brummer)

Seoul National University Visitor: Dr. SungHyun Nam from Seoul National University visited CIRA on 2 May 2017 and met with J. Knaff on new operational tropical cyclone products planned for KMA. He also met with D. Lindsey and S. Miller to discuss ongoing work on a journal paper on detecting oceanic nonlinear internal waves from the Himawari-8 satellite. Finally, he met with Yoo-Jeong Noh to discuss her research of clouds and in-situ measurements. (J. Knaff, D. Lindsey, S. Miller, Y.-J. Noh)

Visitor from NCAR: Rosimar Rios-Berrios a PhD student at SUNY, Albany who has been working at NCAR in Boulder visited ATMOS and CIRA the week of May 4. She gave a seminar, sponsored by M. Bell (CSU) about her work on tropical cyclones that can rapidly intensify in moderate levels of vertical wind she. She also met with the CIRA tropical cyclone group to discuss our current work. Rosimar will be coming back to NCAR following her PhD defense and we are hoping to spin up some collaborations. (J. Knaff, K. Musgrave, A. Schumacher)

JTWC Visitor: James Darlow, JTWC visited CIRA and met with the tropical cyclone group and D. Lindsey the week of May 15. Topics of discussion ranged from AWIPS-II, Himawari-8, the TC-realtime web page to the RAMMB SLIDER: Satellite Loop Interactive Data Explorer in Real-time. The TC group also discussed the recent product development that the US Navy sponsored and how those tools should help forecasters. (J. Knaff, D. Lindsey, A. Schumacher, K. Musgrave)

AWIPS2 JPSS Experimental Products Development Team Code Sprint at RAMMB/CIRA: RAMMB/CIRA hosted 10 software developers from various NOAA offices on 14-16 June 2017. The purpose of the code sprint is to implement new NPP/VIIRS products in AWIPS2 and to modify software used for product display. Deliverables from the code sprint were provided to the NWS Total Operational Weather Readiness – Satellite (TOWR-S) team for implementation in future AWIPS2 builds. (D. Molenar, S. Longmore)

Former RAMMB Chief Visit: Mark DeMaria (NHC, Chief of Technology and Science Branch) visited CIRA on 28 June 2017. RAMMB Tropical Group met with Mark and discussed the current and future development, and presented the latest results of the tropical projects, including GOES-R. JPSS, HFIP, JHT, and NRL projects. Mark also attended RAMMB weather discussion. (John Knaff, Debra Molenar, Andrea Schumacher, Kate Musgrave, Galina Chirokova, and Chris Slocum)