Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

Severe Storms (Weaver, Dostalek, Grasso, Bikos, Coleman) Reviewer comments for the manuscript “Noteworthy Aspects of a Severe Left Moving Thunderstorm of 25 May 1999″ by J. Dostalek, J. Weaver and L. Phillips (NWS/LBB) have been addressed and the paper was returned to the editor at Weather and Forecasting.  The paper had been accepted with minor comments.  A Picture of the Month submission for Mon. Wea. Rev. entitled “Some Frequently overlooked Visual Severe Thunderstorm Characteristics observed on GOES Imagery – a Topic for Future Research” by J.F. Weaver and D. Lindsey is in preparation.  The following two figures show some slides from a VISIT teletraining session that includes this topic.

Click on images to enlarge. Figure 1.  a) Schematic of idealized PPI radar reflectivity from a supercell thunderstorm, along with some storm scale features often referenced in the literature, and b) schematic of a few cloud features that frequently appear on visible satellite imagery in association with supercell storms.

Figure 2.  Example of visible satellite image from 13 Mar 1990 taken at 22:31 UTC.  A storm near Hesston, KS transitions from a severe to tornadic thunderstorm.   Arrow A points to compact inflow feeder clouds associated with the storm’s intense inflow, arrow B points to lines of towering cumulus forming above a newly-formed rear flank downdraft. The new VISIT teletraining session entitled, “Use of GOES/RSO Imagery with Other Remote Sensor Data for Diagnosing Severe Weather across the CONUS” is now being taught as a two-part session.  Each segment is 1 1/2  hours long. The new session features several severe thunderstorm cases studies from various regions around the country, and focuses on the use of RSO imagery to diagnose the near-storm environment.  Satellite data for the study are from the archived RSO data set at CIRA.

A demonstration project to display and animate satellite images on the NOAA P-3 in support of tropical cyclone research and reconnaissance is near an end.  Software to compress the data using wavelet compression techniques, which allows for the transmission of satellite data through the small bandwidth available to the P-3, has been improved, updated and ported to HP UX and MS Windows 2000/XP/NT operating systems.  Scripts and software have been written and updated that ingest the GOES satellite imagery, compress these data, ftp the compressed files to the plane, uncompress, sort and display the resulting imagery.  The tropical RAMSDIS unit at NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division will be used for compressing and serving the data to the P-3.  Personnel at HRD will determine the location of the imagery as part of their flight preparation.    R. Zehr flew aboard the NOAA P-3 into Hurricane Isabel to test the system.  Examples of the products available on the aircraft shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Example GOES satellite products that will be displayed and animated on the NOAA P-3.  These are:  a) 2 km visible, b) 4km IR channel 4, and c) 8km IR channel 3.  Click on images to enlarge.

Research continues using IR asymmetries and numerical model initial analysis fields to evaluate environmental vertical wind shear.  A larger sample study is planned as “follow on” research to the Hurricane Bertha paper.  Work has begun on case studies of 2003 Hurricanes Claudette, Fabian, and Isabel, with the idea of using a few cases studies to compare vertical shear quantities from various sources over the life cycle of each storm.  The current goal is to use those case studies as a basis for developing a simple model of intensity change as a function of a vertical shear quantity, current intensity and potential intensity from SST and/or Ocean Heat content.  The extent to which that model explains observed intensity changes would then be evaluated for a large tropical cyclone sample.

A manuscript entitled “A note on the influences of vertical wind shear on symmetric tropical cyclone structure derived from AMSU” has been written for submission to Mon. Wea. Rev.  Composite analyses show that vertical wind shear increases, the hurricane’s warm core structure and associated winds become shallower. Figure 2 shows the vertical wind shear based  temperature/temperature anomaly composites and Figure 3 shows the composites of tangential wind.

igure 2.  Vertical wind shear based composites of temperature (contours) and temperature anomalies (shaded) in oC.  Shown are:  a) Low shear ( <3.8 ms-1), b) moderate shear (3.8 ms-1 > shear >6.8 ms-1), and c) high shear (shear >= 6.8 ms-1).

Figure 3.  Same as Figure 2 except for balanced tangential wind in ms-1.

Algorithms to produce AMSU-based tropical cyclone intensity and structure information have been made pre-operational at the National Hurricane Center as part of the USWRP Joint Hurricane Test-bed.  The code has been written that access the AMSU data from the NCEP BUFR files, process these data into temperature retrievals, run these through the CIRA AMSU tropical cyclone intensity algorithm and produce a one-page text message that is sent to the Hurricane Specialist on duty.   Results from this processing do not reproduce the same estimates created here at CIRA, because the BUFR data have an antenna correction applied that is not anticipated by the retrieval code.  NCEP hopes to have the raw antenna temperatures available in BUFR format soon.  Validation of estimates will be performed following the hurricane season.

The Statistical Typhoon Intensity Prediction Scheme (STIPS) continues to outperform all other intensity guidance for the western North Pacific tropical cyclone basin at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center since a new scheme was made operational in June of 2003.  Results (1 June – 22 September) of STIPS (STIP) and the Decay version of STIPS (STID) are shown along with 5-day Statistical typhoon intensity forecast (ST5D) and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamical typhoon model (GFNI) intensity guidance that are also available at the JTWC in Table 1.   ST5D is a purely statistical model or control model used primarily for verification purposes.  Forecasts that have less error than ST5D are considered skillful.

Table 1:  Average intensity errors (kt) from 5-day statistical typhoon intensity forecasts (ST5D), STIPS (STIP), decay-STIPS (STID), and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory typhoon model (GFNI).  Note that ST5D is a control and that forecasts with errors smaller the ST5D are considered skillful.

A study is underway to investigate the effect of satellite spatial resolution on hurricane IR temperature measurements within the eye.  Preliminary measurements have been made with a 38-channel, 1 km MODIS image of Hurricane Isidore’s eye.  The MODIS data were obtained from NASA’s on-line archive, and successfully ingested into MCIDAS, for both 2002 intense Atlantic hurricanes, Lili and Isidore.  Archived MODIS and AVHRR 1 km IR images are being used to complement the work done with GOES images. 250-m resolution true-color images were saved for multiple MODIS passes over Hurricane Isabel (September 2003).

With support from Tropical RAMSDIS ingest and student hourlies, the RAMM/CIRA Hurricane CD-ROM archive has grown to 40 CDs, and all Eastern Pacific and Atlantic named storms from 2002 have been included.  A few Southern Hemisphere, North Indian, and western North Pacific cases have also been added. The archive continues to support various research projects; including the development of a new version of SHIPS (Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme). There are approximately 68,000 McIDAS images, each of which is 640 x 480 at 4 km resolution Mercator projection.

One-minute interval scans with GOES-12 were requested and archived at CIRA on nine consecutive days (September 8-16) with Hurricane Isabel which attained Category 5 intensity.  Hurricane Field Operations at HRD were underway with both the P3’s and the Gulfstream IV jet during this period.
 

A two dimensional model developed by Dr. K. Vic Ooyama, formerly of the Hurricane Research Division, has been set up on a RAMM Branch computer, and a sample case has been successfully run. The code will be used for a variety of purposes, including theoretical work on frontogenesis. An AMSU retrieval of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio was used to create a cross section of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio for a warm front in the North Atlantic (Figure 1). Although the retrieval has produced some super adiabatic layers, an issue which will need to be addressed, the overall structure is realistic in both temperature and moisture. A cross section of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis has been included for comparison (Figure 2). Click on images to enlarge.

All live teletraining for “Wildland Fire Detection using Geostationary Satellite Imagery” has been completed.   An audio version of the session is complete and can be downloaded from the following site: 

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/detection.html

There is also a satellite interpretation page based on this material that can be found at:

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/PICODAY/020930/020930.html

A manuscript entitled, “Fire Detection using GOES-11 Rapid Scan Imagery” by J. Weaver, D. Bikos, D. Lindsey, C. Schmidt and E. Prins has been accepted for publication by is Weather and Forecasting.   Reviewer comments are currently being addressed.

A large number of forest fires in the northern Rockies (Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta) were captured on 1 km visible GOES-west imagery on the evening of 10 August 2003.  Smoke from the fires is being carried to the northeast in the loop below as the sun is setting.  The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) map for 11 August shows about 20 large fires in Idaho and Montana alone.  Almost as many additional fires were visible in the Canadian provinces.  A second attached loop, for the evening of 13 August and morning of 14 August, shows the fires 3 days later.  The large elevated smoke plumes in the evening turned into smoky valleys the next morning as the smoke lies down at night in more stable air.  The NIFC reports nearly twice as many large fires on this day as 3 days earlier.

Figure 1a.  Loop of GOES-west 1-km visible imagery for the evening of 10 August 2003, showing smoke plumes from numerous fires in Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta.  Click on image to start loop.

Figure 1b.  National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) large-fire map for 11 August 2003, showing about 20 fires in Idaho and Montana alone. Click on image to enlarge.

Figure 2a.  Loop of GOES-west 1-km visible imagery for the evening of 13 August and morning of 14 August 2003, showing smoke plumes 3 day later than Figure 1a.  Click on image to start loop.

Figure 2b: National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) large-fire map for 14 August 2003, showing nearly double the number of fires as 3 days earlier.  Click on image to enlarge.

Two large fires in Arizona (the Aspen and Picture fires, currently at over 11,000 acres [4500 ha] each) were the cause of smoke that extended into southern Colorado on 23 June 2003.  The fires were clearly identifiable in GOES shortwave imagery and the smoke in GOES visible imagery.

Figure 3.  (left) Two fire hot spots as seen in an early-morning (1500 UTC) 4 km shortwave albedo image generated from GOES bands 2 and 4; (right) Smoke plumes from the fires (one plume barely visible near the source) extending into southern Colorado as seen in an early-morning (1300 UTC) 4 km zenith-angle-enhanced GOES visible albedo image.  Click on images to enlarge.

Figure 4.   Early-morning (1230 UTC) 1 km resolution image of the smoke from Arizona fires over southern Colorado.  Forward scattering into GOES-west and the zenith-angle enhancement highlight the extensive area of smoke.  Strong southwesterly winds ahead of an upper-level trough carried the smoke from Arizona into Colorado.

The day/night visible/band-2 albedo program used on the Tropical RAMSDIS has been upgraded to preserve the line prefix information (validity code, documentation, calibration, and band list information when available) in the images that are corrected for zenith-angle variations in brightness.

The next generation GOES satellites (beginning with GOES-R) will include an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Hyper-spectral Environmental Suite (HES) with vastly improved spectral, spatial and temporal resolution relative to the current GOES I-M series satellites. The GOES-R era will begin early in the next decade, and will be part of a global observing system that includes polar orbiting satellites with instruments with comparable spatial and spectral resolution. This science study will use numerical simulations and existing in situ and satellite data to better understand the capabilities of these advanced instruments. This science study will help to reduce the time needed to fully utilize GOES-R as soon as possible after launch. A similar approach is being used for NPOESS, with initial emphasis on the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS). Case studies of tropical cyclones, lake effect snow events, and severe weather outbreaks will be analyzed using numerical simulations and currently available data. We have currently collected all available GOES Imager data and ETA model output for each of the three case studies.

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

Nothing to New Report This Quarter.

Code was developed to diagnose the convective equilibrium level from the 26 April 1991 thunderstorm simulation. Values of the equilibrium level were then entered into the hydro-estimator as well as the lowest 3 km layered average relative humidity and precipitable water. This work is part of a PSDI funded project in collaboration with Dr. Bob Kuligowski of NOAA/NESDIS.

The final processing changes for the GOES-8 to GOES-12 changeover have been completed.  These include the wind regime processing and the yearly combined products.

Processing of the large sector U.S. climatologies continues on schedule.  Products completed include monthly large sector composites for June, July and August 2003. 

Processing of wind regime products is back on schedule.  Monthly wind regime composites for February, March, April, May, June and July 2003 have been completed.  Six year, monthly combined products have also been completed for these months.  In addition, a new algorithm that produces cloud cover percentage for each wind regime from channel 4 (10.7 µm) using a background/threshold method has been completed and tested.  Products from this algorithm have been included in the March, April, May, June and July 2003 wind regime products.

The Summer Sea Breeze Climatology project for northern Florida completed its eighth season this August.  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 at the WFO.  Imagery were archived at CIRA for future processing.  The data collection and regime designation ran June through August.

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

Nothing new to report this quarter.

A new composite longwave split-window temperature-difference image of the four sectors of the GOES-east (GOES-12) Sounder was developed.  The attached image shows a major outbreak of Saharan dust originating on the African continent and extending as far west as 50 deg E over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.  An equivalent split-window product is not available from the GOES-12 Imager, so that this new Sounder product is extremely valuable for monitoring these dust outbreaks, and their potential negative influence on tropical cyclone formation.

Click on image to enlarge. Figure 1: A composite longwave split-window (band-8 minus band-7) temperature-difference image of the four GOES-east Sounder sectors: 1846 UTC, 11 July 2003.  The applied color enhancement shows dust as red (negative temperature differences on the order of 1 K).  Not only is there a large circular dust area in the lower-right corner of the image that is heading west, but dust also appears over a portion of the Gulf of Mexico.

Reviewer comments for the manuscript “Noteworthy Aspects of a Severe Left Moving Thunderstorm of 25 May 1999″ by J. Dostalek, J. Weaver, and L. Phillips (NWS/LBB) have been addressed and the paper returned to the editor at Weather and Forecasting.

The final draft of the GOES-12 Science Test Tech Report was completed.  The report should be published next quarter.

Programming support was provided to HRD for customizations made on their Tropical RAMSDIS system. Customization included addition of processes that allowed displays of the high-density-winds retrieved from CIMSS, modifications in the string-table entries, and systems modifications to improve the efficiency of the Tropical RAMSDIS system.

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

The VISIT team collaborated with COMET, CIMSS, and the NWS Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) in Norman, OK while working on the new RSO VISIT session. Robert Kuligowski (NOAA/NESDIS/ORA) visited CIRA in August.  He completed an audio version of  “The Satellite Rainfall Hydro-Estimator” training session that had been offered via teletraining 15 times. The Tropical RAMSDIS at NOAA AOML HRD (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Hurricane Research Division) is a key component of the annual Hurricane Field Project.  The RAMSDIS is used for planning and coordination of activities as well as daily briefings and scientific discussions.  CIRA staff support (J. Dostalek, D. Hillger and H. Gosden) has continued for RAMSDIS use at HRD.  Tropical RAMSDIS was expanded in scope and now runs on Windows 2000 operating system. R. Zehr’s visit to HRD in September 2003 included discussion of RAMSDIS expanded applications and capabilities.  Zehr provided daily tropical weather briefings while at HRD.

J. Weaver, D. Bikos and D. Lindsey worked with several NWS offices while putting together the newest RSO teletraining session titled, “Use of GOES/RSO imagery with other remote sensor data for diagnosing severe weather across the CONUS.”  The offices include:  Pueblo, CO, Roanoke, VA, Pittsburgh, PA, Springfield, MO, Wilmington, OH, Boise, ID, Jackson, MS along with staff from Eastern and Southern Regional Headquarters offices.  D. Bikos is working with R. Mamrosh (NWS Green Bay) on a new ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) VISIT teletraining session.  A case study of the Colorado March blizzard is included and shows that aircraft soundings were especially helpful because normal RAOBs were not available from Denver. The data will also be used for a future session on winter weather. Reviewer comments for the manuscript “Noteworthy Aspects of a Severe Left Moving Thunderstorm of 25 May 1999″ by J. Dostalek, J. Weaver and L. Phillips (NWS/LBB) have been addressed and the paper returned to the editor at Weather and Forecasting.

J. Weaver and J. Dostalek continue their interaction with Loren Phillips (NWS Lubbock) on the severe thunderstorm paper, and with NWS offices in ABQ, SLC and AFG on a new VISIT session.

The manuscript entitled, “Microscale Aspects of Rainfall Patterns as Measured by a Local Volunteer Network” by N. Doesken, J. Weaver, and M. Osecky has been accepted by National Weather Digest contingent on a number of revisions.  N. Doesken (Colorado Climate Center) is supervising this process.

As has been done in past years during the active Atlantic hurricane season, the CIRA Weather Lab and Tropical RAMSDIS provide the venue for daily 3pm informal discussions of ongoing global tropical cyclones along with satellite image applications and forecasts.  CSU graduate students and faculty participate along with CIRA personnel, with typical attendance ranging from 10 to 20. 

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

Nothing new to report this quarter.

D. Hillger provided an electronic review for the National Science Foundation of a satellite-based Antarctic fog-research proposal offered by the University of Wisconsin. 

M. DeMaria provided answers to three questions on tropical cyclones to be published in the “Questions and Answers” section of Weatherwise. The questions involved various factors that affect tropical cyclone formation and intensification. 

The RAMM Team web page was updated for the annual NOAA Review. Additional work is being done on the page to minimize disk space requirements, and to implement a standard format for all Cooperative Institutes.

A new SID page entitled “Observations of a fast, left-moving storm on 4 May 2003″ has been posted.  The first section is a very brief overview of the storm, and the second section is a more detailed analysis of the case.  The page is located at:  http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/picoday/030729/030729.html. 

More efficient software coding has decreased the run time of the McIDAS program “MEANWIND.”  A new field, the 200-850 hPa pressure-weighted mean wind, is now calculated along with the average wind vectors at model heights, and the 200-850 hPa and 500-850 hPa wind shear vectors.  These fields are calculated within a user-defined circular or annular domain.  MEANWIND is used by the RAMM Branch for daily tropical weather briefings during the hurricane season.  A copy has also been sent to the Hurricane Research Division for use on their RAMSDIS unit. In addition to real-time use, the program has been modified to operate on past GFS model data.

Problems were observed with the image display window in the graphical interface of the McIDAS-NT version 2002b.  The display, after some time in the image display window, would get garbled to a point where the system required a reboot or the restart of the software.  The problem has been reported to the McIDAS User’s Group at SSEC in Wisconsin.  We at CIRA are also looking into the problem.

All ingested image products on the Tropical RAMSDIS are being saved to DVD, for the “2003 Hurricane Season.”  This work is supported by student hourlies. The archive is complete for the period July 8 –September 18, and archiving will continue through October.

Hiro Gosden has registered to attend the 2003 MUG Meeting in Madison, WI.  Detailed information pertaining to the upcoming meeting can be found here:

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mug/hot_topics/mugmtg/2003/MUGMTGTOP.html

Phase 2 of the Linux upgrade is underway.  Hardware has been purchased to implement a 600 GB RAID on the WES workstation. 

A manuscript entitled “VISIT — Bringing Training to Weather Service Forecasters using a New Distance Learning Tool” by A. Mostek, J. Weaver, D. Bikos, D. Lindsey, S. Bachmeier, T. Whittaker, B. Grant, J. LaDue, B. Zajac and Brian Motta was submitted to the Bull. of the Amer. Meteor. Soc.

Development on the Learning Management System (LMS) continues.  The initial release, scheduled for late this calendar year, will only include online training sessions.  For VISIT, audio versions of various teletraining sessions will be included in this release.  A full transition of VISIT scheduling and evaluation functions to the LMS will be included in a later release, probably late in 2004. 

Robert Kuligowski (NOAA/NESDIS/ORA) visited CIRA in August.  He completed an audio version of  “The Satellite Rainfall Hydro-Estimator” training session that had been offered via teletraining 15 times.

During this quarter 33 VISIT teletraining sessions were delivered, 538 students from 164 NWS offices participated.

New VISIT teletraining that debuted this quarter include, “Use of GOES RSO imagery with other Remote Sensor Data for Diagnosing Severe Weather across the CONUS” (taught by Dan Bikos, John Weaver and Dan Lindsey – this session is informally referred to as “RSO-III” since it is the 3rd teletraining session in a series of using GOES RSO data), and “Navigating CPC’s website” (taught by Ed O’Lenic of the Climate Predication Center and Julie Adolphson of the WFO in Glasgow, MT).

As we approach the winter season, we will be developing a new teletraining session on extreme winter snowstorms.  This will include forecast applications from the Cyclogenesis session taught by Dan Bikos and John Weaver.

A training certificate of completion is sent out to participants who have returned evaluations.  The following graph shows the total number of certificates issued since we started this in April 1999.  As of September 19, the total is 11,591 certificates. 

The following table shows a breakdown of the metrics for each VISIT teletraining session valid April 1999 – September 19, 2003.  For a complete list and description of each VISIT session see this web page:
http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/visit/ts.html

IST PDS/VISIT Teletraining Sessions Summary
April 1999 through September 19, 2003

Nothing New to Report this Quarter.

J. Weaver gave a presentation on severe thunderstorms to middle school students participating in the Colorado State University summertime “Kids in College” program.

Nothing New to Report this Quarter.

Nothing New to Report this Quarter.

Received:

D. Molenar attended the Red Hat Certified Engineer Fast Track training course in Denver, CO, from September 8-12.  The course covered advanced aspects of Linux Red Hat system administration and provided solutions to many of the problems encountered in RAMMT’s ongoing transition from HP-UX to Linux, which is required to maintain compatibility with NWS AWIPS capabilities and to reduce hardware and software support costs.  The sections on system security, file sharing with Windows, and RAID disk configuration were particularly valuable.

Given:

An in-depth training was held in Costa Rica during July 14-18 on the RAMSDIS system and the precipitation and fire products available on the system.  The training was delivered by Dr. Vilma Castro, Universidad de Costa Rica, and Rosario Alfaro, Instituto Meteorologial Nacional, and formerly a CIRA visiting scientist. The training extends the work done under the Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction Project.  CIRA assisted in preparations of materials used in the lectures and labs.  Participants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica attended. 

Published:

Chase, T.N., J.A. Knaff, R.A. Pielke, and E. Kalnay, 2003:  Changes in Global Monsoon Circulations Since 1950. Natural Hazards, 29: 229-254.

DeMaria, M., and J.M. Gross, 2003: Hurricane! Coping with Disaster, edited by Robert Simpson, Chapter 4: Evolution of Tropical Cyclone Forecast Models. American Geophysical Union, ISBN 0-87590-297-9, 360 p. 
 
Hillger, D.W., T.J. Schmit, and J.M. Daniels: 2003: Imager and Sounder Radiance and Product Validation for the GOES-12 Science Test, NOAA Technical Report, NESDIS 115, 66 p.

Kaplan, J., and M. DeMaria, 2003: Large-scale characteristics of rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic basin, Wea. Forecasting, 18,1093-1108.

Nolan, D.S., Grasso, L.D., 2003: Nonhydrostatic, Three-Dimensional Perturbations to Balanced, Hurricane-Like Vortices. Part II: Symmetric Response and Nonlinear Simulations. J. of the Atmospheric Sciences: 60:22, 2717–2745.

Vigh, J., S.R. Fulton, M. DeMaria, and W.H. Schubert, 2003: Evaluation of a multigrid method in a barotropic track forecast model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 131, 1629-1636. 

Accepted:

Demuth, J.L., M. DeMaria, J.A. Knaff, and T.H. Vonder Haar, 2003:  Evaluation of an Advanced Microwave Sounder Unit (AMSU) tropical cyclone intensity and size estimation algorithm.  J. Appl. Meteor.

Dostalek, J.F., J.F. Weaver, L. Phillips, 2003:  Noteworthy aspects of a severe left moving thunderstorm of 25 May 1999.  Wea. and Forecasting.

Grasso, L.D., and T.J. Greenwald, 2003:  Analysis of 10.7 um brightness temperatures of a simulated thunderstorm with two-moment microphysics. Mon. Wea. Review.

Nolan, D., and L.D. Grasso, 2003:  Nonhydrostatic, three-dimensional perturbations to balanced, hurricane-like vortices.  Part II.  Symmetric response and nonlinear simulations.  J. of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Weaver, J.F., D.T. Lindsey, D.E. Bikos, C.C. Schmidt, E. Prins, 2003:  Fire Detection using GOES-11 Rapid Scan Imagery.  Wea. and Forecasting.

Submitted:

Doesken, N.J., J.F. Weaver, and M. Osecky, 2003:  Microscale aspects of rainfall patterns as measured by a local volunteer network. National Weather Digest.

Hodanish, S., R. Holle, and D. Lindsey, 2003:  A small updraft producing a fatal lightning flash.  Wea. and Forecasting.

Dr. K. V. Ooyama gave a seminar at CIRA entitled “Historical aspects of tropical cyclone research” on September 17. 

M. DeMaria gave a seminar entitled “Improvements in Deterministic and Probabilistic Tropical Intensity Forecasting” at the Hurricane Research Division in Miami on August 6.
 

D. Molenar completed a week-long Linux system administration course for Red Hat Fast Track Certified Engineer preparation.

Nothing New to Report This Quarter.

M. DeMaria prepared three Research Program Plans that summarize RAMMT research. These RPPs replace the former OPTORA’s.

A new system Linux system has been configured for modeling work.  Additional systems have been procured for tropical cyclone research and hp server replacement, and are awaiting configuration. Mike Hiatt has configured a 1TB Windows server for use with the GOES-R project. Hard-drive failures occurred on two PC’s, of which one was replaced and the other is awaiting an arrival of the replacement hard-drive.

Nothing to report

Visitors Date of Visit Affiliation RAMMT Contacts Peter Wolf July 10  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Metric Program Office, Gaithersburg MD Don Hillger K.V. Ooyama, retired September 15-19 NOAA/AOML/Hurricane Research Division Miami, FL M. DeMaria William Saylor September 29 Engineers Solutions
Windsor CO D. Hillger Peter Wolf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Metric Program office in Gaithersburg MD visited CIRA on July 10.  Dr. Wolf is a new NIST Technology Services employee and was on an information-gathering trip.  The visit was to discuss and coordinate with the voluntary metric activity of D. Hillger as Webmaster for the non-profit U.S. Metric Association (USMA) with web pages hosted on computers at CSU’s main campus. Meetings/Conferences:   Traveler Dates Conference Place Funding  D. Hillger 20-21 August   Workshop on Satellite Data Applications and Information Extraction  Madison, WI  GIMPAP D. Hillger participated in the Workshop on Satellite Data Applications and Information Extraction held 20-21 August at the Space Science and Engineering Center in Madison WI.  The workshop allowed interaction between NESDIS and other researchers and NWS forecasters from the Wisconsin area.  Presentations were geared towards satellite products and data mining techniques that can produce new satellite products.  The gap between research and operations was found to contain two major elements: 1) Although many new satellite products are available, some only via the Web, these are not as widely publicized as needed and better ways should be devised to make these new products more friendly to the NWS.  Rather there is a tendency towards throwing new satellite products “over the wall” at them.  And 2) It became apparent that AWIPS does not provide adequate training on system upgrades/new products and that VISITview trainers do not have current AWIPS systems that allow them to train on the most recent satellite products, nor that allow them to produce new products tailored to such systems.

AMS: American Meteorological Society 

AMSU: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit 

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. 

CoRP:  Cooperative Research Programs

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 

JHT:  Joint Hurricane Transition 

LAPS: Local Analysis and Prediction System 

LES: Lake-Effect Snow 

McIDAS: Man Computer Interactive Data Access System 

MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

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 

STAR:  Office of Satellite Research and Development 

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