Satellite Liaison Blog

I had this posted on the OPC Facebook page yesterday afternoon and thought it would make an interesting, short blog post:

There is a strong, hurricane-force storm affecting Ireland and Great Britain today. As part of our GOES-R and JPSS Proving Ground activities, some new experimental products are being introduced to forecasters.

This image shows the SEVIRI (Met-10) RGB Air Mass product overlaid with a new AIRS Ozone product and ASCAT winds. The green numbers represent concentration of ozone, which correlates well with downward momentum of stratospheric air (high in ozone and potential vorticity). This storm has greater than 400 Dobson units (black circle), which means lots of descending air near the comma-head.

This ASCAT image was chosen as it shows storm-force winds in two locations (> 42 kts), but some stronger (> 56 kts) near the comma head co-located with the high ozone readings. This storm is officially designated a hurricane-force storm based on a later ASCAT-B pass (not shown) which showed winds greater than 64 kts. This is one way forecasters can combine data sets to fully assess the situation and even provide more confidence in a forecast.

The RGB Air Mass product is produced through a collaboration among SPoRT, EUMETSAT, and CIRA.  The AIRS Ozone products are developed by Dr. Emily Berndt, (Postdoc, SPoRT) in collaboration with Dr. Bradley Zavodsky (SPoRT).

For more information on this storm and the official high seas forecast, please visit OPC’s webpage at: www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov

SEVIRI RGB Air Mass product overlaid with the AIRS Total Column Ozone and ASCAT winds valid at 1400 UTC on 12/18/13. The black circle highlights the descending stratospheric intrusion near the comma-head/bent back front.