Tag: Satellite Calibration and Validation

A visual of the NOAA-20 in Earth's orbit

An Improved Method for VIIRS Radiance Limit Verification and Saturation Rollover Flagging

February 25, 2022

Wenhui Wang, ESSIC/CISESS Associate Research Scientist, is first author on a new paper titled “An Improved Method for VIIRS Radiance Limit Verification and Saturation Rollover Flagging” recently published in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Other ESSIC/CISESS scientists credited on the project include Slawomir Blonski, Bin Zhang, and Sirish Uprety.

Figure 1. (a) Horizontal distribution of MiRS NOAA-20 ATMS TPW for all of 2019, (b) meridional distribution of statistics for MiRS NOAA-20 ATMS TPW versus ECMWF (black) and GDAS (red) (dots are bias (mm) and lines are standard deviation (mm)): number of pixels are more than 1.2 million for each latitude between 80°S and 80°N. Beyond this area the number of pixels decreases significantly. Global distribution of bias (mm) of (c) MiRS NOAA-20 ATMS TPW – ECMWF TPW, (d) MiRS NOAA-20 ATMS TPW – GDAS TPW, standard deviation (mm) of MiRS NOAA-20 ATMS TPW versus (e) ECMWF TPW and (f) GDAS TPW. All results are for combined ascending and descending orbits in 2019. The red box (120°W ∼ 150°W & 8°N ∼ 12°N) in each plot indicates an area typically characterized by strong convection (CONV area) and the black box (100°W ∼ 120°W & 5°S ∼ 12°S) indicates an area typically dominated by subsidence (SUBS area).

In-Depth Evaluation of MiRS Total Precipitable Water From NOAA-20 ATMS

February 16, 2022

The MiRS Science Team, composed of ESSIC/CISESS scientists Yong-Keun Lee and Christopher Grassotti, as well as NOAA STAR scientist Mark Liu, published a paper this week titled “In‐Depth Evaluation of MiRS Total Precipitable Water From NOAA‐20 ATMS Using Multiple Reference Data Sets” in Earth and Space Science. Lee was the first author of the study.

A visualization of the longest lightning flash

Watch the Longest Lightning Flash Ever

February 16, 2022

The ESSIC/CISESS Geostationary Lightning Team team, which includes Scott Rudlosky and Daile Zhang, have released a new ArcGIS Story Map via the NOAA GeoPlatform titled “Longest Lightning Flash Ever?”. This website provides stunning visualizations of a recently documented world record flash that covered a horizontal distance of 768 km (477.2 miles) on April 29, 2020. This is equivalent to the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio. This flash was recently certified as the longest single flash world record, as covered in an ESSIC press release.

ESSIC/CISESS at AMS Conferences

February 9, 2022

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting was held virtually this year from January 23 to 27. Simultaneously, AMS held a number of specialized conferences and symposiums, focusing on topics including hydrology, climate variability and change, and atmospheric chemistry. ESSIC/CISESS scientists contributed a large number of talks and posters at the event. Talks included:

The World Meteorological Organization’s Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes recognized two new world records for megaflashes of lightning: (left) The greatest duration for a single lightning flash and (right) The greatest duration for a single lightning flash.

UMD Scientist Helps Certify Two New Megaflash Lightning Records

January 31, 2022

Daile Zhang serves on the World Meteorological Organization’s Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes.

CISESS Presents Two AMS Short Courses

January 26, 2022

Scott Rudlosky and Joseph Patton led an AMS short course titled “Accessing and Applying Geostationary Lightning Mapper Observations” on January 5 and 6. This two-part course introduced the GLM observations and imagery using GLM flash skeletons and gridded products used by the National Weather Service. Participants were shown how to access archived and real-time imagery before conducting a hands-on exercise illustrating their new-found skills. Additional information can be found at this link: Accessing and Applying Geostationary Lightning Mapper Observations.

A visual of the stable radiometric calibration of GOES-16 ABI

Accurate and Stable Radiometric Calibration of GOES-16 ABI IR Channels

January 26, 2022

ESSIC/CISESS Scientist Fangfang Yu (STAR/SMCD/SCDAB) has a new article in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, co-written with Hyelim Yoo, Haifeng Qian, and Xi Shao. The paper describes the radiometric calibration of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Infrared (IR) channels on GOES-16.

Figure 1 | Flooding in July 2021 caused mass evacuation in Weihui, Henan province, in China.

Extreme Rainfall Slows the Global Economy

January 13, 2022

Xin-Zhong Liang was recently published in Nature’s “News and Views” section giving his insight on new research that reported a comprehensive assessment of changes in gross regional product (GRP) relating to excessive precipitation. The study concluded that increases in the numbers of wet days and in extreme daily rainfall dramatically reduces worldwide macroeconomic growth rates.

ESSIC/CISESS Presents at 2021 AGU Fall Meeting

January 11, 2022

ESSIC/CISESS had several talks, e-lightning sessions, posters, virtual town halls, and tutorials at this year’s American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, held in New Orleans and online from December 13 to 17.

CISESS Seed Grant Awards Announced