Bjorn Lambrigtsen

AIRS: Improving Weather Forecasting and Providing New Data on Greenhouse Gases

Abstract The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and its two companion microwave sounders, AMSU and HSB were launched into polar orbit onboard the NASA Aqua Satellite in May 2002. NASA required the sounding system to provide high-quality research data for climate studies and to meet NOAAs requirements for improving operational weather forecasting. The NOAA requirement translated into global retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles with accuracies approaching those of radiosondes. AIRS also provides new measurements of several greenhouse gases, such as CO2, CO, CH4, O3, SO2, and aerosols. The assimilation of AIRS data into operational weather forecasting has already demonstrated significant improvements in global forecast skill. At NOAA/NCEP, the improvement in the forecast skill achieved at 6 days is equivalent to gaining an extension of forecast capability of six hours. This improvement is quite significant when compared to other forecast improvements over the last decade. In addition to NCEP, ECM...

Vertical Moist Thermodynamic Structure and Spatial–Temporal Evolution of the MJO in AIRS Observations

Abstract The atmospheric moisture and temperature profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit on the NASA Aqua mission, in combination with the precipitation from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), are employed to study the vertical moist thermodynamic structure and spatial–temporal evolution of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). The AIRS data indicate that, in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the temperature anomaly exhibits a trimodal vertical structure: a warm (cold) anomaly in the free troposphere (800–250 hPa) and a cold (warm) anomaly near the tropopause (above 250 hPa) and in the lower troposphere (below 800 hPa) associated with enhanced (suppressed) convection. The AIRS moisture anomaly also shows markedly different vertical structures as a function of longitude and the strength of convection anomaly. Most significantly, the AIRS data demonstrate that, over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the enhanced (suppressed) convection is g...

Biases in total precipitable water vapor climatologies from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer

[1] We examine differences in total precipitable water vapor (PWV) from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) experiments sharing the Aqua spacecraft platform. Both systems provide estimates of PWV over water surfaces. We compare AIRS and AMSR-E PWV to constrain AIRS retrieval uncertainties as functions of AIRS retrieved infrared cloud fraction. PWV differences between the two instruments vary only weakly with infrared cloud fraction up to about 70%. Maps of AIRS-AMSR-E PWV differences vary with location and season. Observational biases, when both instruments observe identical scenes, are generally less than 5%. Exceptions are in cold air outbreaks where AIRS is biased moist by 10-20% or 10-60% (depending on retrieval processing) and at high latitudes in winter where AIRS is dry by 5-10%. Sampling biases, from different sampling characteristics of AIRS and AMSR-E, vary in sign and magnitude. AIRS sampling is dry by up to 30% in most high-latitude regions but moist by 5-15% in subtropical stratus cloud belts. Over the northwest Pacific, AIRS samples conditions more moist than AMSR-E by a much as 60%. We hypothesize that both wet and dry sampling biases are due to the effects of clouds on the AIRS retrieval methodology. The sign and magnitude of these biases depend upon the types of cloud present and on the relationship between clouds and PWV. These results for PWV imply that climatologies of height-resolved water vapor from AIRS must take into consideration local meteorological processes affecting AIRS sampling.

NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Field Experiment

In August–September 2010, NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) conducted separate but closely coordinated hurricane field campaigns, bringing to bear a combined seven aircraft with both new and mature observing technologies. NASAs Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment, the subject of this article, along with NOAAs Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX) and NSFs Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud-Systems in the Tropics (PREDICT) experiment, obtained unprecedented observations of the formation and intensification of tropical cyclones. The major goal of GRIP was to better understand the physical processes that control hurricane formation and intensity change, specifically the relative roles of environmental and inner-core processes. A key focus of GRIP was the application of new technologies to address this important scientific goal, including the first ever use of the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft for hurricane science operations. NASA and NOAA conducted coord...

Calibration of the AIRS microwave instruments

Aqua carries three microwave radiometers that form an integral part of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) sounding suite. Two Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A modules, one operating with two channels in the 23-31-GHz range and one operating with 12 channels in the 50-60-GHz range and one channel at 89 GHz, provide all-weather temperature soundings and cloud information. The Humidity Sounder for Brazil operates with four channels in the 150-190-GHz range and provides all-weather humidity and cloud soundings. All are cross-track scanners, as is AIRS. While there are significant differences between these three instruments, they are sufficiently alike that a common approach can be used to calibrate them. We describe the instruments and their heritage, the onboard calibration system, and the ground-based calibration processing.

An Update on the Oceanic Precipitation Rate and Its Zonal Distribution in Light of Advanced Observations from Space

AbstractThis study contributes to the estimation of the global mean and zonal distribution of oceanic precipitation rate using complementary information from advanced precipitation measuring sensors and provides an independent reference to assess current precipitation products. Precipitation estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) and CloudSat cloud profiling radar (CPR) were merged, as the two complementary sensors yield an unprecedented range of sensitivity to quantify rainfall from drizzle through the most intense rates. At higher latitudes, where TRMM PR does not exist, precipitation estimates from Aqua’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) complemented CloudSat CPR to capture intense precipitation rates. The high sensitivity of CPR allows estimation of snow rate, an important type of precipitation at high latitudes, not directly observed in current merged precipitation products. Using the merged precipitation estima...

What does CloudSat reveal about global land precipitation detection by other spaceborne sensors

Current orbital land precipitation products have serious shortcomings in detecting light rain and snowfall, the most frequent types of global precipitation. The missed precipitation is then propagated into the merged precipitation products that are widely used. Precipitation characteristics such as frequency and intensity and their regional distribution are expected to change in a warming climate. It is important to accurately capture those characteristics to understand and model the current state of the Earths climate and predict future changes. In this work, the precipitation detection performance of a suite of precipitation sensors, commonly used in generating the merged precipitation products, are investigated. The high sensitivity of CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) to liquid and frozen hydrometeors enables superior estimates of light rainfall and snowfall within 80°S–80°N. Three years (2007–2009) of CloudSat precipitation data were collected to construct a climatology reference for guiding our analysis. In addition, auxiliary data such as infrared brightness temperature, surface air temperature, and cloud types were used for a more detailed assessment. The analysis shows that no more than 50% of the tropical (40°S–40°N) precipitation occurrence is captured by the current suite of precipitation measuring sensors. Poleward of 50° latitude, a combination of various factors such as an abundance of light rainfall, snowfall, shallow precipitation-bearing clouds, and frozen surfaces reduces the space-based precipitation detection rate to less than 20%. This shows that for a better understanding of precipitation from space, especially at higher latitudes, there is a critical need to improve current precipitation retrieval techniques and sensors.

The High-Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer for the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Instrument Description and Performance

The Jet Propulsion Laboratorys High-Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) is a 25-channel cross-track scanning microwave sounder with channels near the 60- and 118-GHz oxygen lines and the 183-GHz water-vapor line. It has previously participated in three hurricane field campaigns, namely, CAMEX-4 (2001), Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (2005), and NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (2006). The HAMSR instrument was recently extensively upgraded for the deployment on the Global Hawk (GH) unmanned aerial vehicle platform. One of the major upgrades is the addition of a front-end low-noise amplifier, developed by JPL, to the 183-GHz channel which reduces the noise in this channel to less than 0.1 K at the sensor resolution (~2 km). This will enable HAMSR to observe much smaller scale water-vapor features. Another major upgrade is an enhanced data system that provides onboard science processing capability and real-time data access. HAMSR has been well characterized, including passband characterization, along-scan bias characterization, and calibrated noise-performance characterization. The absolute calibration is determined in-flight and has been estimated to be better than 1.5 K from previous campaigns. In 2010, HAMSR participated in the NASA Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes campaign on the GH to study tropical cyclone genesis and rapid intensification. HAMSR-derived products include observations of the atmospheric state through retrievals of temperature, water-vapor, and cloud-liquid-water profiles. Other products include convective intensity, precipitation content, and 3-D storm structure.

Status of high‐latitude precipitation estimates from observations and reanalyses

An intercomparison of high-latitude precipitation characteristics from observation-based and reanalysis products is performed. In particular the precipitation products from CloudSat provide an independent assessment to other widely used products, these being the observationally-based GPCP, GPCC and CMAP products and the ERA-Interim, MERRA and NCEP-DOE R2 reanalyses. Seasonal and annual total precipitation in both hemispheres poleward of 55° latitude is considered in all products, and CloudSat is used to assess intensity and frequency of precipitation occurrence by phase, defined as rain, snow or mixed phase. Furthermore, an independent estimate of snow accumulation during the cold season was calculated from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). The intercomparison is performed for the 2007-2010 period when CloudSat was fully operational. It is found that ERA- Interim and MERRA are broadly similar, agreeing more closely with CloudSat over oceans. ERA-Interim also agrees well with CloudSat estimates of snowfall over Antarctica where total snowfall from GPCP and CloudSat is almost identical. A number of disagreements on regional or seasonal scales are identified: CMAP reports much lower ocean precipitation relative to other products, NCEP-DOE R2 reports much higher summer precipitation over northern hemisphere land, GPCP reports much higher snowfall over Eurasia, and CloudSat overestimates precipitation over Greenland, likely due to mischaracterization of rain and mixed-phase precipitation. These outliers are likely unrealistic for these specific regions and time periods. These estimates from observations and reanalyses provide useful insights for diagnostic assessment of precipitation products in high latitudes, quantifying the current uncertainties, improving the products, and establishing a benchmark for assessment of climate models.

The Humidity Sounder for Brazil - an international partnership

The Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) is a crucial component of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) sounding suite and a valuable contribution from Brazil to the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Aqua mission. Its design and functionality are practically identical to that of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B - proven on the latest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations weather satellites. We briefly discuss its heritage, the measurement concept and principle of operation, and the design. The complex multinational acquisition process employed for HSB is described, along with the approach to be used for operations, derivation of radiometric and geophysical data products, and validation of those products - with emphasis on activities in Brazil. We also describe postlaunch research plans and discuss the importance of humidity observations in tropical regions like Brazil.