David A. Santek

Recent Innovations in Deriving Tropospheric Winds from Meteorological Satellites

The evolving constellation of environmental/meteorological satellites and their associated sensor technology is rapidly advancing. This is providing opportunities for creatively improving satellite-derived products used in weather analysis and forecasting. For example, the retrieval methods for deriving atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) from satellites have been expanding and evolving since the early 1970s. Contemporary AMV processing methods are continuously being updated and advanced through the exploitation of new sensor technologies and innovative new approaches. It is incumbent upon the research community working in AMV extraction techniques to ensure that the quality of the current operational products meets or exceeds the needs of the user community. In particular, the advances in data assimilation and numerical weather prediction in recent years have placed an increasing demand on data quality. To keep pace with these demands, innovative research toward improving methods of deriving winds from sat...

The Man computer Interactive Data Access System: 25 Years of Interactive Processing

On 12 October 1998, it was the 25th anniversary of the Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS). On that date in 1973, McIDAS was first used operationally by scientists as a tool for data analysis. Over the last 25 years, McIDAS has undergone numerous architectural changes in an effort to keep pace with changing technology. In its early years, significant technological breakthroughs were required to achieve the functionality needed by atmospheric scientists. Today McIDAS is challenged by new Internet-based approaches to data access and data display. The history and impact of McIDAS, along with some of the lessons learned, are presented here.

Interactive visualization of Earth and space science computations

Scientists often view computer algorithms as risk-filled black boxes. The barrier between scientists and their computations can be bridged by techniques that make the internal workings of algorithms visible and that allow scientists to experiment with their computations. We describe two interactive systems developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) that provide these capabilities to Earth and space scientists. These visualization packages help scientists see the internal workings of their algorithms and thus understand their computations.<<ETX>>

Visualizing large data sets in the earth sciences

The authors describe the capabilities of McIDAS , an interactive visualization system that is vastly increasing the ability of earth scientists to manage and analyze data from remote sensing instruments and numerical simulation models. McIDAS provides animated three-dimensional images and highly interactive displays. The software can manage, analyze, and visualize large data sets that span many physical variables (such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed), as well as time and three spatial dimensions. The McIDAS system manages data from at least 100 different sources. The data management tools consist of data structures for storing different data types in files, libraries of routines for accessing these data structures, system commands for performing housekeeping functions on the data files, and reformatting programs for converting external data to the systems data structures. The McIDAS tools for three-dimensional visualization of meteorological data run on an IBM mainframe and can load up to 128-frame animation sequences into the workstations. A highly interactive version of the system can provide an interactive window into data sets containing tens of millions of points produced by numerical models and remote sensing instruments. The visualizations are being used for teaching as well as by scientists.<<ETX>>

High-Latitude Atmospheric Motion Vectors from Composite Satellite Data

AbstractAtmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) are derived from satellite-observed motions of clouds and water vapor features. They provide crucial information in regions void of conventional observations and contribute to forecaster diagnostics of meteorological conditions, as well as numerical weather prediction. AMVs derived from geostationary (GEO) satellite observations over the middle latitudes and tropics have been utilized operationally since the 1980s; AMVs over the polar regions derived from low‐earth (polar)‐orbiting (LEO) satellites have been utilized since the early 2000s. There still exists a gap in AMV coverage between these two sources in the latitude band poleward of 60° and equatorward of 70° (both hemispheres). To address this AMV gap, the use of a novel approach to create image sequences that consist of composites derived from a combination of LEO and GEO observations that extend into the deep middle latitudes is explored. Experiments are performed to determine whether the satellite composi...

Interactive atmospheric data access via high-speed networks

Abstract The VIS-5D system running on large workstations lets scientists interactively explore atmospheric simulation data sets containing up to 5×107 points. A distributed version of VIS-5D running on a workstation and a supercomputer will make it possible to interactively explore data sets containing up to 1010 points. Wide area gigabit networks will bring this capability to scientists at most academic and research institutions. This software will help scientists to interactively develop numerical models of atmospheric phenomena.

S4: An O2R/R2O Infrastructure for Optimizing Satellite Data Utilization in NOAA Numerical Modeling Systems: A Step Toward Bridging the Gap between Research and Operations

AbstractIn 2011, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began a cooperative initiative with the academic community to help address a vexing issue that has long been known as a disconnection between the operational and research realms for weather forecasting and data assimilation. The issue is the gap, more exotically referred to as the “valley of death,” between efforts within the broader research community and NOAA’s activities, which are heavily driven by operational constraints. With the stated goals of leveraging research community efforts to benefit NOAA’s mission and offering a path to operations for the latest research activities that support the NOAA mission, satellite data assimilation in particular, this initiative aims to enhance the linkage between NOAA’s operational systems and the research efforts. A critical component is the establishment of an efficient operations-to-research (O2R) environment on the Supercomputer for Satellite Simulations and Data Assimilation Studies ...

Computer analysis of double-labeled two-dimensional electrophoresis gels

A computerized process for the automatic analysis of double-label autoradiography after two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis has been developed. Matching fluorographs and autoradiographs produced from gels containing 3H- and 14C-labeled proteins are digitized by a rotating drum densitometer and analyzed by the Man-computer Interactive Data Analysis System III. This system locates corresponding protein spots in the films with edge-detection algorithms, converts spot density readings to isotopic disintegrations by reference to standard curves, and computes a 3H:14C ratio for each spot in the gels. On the average, calculated ratios are accurate to approximately 9% for test strips of polyacrylamide gel containing uniform mixtures of 3H and 14C. Values obtained for two-dimensional gels containing n protein spots with a known 3H:14C ratio of 8.6 +/- 0.1 are as follows: 8.1 +/- 1.4 (n = 268), 8.8 +/- 2.1 (n = 278), 9.1 +/- 1.7 (n = 245), and 8.8 +/- 2.2 (n = 223). The computer process greatly reduces the time required to precisely compare two complex protein mixtures and has sufficient precision to detect a doubling in the biosynthesis of any individual protein.

4-D techniques for evaluation of atmospheric model forecasts

Evaluating model performance is difficult in light of the amount of data which is output that is to be compared to an analysis for verification. Examining 2-D plots of many different parameters at several levels is tedious. This information must then be mentally integrated in an attempt to understand where problems may exist. The use of 4-D displays can greatly aid in evaluations by presenting the output of the model as a volume instead of 2-D slices. A capability for 4-D displays of meteorological data is being developed at the Space Science and Engineering Center. The Man-computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) is used for all aspects of the analysis: this includes acquiring data, running the model, storing the output and displaying the results. A version of the Australian Regional Analysis and Forecast Modules were applied to the eastern portion of the USA and adjacent Atlantic Ocean. This assimilation system is being used to analyze intensive observing periods during the GALE (Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment) field experiment.

Recent Advances in Satellite Data Rescue

AbstractTo better understand the impacts of climate change, environmental monitoring capabilities must be enhanced by deploying additional and more accurate satellite- and ground-based (including in situ) sensors. In addition, reanalysis of observations collected decades ago but long forgotten can unlock precious information about the recent past. Historical, in situ observations mainly cover densely inhabited areas and frequently traveled routes. In contrast, large selections of early meteorological satellite data, waiting to be exploited today, provide information about remote areas unavailable from any other source. When initially collected, these satellite data posed great challenges to transmission and archiving facilities. As a result, data access was limited to the main teams of scientific investigators associated with the instruments. As archive media have aged, so have the mission scientists and other pioneers of satellite meteorology, who sometimes retired in possession of unique and unpublished...