Cal/Val Activities at CIRA

1. Cal/Val Activities at CIRA Don Hillger NOAA/NESDIS, SaTellite Applications and Research (STAR) Regional And Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (RAMMB) Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) Fort Collins CO 80523-1375 http://www.cira.colostate.edu hillger@cira.colostate.edu Don.Hillger@noaa.gov

2. Global Microwave Surface Emissivity Error Analysis PI: Dr. Andrew S. Jones Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation and DoD Army Research Lab Support • Conduct error analysis and validation related to theNESDIS Microwave Emissivity Model (MEM) for AMSU and future sensors. • AMSU-B antenna pattern correction developed, removes a bias for retrievals and data assimilation. Retrieved 23 - 150 GHz AMSU emissivity

3. Global Cloudiness: Nearly Constant in Time from ISCCP Observations ISCCP VIS + IR ISCCP IR AVHRR G. Garrett Campbell and Thomas H. Vonder Haar ISCCP Cloudiness (50 N – 50 S) for 1983 – 2001 shows a downwards trend of 3 % / decade. Is this a real trend? Investigations center on changing geo view angle through time and calibration transfer errors from each new instrument

4. CloudSat Data Processing Center at CIRA CloudSat is a first-ever 94 GHz cloud profiling radar scheduled for launch in Sept 2005. It will fly in formation with the NASA Aqua satellite, a lidar, and other satellites. The primary science objective of CloudSat is to improve the representation of clouds in models. CloudSat will provide a new view of Earth’s clouds which can be used to validate other satellite products as well. CIRA is the data processing center for CloudSat and related ancillary data. http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu

5. Scientific Stewardship of Water Vapor Climate Data Records – A Pilot Study • Goal: Explore stewardship of the NASA Water Vapor Project (NVAP) global water vapor dataset. Compare with the new Aqua measurements (AIRS/AMSR) to look for biases in sensors. Supported by NOAA. Global Merged Total Precipitable Water Talk tomorrow afternoon by John Forsythe

6. Validation of CIRA Tropical Cyclone Algorithms Julie Demuth, Mark DeMaria, John Knaff, Kotaro Bessho, Kimberly Mueller, and Ray Zehr Additional collaboration: CIMSS, JTWC, NCEP/EMC, NCEP/TPC, NESDIS/OSDPD, NESDIS/SAB, NRLMRY Three TC Research Efforts: Intensity and wind radii estimation using AMSU 2-D surface wind retrieval using AMSU Wind structure estimation using IR Funding for all 3 projects provided by NOAA; the Japanese Meteorological Agency also provided some support for K. Bessho

7. Use of GPS for Validation of Microwave Moisture Retrievals over Land Matt Nielsen Department of Atmospheric Science Colorado State University (M.S. July 2005 under Tom Vonder Haar) • GPS TPW is compared to AMSU retrievals • GPS aids evaluations of satellite TPW because of high temporal coverage

8. GOES-N Science Tests(Part of GOES-N Post Launch Testing (PLT)) GOES-N to be launched in 2005 hopefully (latest date 28 July), operational mid-2008 (GOES-O to be launched in 2007, operational in 2009) Science Tests led by ORA/STAR thru RAMMB/Ft. Collins (D. Hillger), ASPB/Madison (T. Schmit), and OPDB/Washington (J. Daniels) Acquire, display, and save PLT radiance data on RAMSDIS at CIRA, as well as at CIMSS Checkout of data quality (noise, striping, etc.) due to better calibration (colder detectors, longer blackbody look) Test GOES-N thru eclipse and keep-out-zones GOES-N Science Tests Website: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/projects/goes_n/ NOAA Tech Report summarizing PLT results hillger@cira.colostate.edu OR Don.Hillger@noaa.gov

9. Summary of changes: GOES-N/O/P instrument changes - GOES-N post-launch check-out is upcoming - better calibration (longer blackbody looks) - better resolution of the 13.3 µm on GOES-O/P GOES-N/O/P bus changes - no spring and fall eclipse outages - reduced Keep Out Zone outages - better calibration (colder detectors) - better navigation (earth sensor -> star tracker) GOES-8/12 GOES-N/P