Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Satellite Data Use and Exchange

Country Report for Australia

Gary Weymouth

Acknowledgements

• David Griersmith, Anthony Rea, Chris Tingwell, John LeMarshall, SpBOS staff including Mike Willmott, Ian Grant, Mike Kenny

Services provided by the Australian Bureau of

Meteorology• weather forecasts and warnings (and

tsunamis)

• climate and hydrological information

• in support of aviation, shipping, defence, industry and the general public, to enhance economic and social well-being

Main Satellite Activities ABoM• Local and indirect reception, processing and

archive of satellite data– e.g.NOAA, MTSAT-1R, FY-1D, FY-2C,D, Terra/Aqua, ?

Metop.

– e.g. GOES, Meteosat, ERS-2, DMSP, ENVISAT, Quikscat.

• Ranging of geostationary satellites

• National and international activities including real-time user access (e.g.APSDEU, WMO, MOUs, APSATS, APRSAF, GEOSS)

• Applications including NWP, oceanography

• education and training (led by BMTC)

Recent ABoM developments

• ABoM now has responsibility for water availability measurement (expect to become major users of high-resolution satellite data)

• Upcoming adoption of UKMO NWP and 4D-Var data assimilation – will positively improve impact of satellite data on local NWP. Part of enhanced resources for reception and use of satellite data

• pooling of BMRC research resources with CSIRO to form Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR)

Crib Point - south of Melbourne (SE Australia)

Geostationary Products

• Imagery for Forecasters

• Atmospheric Motion Vectors

• Sea Surface Temperatures

• Solar exposure

• volcanic ash detection

MTSAT / FY2D animation

GEO and polar nav / cal

• plan to produce more quantitative cross-calibration of polar and geo IR data – eg improve MTSAT / FY2 loop just shown; quantitative uses eg SST.

• Investigate improvements to nav – eg consistency between different satellties

Locally Generated MTSat-1R Atmospheric Motion Vectors

Table 1. Real time schedule for MTSat-1R Atmospheric Motion Vectors at the Bureau of Meteorology. Sub‑satellite image resolution, frequency and time of wind extraction and separations of the image triplets used for wind generation (/\T) are indicated.

Wind Type Resolution

Frequency-Times (UTC)

Image Separation

Real Time IR     4 km 6‑hourly – 00, 06, 12, 18

15 minutes

Real Time IR (hourly)

    4 km Hourly – 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, . . . , 23

1 hour

Fig. 2 (a) Measured error (m/s) versus EE for high-level MTSAT-1R IR winds (13 March - 12 April 2007

Fig. 2 (b) Measured error (m/s) versus EE for low-level MTSAT-1R IR winds (13 March - 12 April 2007)

Table 4. Mean Magnitude of Vector Difference (MMVD) and Root Mean Square Difference (RMSD) between MTSat‑1R AMVs, forecast model first guess winds and radiosonde winds for the period 30 May to 15 June 2007

Level Data Source

Bias(ms-1)

No. of Obs

MMVD(ms-1)

RMSVD(ms-1)

High – up to 150 km separation between radiosondes and AMVs

AMVs -0.55 1386 3.90 4.47

First Guess

1.3776 1386 4.42 5.09

Low - up to 150 km separation between radiosondes and AMVs

AMVs -0.76 540 3.18 3.72

First Guess

-0.70 540 2.72 3.12

Low – up to 30 km separation between radiosondes and AMVs

AMVs -0.44 18 2.45 3.08

First Guess

-0.20 18 2.67 3.07

Table 5 (a) 24 hr forecast verification S1 Skill Scores for the operational regional forecast system (LAPS) and LAPS with IR, 6‑hourly image based AMVs for 1 to 14 September 2007 (26 cases)

LEVEL (LAPS) S1

(LAPS + MTSAT-1R AMVS) S1

1000hPa900 hPa850 hPa500 hPa300 hPa

19.31     18.50     17.92    13.00     10.31     

18.85     18.18     17.65     12.27      9.81  

Initial Results

local & Japanese AMVs

• positive impact on NWP

• hourly high-density local MTSAT AMV’s being trialled in 4D-Var with positive impact

Example of output from the Bureau's solar radiation model using MTSAT-1R visible

observations and ancillary data

Polar orbiter Products

• Sea Surface Temperatures• Normalised Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI)• Grassland Curing Index• Fog and Low Cloud Detection• Level 1c,d AMSU and HIRS Radiances• Significant Events • volcanic ash• total precipitable water (GPS)

Coverage from Bureau Receiving Stations

Sea Surface Temperatures

Maximum Value Composite NDVI

product

NOAA fog / low cloud imagery

NWP impact

Operational requirements for timely forecasts compel early data cut-offs for basedate-time analyses. Locally received and processed ATOVS data (top row) fill in the gaps in the global ATOVS data set supplied by the Met Office (bottom row) caused by the early cut off.

It is hoped that in the near future data from the Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service (RARS) will also be used. Tests with radiances supplied by JMA should start soon.

12Z 00Z

LOCAL

GLOBAL

FORECAST SKILL - Z

TC Kerry

NWP plans (several years)

• extend use of locally-received ATOVS• additional AMVs• AIRS• SSMI• IASI• MODIS polar AMVs• GPS-occultation• ASCAT

Other applications

• GHRSST, altimetry, …

• AIRS, IASI soundings for forecasters as part of composite observing system (eg including AMDAR, GPS-occultation, radiosonde, surface obs,…)

• water availability

Locally received satellite data

• MTSAT-1R/FY-2D: Melbourne HO & Crib Pt (near Melbourne)

• NOAA: Crib Pt (2), Darwin, Perth, Casey (Antarctica), Alice Springs, Davis

• FY-1D: Melbourne, Darwin, Casey• MODIS: Hobart, Perth, (Alice Springs from

ACRES); AIRS Perth• Hobart, Alice Springs, Perth - consortia• MTSAT-1R, FY-2C - Perth, Darwin, Brisbane &

Sydney, plus Melbourne• ?metop

Indirectly received satellite data

• Meteosat & GOES from SSEC, UKMO, Eumetsat• NOAA from SSEC University of Wisconsin• INSAT from Internet• scatterometer e.g. from GTS or QuikSCAT from

NOAA/NESDIS • ERS altimeter in BUFR from GTS• ENVISAT RA and AATSR ftp from ESA• SSM/I DMSP from NOAA/NESDIS• ATOVS (SATEMs) from NOAA/NESDIS & UKMO• SATOB AMVs and SSTs• metop (will be direct if direct broadcast returns)• AIRS from NESDIS

X-band Project

• Contract signed with ES&S in February for $1.6m

• Three proposed sites – – Northern Territory (Darwin area)– Victoria (Crib Point)– Antarctica (Casey)

• Three problems – – Site Tenure – Radiofrequency licensing– Logistics

Geostationary

L-band Polar Orbiting

X-band Polar Orbiting

Coverage from Bureau Receiving Stations

What does that give us?

• Advanced Imagers– Good for looking at surface properties– Improved cloud and land surface products

• Cloud examples: Cloud temperature, cloud phase, polar winds

• Surface: colour imagery, grassland curing, sea surface temperature

What does that give us (2)?

• Hyperspectral Sounders– Good for looking at the atmosphere– Improved temperature and moisture

measurement• NWP Application• Soundings independent of models• Atmospheric chemistry

AIRS Impact

• "This AIRS instrument has provided the most significant increase in forecast improvement in this time range of any other single instrument,"

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

• Means of rapidly disseminating locally received ATOVS data to avoid delays associated with global data

• Dr David Griersmith is the Asia-Pacific RARS coordinator

Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service (RARS)

Timeliness of Australian RARS data

• usually starts going onto GTS within 15 minutes of completion of image reception

ASIA-Pacific RARS Status

Processing/Dissemination Centre

HRPT stations from which data are made available from the Centre

Comments

Tokyo Tokyo KiyoseSyowa, AntarcticaSeoul KoreaBeijing, Guangzhou and

Urumiji

Melbourne Melbourne Crib Point DarwinPerthSingaporeNew Zealand

Hong Kong expected by end of 2007.

Projected Status – June 2008Processing/Dissemination

CentreHRPT stations from which

data are made available from the Centre

Comments

Tokyo Tokyo KiyoseSyowa, AntarcticaSeoul KoreaBeijing, Guangzhou and

Urumiji

Melbourne Melbourne Crib Point DarwinPerth?DavisSingaporeNew ZealandHong KongFiji

Fiji could be end 2008

Townsville mid-2009+,

Casey early 2009

Davis subject to bandwidth. Top priority satellites and instruments? (Davis metop not until 2008/9)

Benefits to NWP

• Significant improvements to short cut-off analyses have been demonstrated at JMA using AP-RARS data.

• Impact experiments within the Bureau’s regional and global models have also clearly demonstrated the value of timely data.

Issues

• Ageing infrastructure– UIMP and X-band rollout

• Radio Frequency Protection– Ongoing dialogue with regulator– Give and take approach

Future Reception Plans

• Completion of X-band Network• Completion of USB Rollout

– End of L-band reception after METOP?

• Expansion of RARS– Incorporation of X-band data

• FengyunCAST– Increasing use of alternate means of data

dissemination– End of direct reception?

Australia: requirements• Requirements via RARS:

– ATOVS, ASCAT, AIRS, IASI, possibly GPS occultation• other data

– MODIS, DMSP (e.g.SSM/IS), possibly GPS occultation• Geographical regions: global. Australian region

requirements well met but would like to expand to Antarctica, then global

• Data formats: BUFR mainly for NWP, netCDF for some data

• Timeliness: 30 mins preferably for GEO data• Modelling - adopting UKMO NWP system• Access Mechanisms: initially GTS; later would like satellite

broadcast eg FengYunCAST