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Two Automated Methods to Derive Probability of Precipitation Fields over Oceanic Areas from Satellite Imagery
- Source :
- Journal of Applied Meteorology. 28:913-924
- Publication Year :
- 1989
- Publisher :
- American Meteorological Society, 1989.
-
Abstract
- Two methods of deriving probability of precipitation fields (PP) over oceanic areas are presented and compared. The cloud fields are analyzed at the scale of ∼130–150 km from satellite visible and infrared imagery and collocated with ship observations of present weather. Method 1 is based on a detailed cloud classification scheme in 20 classes: a mean PP is determined for each cloud class. Method 2 assigns a PP based on cloud top temperature and mean cloud albedo only. For both methods, a normalization with respect to cloud fraction is applied. Method 1 involves more cloud field descriptors than Method 2, but the latter is simpler to implement and much faster. The PPs assigned to individual cloud fields vary between 0% and 65%. The importance of the visible sensor is clearly demonstrated, i.e., infrared-only techniques will be much less accurate. For real-time applications, the two methods provide similar results except for some specific cloud classes where maximum differences reach 13%, due to t...
Details
- ISSN :
- 15200450 and 08948763
- Volume :
- 28
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Meteorology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........d38443f5f9809ad6a40d873aa9a28c7a