Neural Network Estimation of Atmospheric Thermodynamic State for Weather Forecasting Applications

We present recent work using neural network estimation techniques to process satellite observation of the Earth’s atmosphere to improve weather forecasting performance. A novel statistical method for the retrieval of atmospheric temperature and moisture (relative humidity) profiles has been developed and evaluated with sounding data from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on the NASA Aqua satellite and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and AMSU on the EUMETAT MetOp-A satellite. The present work focuses on the cloud impact on the AIRS and IASI radiances and explores the use of stochastic cloud clearing mechanisms together with neural network estimation. The algorithm outputs are ingested into a numerical model, and forecast information and decision support tools are then presented to a meteorologist. We discuss the underlying physical problem, the algorithmic framework, and the interaction with forecaster.

[1]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Neural Network Estimation of Atmospheric Profiles Using AIRS/IASI/AMSU Data in the Presence of Clouds , 2008, IGARSS 2008 - 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[2]  Claire L. Parkinson,et al.  Aqua: an Earth-Observing Satellite mission to examine water and other climate variables , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[3]  David H. Staelin,et al.  Cloud clearing of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder hyperspectral infrared radiances using stochastic methods , 2006 .

[5]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Neural network Jacobian analysis for high-resolution profiling of the atmosphere , 2012, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing.

[6]  Andrew S. Jones,et al.  A Blended Satellite Total Precipitable Water Product for Operational Forecasting , 2007 .

[7]  W. Blackwell,et al.  Combined Infrared and Microwave Retrievals of Atmospheric Profiles in the Presence of Clouds using Nonlinear Stochastic Methods: The SCENE Algorithm , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[8]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Neural Network Retrievals of Atmospheric Temperature and Moisture Profiles from High-Resolution Infrared and Microwave Sounding Data , 2005 .

[9]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Recent progress in neural network estimation of atmospheric profiles using microwave and hyperspectral infrared sounding data in the presence of clouds , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[10]  Svetla M. Hristova-Veleva,et al.  Relationship of environmental relative humidity with North Atlantic tropical cyclone intensity and intensification rate , 2012 .

[11]  H. Kubota,et al.  Characteristics of deep convection measured by using the A- Train constellation , 2010 .

[12]  Michael Pieper,et al.  Neural network estimation of atmospheric profiles using AIRS/IASI/AMSU data in the presence of clouds , 2008, Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing.

[13]  William J. Blackwell.  Validation of neural network atmospheric temperature and moisture retrievals using AIRS/AMSU radiances , 2005 .

[14]  Bradley Zavodsky,et al.  Improved Regional Analyses and Heavy Precipitation Forecasts With Assimilation of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Retrieved Thermodynamic Profiles , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[15]  Walker S. Ashley,et al.  Fatalities Associated with Nonconvective High-Wind Events in the United States , 2008 .

[16]  J. Knox,et al.  Non‐Convective High Winds Associated with Extratropical Cyclones , 2011 .

[17]  G. Powers,et al.  A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Version 3 , 2008 .

[18]  Hartmut H. Aumann,et al.  An anomaly correlation skill score for the evaluation of the performance of hyperspectral infrared sounders , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[19]  A. Molthan,et al.  Multispectral Imagery for Detecting Stratospheric Air Intrusions Associated with Mid-Latitude Cyclones , 2013 .

[20]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Neural network retrieval of atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles from AIRS/AMSU data in the presence of clouds , 2006, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[21]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  Error Variance Estimation for Individual Geophysical Parameter Retrievals , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[22]  William J. Blackwell,et al.  A neural-network technique for the retrieval of atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles from high spectral resolution sounding data , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.