Itinerary
| 21 July | Hobart - Perth |
| 21-23 July | CSIRO/EOC Meeting |
| 23-24 July | Perth-London |
| 25 July | London-Birmingham |
| 26-30 July | IUGG Symposium, Birmingham |
| 31-01 Aug | London-Denver |
| 02-06 Aug | University of Colorado |
| 07-08 Aug | Denver-Hobart |
A paper entitled "Derivation of Global Water Vapour Distributions
from ATSR Data" was presented to a session on "The Contribution
of Satellite Observations to Global Climate, Ocean, and Terrestrial
Monitoring". The abstract of the paper is attached as Attachment
1.
Meeting highlights: Susan Solomon (NOAA) discussed the
current vulnerability of the climate system to a major volcanic
eruption. This is due to the high levels of CFCs in the upper
atmosphere which may lead to massive ozone destruction through
chlorine-based reactions between the ozone and volcanic emissions.
Dean Roemmich (Scripps Institute Oceanography, USA) and John Woods
(Imperial College, London, UK) both gave presentations focussed
on global measurements of the marine environment for future climate
and other studies. GOOS, GCOS and GODAE were all mentioned. John
Woods finished by stating that, in the future, tourism and environment
would be the main users and beneficiaries from global measurements
of the ocean system. Neville Smith (Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne)
gave a strong presentation on GODAE which emphasised the importance
of global measurements, and included a plug for the ARGO program.
Other contacts and meetings at IUGG
Bill Rose (MIT): Discussed his proposal for a NASA satellite
to assist in the detection of volcanic ash clouds that are a hazard
to aircraft. We discussed the recent assertions of Dr Jim Simpson
regarding the use of future satellite data for detection of these
clouds. The possibility of using the 8.6 micron channel on MODIS
was discussed. We also discussed the status of the Australian
airborne detection instrument, and details would be passed on
to Dr Fred Prata who leads this project.
Hiroshi Kawamura: Hiroshi is the main contact at NASDA
for air-sea Interaction and SST measurement. We discussed plans
for the GLI meeting in Kyoto in December and the development of
a GLI SST validation plan to be ready for that meeting. We agreed
to exchange some information over the coming months. We also discussed
the different responses to the NASDA AO and would seek to include
any further PIs in our validation planning.
Peter Schluessel: We discussed the development of SST algorithms
to derive skin SST from AVHRR data. We also discussed future research
activity on air-sea interaction. Peter had recently moved to EUMETSAT
and was unlikely to be involved in experimental work in the near
future. However he was still keen to see a continuing development
of algorithms for skin SST measurement. Such research was intrinsically
tied up in heat flux studies and air-sea interaction.
Phone discussion with Dr David Warrilow (UK Dept. of Environment, Transport, and Regions) 28 July
Following the receipt of a letter just prior to departure from Australia I called David Warrilow. The letter from DETR asked if Australia had any interest in ATSR-4 (the next in the ATSR series). We discussed possible funding scenarios in the UK with David stressing that it was unlikely that DETR would be involved and that it was probably time for the next ATSR instrument to fly on a fully operational satellite. Possible support could come from EUMETSAT, UKMO, and ESA. I stated that Australian scientists would be interested in a continuing ATSR program but, like in the UK, a funding source was not immediately identifiable. Nevertheless, if a strong case for Australian involvement could be made, perhaps along the lines on industry development, some funding may be possible. One other option was for Australia to offset some carbon credits for the development of an important international instrument in global climate research. The possibility of meeting in London on 30 July was not possible as David was not in the office that day.
Visit to Imperial College, London, 30 July
Professor John Harries: General discussions on the
state of science in the UK, including the universities and the
research councils' programs. The research program of the College
was described.
Ray Rigby: Discussed the construction and calibration of
the new GERB instrument for estimating the earth's radiation budget
from a geostationary orbit. The first of these instruments has
been calibrated at Imperial College and is now being incorporated
onto the METEOSAT Second Generation (MSG) satellite. The new calibration
facility at Imperial College was viewed and the general calibration
of infrared radiometers was discussed. Two extra GERB instruments
are under construction. It is hoped that eventually there will
be a GERB instrument on all the geostationary meteorological satellites.
Only then will an accurate assessment of the earth's radiation
budget be possible from geostationary orbits.
Jon Molloy: A new airborne instrument is under construction
at the College. This is a Michelson interferometer for measuring
the atmospheric radiance at wavelengths between 12 and 120 microns.
A system of internal and external black bodies is used for calibration
of the instrument. Experience gathered through the Australian
program identified some areas of concern in the aircraft instrument.
Plans are to have the interferometer mounted in the UKMO's aircraft
by October.
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 2-5 August
02 August Bill Emery and I visited the NOAA laboratory
in Boulder for discussions on the development of infrared radiometers
for deployment on ships of opportunity. Bill Emery feels that
the only way to get sufficient data to enable a good understanding
oh the dynamics of the skin layer is too use such radiometers.
The different radiometers developed at CSIRO Atmospheric Research
were discussed as well as the methods of operation and the construction
of the calibration black bodies.
Bill Emery stated that he was going to approach ONR (US Office for Naval Research) for funding to support another radiometer inter-calibration. The use of Miami as the best venue for such an activity was stressed. We also agreed that for this exercise it was important for the different radiometers to all be used on a ship to confirm their performance at sea. (Plans to do this on the inter-comparison at Miami last year did not eventuate.) NOAA personnel present at this meeting were Drs Joe Shaw and Jim Churnside.
Dr Gary Wick(also at NOAA): At this meeting I gave details of a new strategy for SST validation that was presented at the recent ATSR Workshop in Frascati, Italy. The importance of heat flux measurements stressed as was the range of wind speeds over which some assumptions cloud be made about the skin-bulk temperature difference. We agreed that more, better, measurements were required. Further compilation of good ship data was required and Bill Emery said that he had started a data base and would welcome all new measurements..
03 August: With Brian Shannon, Chuck Fowler, Becky Knewtson,
Dan Baldwin, Bill Emery.
MCC currents discussion. Use of larger templates agreed. Also
some need for limiting the current speed was required for good
retrievals. Whether to use SST or BT data sets was still an open
question. Bill showed some comparisons with altimeter data which
were done through collaboration with John Wilkin in NZ. We should
also try and get some data sets for the open ocean to demonstrate
the power on the MCC technique in deriving currents over the global
oceans.
Second discussion on MCC: CCAR would look to develop the use if
stream functions to smooth out erroneous vectors in the MCC fields.
Bill would look for funding to compare SSTs derived with AVHRR
and the TRMM microwave radiometer.
03 August: Down-loaded all the files required for the RAL
transmission model. Briefing to U. Colorado staff (Dan Baldwin
& Brian Shannon) on the use of the model. I agreed to send
over modified versions of the code when major changes had occurred.
ATSR Near-Real Time products: Details of how to down-load NRT
ATSR data from the WWW were specified and examples provided. CSU
should apply to ESA/ESRIN for a user name and password.
Jay Choi: Real time current forecasting in the Gulf of
Mexico. See http://www-ccar.colorado.edu/~jkchoi/gomforecast.html.
Could be useful for John Church and David Griffin.
A second altimeter contact was Bob Leben who demonstrated his
WWW site at http://www-ccar.colorado.edu/~leben . This site gives
global analyses of current and historic altimeter data.
MCC AVHRR/SeaWiFS paper with Chris Rathbone and Paul Tildesley.
JAOT reviewers want more pairs - say 3 for each satellite. Look
at using radiances or counts for SeaWiFS. Also look at using larger
templates and lowering the correlation coefficient threshold.
Other contacts at CCAR: Jeremy Dunn, George Born (Head of Dept.)
ATTACHMENT 1
ABSTRACT:
A new product to be provided by the ATSR instrument team is a
global distribution of averaged infrared brightness temperatures
on a spatial scale of 18m 10 arc-minutes in latitude and longitude).
Data for a one-month period are analysed to demonstrate the potential
of these data to provide a vertical and horizontal distribution
of water vapour amounts over the global oceans. The six ATSR infrared
channels (nadir and forward views at three wavelengths) are applied
in a similar manner to those on the infrared sounding channels
on the operational meteorological satellites. The weighting functions
of the ATSR channels are found to give better vertical resolution
in the lower troposphere than the typical channels used in the
latest operational instruments.