Tropical storm structure revealed by stereoscopic photographs from Skylab

A stereo pair of photographs taken by Skylab astronauts over Hurricane Ellen, September 19, 1973, resulted in the first stereo analysis over tropical storms. This pair is also the first evidence to indicate the existence of “supercell” convection in developing tropical storms. The photos are analyzed to determine the cloud top structure of the intense convection occurring in one quadrant of the storm. This type of supercell convection in tropical storms has recently been correlated with subsequent rapid deepening. The stereo analysis revealed that a circular cloud feature over the storm center was a dome which protruded 3–4 km above the undisturbed cirrus clouds. The center of the dome was capped by smaller scale convective turrets which protruded another 1–2 km above the dome. The existence of shear induced waves in the cloud tops is shown with wave amplitude ranging from 150–300 m and wave lengths ranging from 2–4 km. The existence of gravity waves at the cloud tops is also shown with wave amplitudes of 500–600 m and wavelengths of 10–12 km.     

Cloudiness over the Eastern Equatorial Pacific for summer 1983 from geostationary satellite data

The extraordinary El-Nino event of 1982–83 started to fade out in the late spring of 1983. However the sea surface temperature of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific still remained warmer than normal in the following summer. To investigate the characteristics of this late transition phase of the 1982–83 El-Nino, the GOES-West satellite data of July and August of 1983 are analyzed. The outgoing longwave radiation field and the distribution of cloudiness, which was derived by using a new threshold technique, are obtained. The longwave radiation field is compared to monthly average climatic indices commonly used at the Climatic Analysis Center. The results of cloud analysis showed some interesting features during the decaying phase of the 1982–83 El-Nino. The diurnal variation of cloudiness indicates that total cloud amounts decrease from 8 GMT to 20 GMT over most of the area. This overall study demonstrates preliminary results of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project of the World Climate Research Program.     

A comprehensive statistical study of cloud base height using ceilometer over western India

A comprehensive statistical analysis of the cloud base height (CBH) measured by ground-based Vaisala ceilometer (CL31) has been performed to study different layers of the cloud in the lower troposphere up to 7.5?km height over Ahmedabad, western India during 2014 and 2015. The total observations (～69%) of cloud by using ceilometer show annual cloud occurrence frequency of around 64%. Seasonal variation of CBH and cloud occurrence frequency reveal that the maximum/minimum cloud cover is found during southwest (SW) Indian summer monsoon/pre-monsoon season. Three CBHs (CBH1, CBH2, and CBH3) are presented in monsoon period due to high cloud occurrence, and two CBHs (CBH1 and CBH2) are observed in other seasons due to low cloud occurrence by ceilometer over the observational site. The CBH1 (～100–2000?m) and CBH2 (500–3000?m) are observed during SW monsoon and summer season, respectively. The CBH3 is occurred usually in SW monsoon season. Moreover, the cloud cover during the day and night time shows that the occurrence of cloud is more frequent in daytime than nighttime during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season. The statistical analysis of cloud with ground-based observations is also performed in this study that may be useful for the development/improvement of regional weather and climate models to reduce the uncertainty in the prediction.     

Climatological characteristics of cloud cover over Europe from meteorological satellites

Climatological characteristics of cloud cover - means, variances, structure functions - previously computed for five years are compared with the results of a new test cloud cover data set of one year period. The effects on the cloud field of the Alps, the Carpathian basin and the land-ocean interface, further the seasonal changes of the general circulation are well reflected. The new test data set is based upon digitized data of one morning as well as one afternoon picture per day. Therefore some results are also obtained of the cloud cover variations during the day.     

基于对抗和迁移学习的灾害天气卫星云图分类

针对卫星云图中的灾害天气数据存在严重不平衡问题,提出一个结合生成对抗学习（GAN）和迁移学习（TL）的卷积神经网络（CNN）框架以解决上述问题进而提高基于卫星云图的灾害天气分类精度。该框架主要包含基于GAN的数据均衡化模块和基于迁移学习的CNN分类模块。上述2个模块分别从数据和算法层面解决数据的类间不平衡问题,分别得到一个相对均衡的数据集和一个可在不同类别数据上提取相对均衡特征的分类模型,最终实现对卫星云图的分类,提高其中灾害天气的卫星云图类别分类准确率。与此同时所提方法在自建的大规模卫星云图数据上进行了测试,消融性和综合实验结果证明了所提数据均衡方法和迁移学习方法是有效的,且所提框架模型对各个灾害天气类别的分类精度都有显著提升。      

A study of the onset of the Indian monsoon as seen from GEOS I.O. satellite

Wind fields deduced from cloud motions are extracted by an optical method from GOES I.O. pictures during FGGE : 1–10 February 1979, 16 May – 7 July 1979. These winds are compared with in-situ measurements with dropsondes. The onset of the monsoon is described from the point of view of winds and cloud cover.     

Ionospheric storm due to solar Coronal mass ejection in September 2017 over the Brazilian and African longitudes

Coronal mass ejection (CME) occurs when there is an abrupt release of a large amount of solar plasma, and this cloud of plasma released by the Sun has an intrinsic magnetic field. In addition, CMEs often follow solar flares (SF). The CME cloud travels outward from the Sun to the interplanetary medium and eventually hits the Earth’s system. One of the most significant aspects of space weather is the ionospheric response due to SF or CME. The direction of the interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind speed, and the number of particles are relevant parameters of the CME when it hits the Earth’s system. A geomagnetic storm is most geo-efficient when the plasma cloud has an interplanetary magnetic field southward and it is accompanied by an increase in the solar wind speed and particle number density. We investigated the ionospheric response (F-region) in the Brazilian and African sectors during a geomagnetic storm event on September 07–10, 2017, using magnetometer and GPS-TEC networks data. Positive ionospheric disturbances are observed in the VTEC during the disturbed period (September 07–08, 2017) over the Brazilian and African sectors. Also, two latitudinal chains of GPS-TEC stations from the equatorial region to low latitudes in the East and West Brazilian sectors and another chain in the East African sector are used to investigate the storm time behavior of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). We noted that the EIA was disturbed in the American and African sectors during the main phase of the geomagnetic storm. Also, the Brazilian sector was more disturbed than the African sector.     

Generalised variational assimilation of cloud-affected brightness temperature using simulated hyper-spectral atmospheric infrared sounder data

Assimilated channel brightness temperature data from infrared sounders accounting for cloud effects have a positive effect on weather forecasting, especially in weather-sensitive areas. When cloud effects are included, the channel brightness temperature deviations follow a non-Gaussian distribution. However, classical variational data assimilation follows a Gaussian distribution. When processing the cloud-affected brightness temperature, useful data are lost through the cloud detection process, thus assimilating some channel brightness temperatures with weight function peaks above the cloud top. Furthermore, strict quality control of brightness temperature removes outliers. By adopting the generalised variational assimilation method, which assumes that errors follow a non-Gaussian distribution, this paper assimilates the cloud-affected brightness temperature using simulated data for the hyper-spectral atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS). A channel set is formed by dynamically selecting AIRS channels. The experiments for retrieving temperature and humidity data demonstrate that the generalised variational assimilated cloud-affected brightness temperature method performs better than the classical method.     

Satellite measurements of cloud reflectance and optical thickness

We have computed the cloud reflectance and the optical thickness with the aid of atmospheric models from the first eleven months (April 1970 – February 1971) of Backscattered Ultraviolet (BUV) data over the pacific ocean. Both the cloud and the optical thickness are derived from the 380 nm channel by assuming that the entire IFOV (200 Km.) is filled by stratiform clouds. Our analysis show a large variability in the cloud reflectance in both the intertropic conversion zone (ITCZ) and the high latitudes. We also find that for 90% of the time in tropics, the clouds have optical thickness < 10. Our analysis of clouds with optical thickness between 10 and 20 show that in tropics the minimum frequency coincides with the dry zone at 2.5°s and the maximum frequency for clouds of optical thickness 10–20 is greater in summer than in winter and irrespective of the season, 50% of the time the clouds have optical thickness less than 13.     

面向战斗机云作战的构造型仿真平台架构

随着大数据、云计算、物联网、移动互联网等信息技术的迅猛发展与广泛应用,新的作战模式不断涌现,以任务分布式指控流程为核心的云作战成为一种全新的跨域全维作战样式。在分析作战云与云作战特征的基础上,结合传统作战仿真流程提出了云作战体系仿真流程,并提出了云作战构造型仿真平台框架的总体方案设计与系统功能设计。通过云作战构造型仿真示例,对比了传统作战样式与云作战样式的观察-调整-决策-行动（OODA）循环,结果表明,云作战样式能够有效缩短OODA循环时间。      

Volcanism on Venus: Connecting link?

New observational data obtained from Venera-11 through Venera-14 and Pioneer-Venus data (1979–1982) call for searching for the interdependences of the phenomena occurring on this planet. It is proposed that the presence of electrical discharges in the near-surface layers of the atmosphere, the variable density of the above-cloud submicron haze, and the peculiarities of the cloud microphysics can be tied by a hypothesis that volcanic eruptions occur on Venus.     

Statistical approaches to cloud classification

For the determination of clouds from satellite data there exist in general more unknown parameters than independent observations. If the bispectral observations are used from the geostationary satellites in the solar (VIS-channel) and in the infrared (IR-channel) range to derive cloud parameters, information is needed whether a pixel radiance is from a cloud free or a cloudy scene. Statistical methods are applied to derive those informations. Various proposed statistical methods are discussed.The histogram analysis developed at the University of Cologne is described in detail: bispectral (two-dimensional) histograms are partitioned into clusters. Cloud cover results are shown. A comparison is given between the results of the histogram analysis, threshold methods (VIS- and IR threshold separately and both combined) and the spatial coherence method developed by Coakly and Bretherton. The cloud cover varies in this example by a factor of two depending on the definition of the threshold between cloud free and cloudy pixels. It is further shown that after a cluster analysis of a two-dimensional histogram the derived cloud cover is not as sensitive to the threshold as for a threshold method. The methods which are discussed here are those proposed for the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). The results are from the pilot study of the ISCCP.     

The morphology of fair weather cumulus cloud fields as remotely-sensed from satellites and some applications

The morphology of fair weather Cumulus cloud field over several ocean areas distributed globally has been studied using LANDSAT data. Distribution functions of cloud size, spacing, perimeter and other relevant parameters have been derived, as well as their correlations and moments.Examples of distribution functions of cloud size, cloud spacing and fractal dimension of the cloud fields over oceanic areas are given and applied to several problem in Cu convection.     

Estimation of cloud top height and effective cloud cover from infrared satellite soundings

The paper deals with a new method for simultaneous determination of cloud top height and effective cloud cover, using infrared radiance data of satellite-borne instruments. These cloud properties derived from the Selective Chopper Radiometer on the Nimbus 5 satellite are compared with nearly simultaneous observations by radiosondes and with satellite images. Encouraging results for Central-Europe during January, April, July, August and October 1974, as well as numerical simulations indicate that the method proposed here, would be useful also for global application. Another advantage of the described procedure are the small amount of computing time, and that no other data are required than 3 of infrared channel values, for each sounded spot.     

正态云模型雾化性质统计分析

对于超熵较大情况下的正态云模型,说明了云模型雾化过程.通过统计分析云滴离散的整体趋势,说明超熵增大过程中,云滴整体趋于离散.通过分析各论域区间内云滴离散趋势,说明靠近概念核心的云滴的离散速度相对缓慢.归纳云模型雾化性质:在超熵取值持续增大的过程中(HeEn/3),正态云表示的概念的论域范围持续增大,呈雾化状态,但靠近概念核心的论域区间内的云滴不失数量优势.雾化性质适用于建模偏离正态分布、缺乏共识的定量数据,期望表示概念语义值核心,熵描述概念语义的离散程度,超熵表示各种语义的共识程度,扩展了云模型知识表示的应用范围.     

Statistical studies of cloud cover based on pictures from meteorological satellites

Cloud amounts data of a five year period manually digitized from meteorological satellite imagery are used for cloud statistics over the European region. Spatial and temporal structure functions of the cloud field are computed and analysed for the seasons. The results give a numerical representation of the effects of the general circulation and the geographical-physical conditions on cloudiness.     

Remote sensing of clouds

The extraction of information on cloud cover from present-day multispectral satellite images poses a challenge to the remote sensing specialist. When approached one pixel at a time, the derived cloud cover parameters are inherently nonunique. More information is needed than is available in the radiances from each channel of an isolated pixel. The required additional information can be obtained for each scene, however, by analyzing the distribution of pixels in the multi-dimensional space of channel radiances. The cluster patterns in this space yield statistical information that points to the most likely solution for that scene. The geostationary and polar orbiting meteorological satellites all have, at a minimum, a solar reflection channel in the visible spectrum and a thermal infrared channel in the 8–12 micron window. With the information from the cluster patterns and application of the equations of radiative transfer, the measurements in those channels will yield cloud cover fraction, optical thickness, and cloud-top temperature for an assumed microphysical model of the cloud layer. Additional channels, such as the 3.7 micron channel on the AVHRR of the polar orbiting meteorological satellites, will will yield information on the microphysical model—e.g., distinguishing small liquid liquid droplets (typical of low level clouds) from large ice particles (typical of cirrus and the tops of cumulonimbus). New channels to be included in future satellite missions will provide information on cloud height, independent of temperature, and on a particle size and thermodynamic phase, independently of each other. A proposed STS mission using lidar will pave the way for the use of active sensors that will provide more precise information on cloud height and probe the structure of thin cirrus and the top layer of of the thicker cloud.     

自研激光雷达三维点云配准技术

为了实现激光雷达点云与图像重建点云的三维空间配准,基于自研三维扫描激光雷达系统,提出了新型的快速多尺度因子（FMSR）点云配准算法,研究了空间点云配准技术。该算法主要包括初始配准和精确配准2个步骤:初始配准使用基于尺度自适应关键点质量（ASKQ）的点云特征提取算法,提取关键点的特征匹配对,求解点云配准初始参数;精确配准利用K-邻近（KNN）算法全局搜索,提升计算效率,多次迭代得到2组点云之间的最优旋转矩阵、最优平移向量和最优尺度因子。仿真和实验结果表明,所提出的算法对空间目标（尺寸为20.30 m×7.85 m×26.56 m）实现空间点云配准,配准精度达到0.194 m,运行时间为16.207 s;与多尺度迭代最近点（S-ICP）算法相比,配准精度提高了0.131 m,运行时间提高了30%。所提出的空间点云配准技术可为场景重建和纹理匹配提供算法基础。      

Rainfall estimation over a Mediterranean region using a method based on various spectral parameters of SEVIRI-MSG

The ultimate objective of this paper is the estimation of rainfall over an area in Algeria using data from the SEVIRI radiometer (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager). To achieve this aim, we use a new Convective/Stratiform Rain Area Delineation Technique (CS-RADT). The satellite rainfall retrieval technique is based on various spectral parameters of SEVIRI that express microphysical and optical cloud properties. It uses a multispectral thresholding technique to distinguish between stratiform and convective clouds. This technique (CS-RADT) is applied to the complex situation of the Mediterranean climate of this region. The tests have been conducted during the rainy seasons of 2006/2007 and 2010/2011 where stratiform and convective precipitation is recorded. The developed scheme (CS-RADT) is calibrated by instantaneous meteorological radar data to determine thresholds, and then rain rates are assigned to each cloud type by using radar and rain gauge data. These calibration data are collocated with SEVIRI data in time and space.     

基于卫星云图的大区域云层预测方法

云层覆盖是影响对地观测卫星成像的一个重要问题,如果遥感图像中云层比例太高,或者特定目标不可见,则遥感图像就会失效。对地观测卫星能够根据云层预测信息,在多个观测目标之间进行选择。面向对地观测卫星任务规划的应用,设计了大区域范围的短期云层预测方法,首先通过光流法获取云运动矢量,然后依据云运动矢量外推获得预测的云层图像,同时引入拉普拉斯算子刻画云层运动过程中的扩散现象,利用风云二号卫星的真实云图序列数据,通过神经网络的反向传播算法优化扩散因子,以提升云层预测的效果。通过对结果进行分析,引入的拉普拉斯算子方法能够提高云层预测的精度,80%分位数的云层覆盖率误差约为11.7%,该精度的云层预测可以用于指导对地观测卫星任务规划。