Update to AVHRR Polar Winds Processing at CIMSS

A significant update to the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) polar winds processing at CIMSS was introduced on 16 June 2011.

An increase in the spatial coverage over the poles, more accurate time tagging of images, and the production of winds across the day boundary has resulted in many more winds and an improved impact in the Naval Research Lab's (NRL) Atmospheric Variational Data Assimilation System - Accelerated Representer (NAVDAS-AR).

The AVHRR winds are generated routinely at CIMSS using the Global Area Coverage (GAC) data from all operating NOAA polar orbiting satellites and the Full Resolution Area Coverage (FRAC) from Metop.

Improved model performance resulting from an update of the AVHRR polar wind processing can be seen by comparing the observational impact in the latter half of June 2011, after the update was made, to the first half of the month. (Provided by Nancy Baker, NRL, and Randy Pauley, Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center)

---

Back to Front Page