Month: September 2019

A paper appearing recently in EOS shows that Terra data is continually being used to test new modeling processes. In this study, Terra cloud top height data was used as a tool to compare the results of the superparamertization model to data from a day in April, 2012 over the Netherlands. The superparameterization model produced results that more accurately depicted the cloud height data from Terra, than the standard parameterized version of OpenIFS.

Read the full research paper from the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES)https://doi.org/10.1029/2018MS001600, 2019

Terra is tracking fires in Indonesia. MODIS and VIIRS data have been used to count the number of blazes across the region, which is so far fewer than another recent fire year, 2015. However, some starts are burning in areas so thick with smoke that satellites can’t detect them or burning underground in Indonesia’s peat beds. Smoke, other aerosols, and emissions including carbon monoxide have been released into the air. Terra’s MISR, MODIS and MOPITT instruments track these airborne particles and chemicals, while new models are being tested.

Read more about Indonesia’s current fire season: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145614/smoke-blankets-borneo

Read more about Terra’s role in monitoring the historic 2015 fire season: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/IndonesianFires

With Amazon wildfires in the news, a study published in the journal of Ecohydrology uses ASTER data and data from the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) to look at how changes to land cover in the Amazon affect the exchange of water and heat between the land surface and the atmosphere.

  1. Gabriel Oliveira, Nathaniel A. Brunsell, Elisabete C. Moraes, Yosio E. Shimabukuro, Thiago V. Santos, Celso Randow, Renata G. Aguiar, Luiz E.O.C. Aragao. Effects of land‐cover changes on the partitioning of surface energy and water fluxes in Amazonia using high‐resolution satellite imageryEcohydrology, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/eco.2126

Sep. 03, 2019 – NASA Infrared Eye Analyzes Typhoon Lingling   

The storm that became Typhoon Lingling strengthened very quickly in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and infrared imagery from NASA revealed the powerful thunderstorms fueling that intensification.

On Sept. 3 at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1405 UTC) the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite showed areas northeast and southeast of Typhoon Lingling’s center where cloud top temperatures were as cold as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.2 Celsius). Credit: NASA/NRL

Lingling formed on Sept. 2 as Tropical Depression 15W and strengthened quickly into a tropical storm and then a typhoon.  Although Lingling is to the northeast of Luzon, northern Philippines, there are still some warning signals in effect on Sept. 3. Tropical cyclone wind signal #1 is in effect over the Luzon province of Batanes.

On Sept. 3 at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1405 UTC), the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms within the typhoon. NASA researches these storms to determine how they rapidly intensify, develop and behave.

Tropical cyclones are made of up hundreds of thunderstorms, and infrared data can show where the strongest storms are located. They can do that because infrared data provides temperature information, and the strongest thunderstorms that reach highest into the atmosphere have the coldest cloud top temperatures.

MODIS found those strongest storms were northeast and southeast of the center of circulation where cloud top temperatures were as cold as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.2 Celsius). NASA research has found that cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms with the potential to generate heavy rainfall.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC said that Typhoon Lingling, known locally in the Philippines as Liwayway was located near 21.4 degrees north latitude and 124.2 degrees east longitude. That is 364 nautical miles southwest of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. Lingling was moving to the north and had maximum sustained winds near 65 knots (75 mph/120.3 kph).

JTWC forecasters said that Lingling is moving north and is expected to intensify to 100 knots (115 mph/185 kph) upon passing east of Taiwan. The system will then weaken on approach to the Korean peninsula, but still be at typhoon strength.

By Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Source story

https://blogs.nasa.gov/hurricanes/2019/09/03/lingling-northwestern-pacific-ocean/