Institute of Meteorology and Water Management
„Satellite Remote Sensing as a tool for
monitoring of climate and environment
Piotr Struzik
Satellite Research Department, IMWM Kraków
Presentation outline
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Evolution of meteorological satellite system
Parameters related to climate derived from satellite informatiom
Benefits and limitation of satellite data for climatology.
Conclusions
Meteorological observations – ground obs., ships, aircrafts.
Development of meteorological satellite
system
1978
1960
1990
Global system of meteorological satellites – present
Clouds viewed from polar orbiting TIROS launched 1 Apr 1960
METEOSAT-8
MTSAT
GOES-E
Images from 5 geostacjonary satellites
GOES-W
METEOSAT-5
Essential Climate Variables available from satellite
observations
Key Areas of Uncertainty
in Understanding Climate & Global Change
* Earth’s radiation balance and the influence of clouds on
radiation and the hydrologic cycle
* Oceanic productivity, circulation and air-sea exchange
* Transformation of greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere,
with emphasis on the carbon cycle
* Changes in land use, land cover and primary productivity,
including deforestation
* Sea level variability and impacts of ice sheet volume
* Chemistry of the middle and upper stratosphere, including
sources and sinks of stratospheric ozone
* Volcanic eruptions and their role in climate change
Satellite based Climate Data Records
unique challenges:
• the need to manage extremely large volumes of data;
• restrictions of spatial sampling and resolution;
• accounting for orbit drift and sensor degradation over time;
• temporal sampling;
• difficulty of calibrating after launch (e.g., vicarious or onboard calibration);
• the need for significant computational resources for reprocessing.
Where satellite sensors can be placed on this
diagram?
ATMOSPHERE TEMPERATURE SOUNDING
• In 1969 Nimbus 3 carried the first of a new class of remote-sounding sensors,
the Space Infra-Red Sounder (SIRS A),
• First operational sounder system in 1972, the Vertical Temperature Profile
Radiometer (VTPR), aboard the NOAA 2 In 1978,
• Next generation (TIROS N) was launched with an improved 20-channel High
Infrared Sounder (HIRS) accompanied by the Microwave Sounder Unit (MSU)
and Stratospheric
• Sounder Unit (SSU) forming the TIROS Operation Vertical Sounder (TOVS)
• In 2002 NASA launched Aqua carrying the first hyperspectral Atmospheric
Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/AMSU/Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB)
• 2006 – first METOP satellite with IASI (8500 channels)
AIRS 2378
IASI 8461
HIRS 19
CrIS 1400
AIRS radiance changes (in deg K) to atm & sfc changes
SATELLITE PRECIPITATION
EARTH RADIATION BUDGET AND CLOUDS
Validation:
Solar at
TOA:
CERES vs.
ISCCP
(B.Carlson, NASA)
CMa - verification
Distribution close to normal, a bit higher
cloudiness from satellite.
Mean cloudiness in June 2006 derived from CMa MSG product
VEGETATION DYNAMICS AND LAND COVER
Vegetation index monthly anomaly time series July 1981 to December 2000. The impact of
satellite drift is clearly noticeable, especially in the case of NOAA 11 and 14. Likewise,
the impact of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in June 1991 and El Chichon in March 1982 is also
discernable.
Northern Latitude Greening Trends
AVHRR observations suggest that
the growing season increased
between 1981 and 1994 (10%),
but questions remain, mainly with
respect to calibration and intercalibration of sequential
satellite instruments (Knyazikhin,
Myneni, and Shabanov)
Greening trend?
Orbital drift?
Inter-sensor variation?
Noise in the channel data?
SNOW MAP PRODUCT
September 2003 sea
ice concentration SH.
12-month running anomalies of hemispheric snow extent, plotted on the seventh month of a
given interval. Anomalies are calculated from NOAA snow maps. Monthly anomalies are color
coded by season: fall: orange; winter: blue; spring: green; summer: red.
Physical and biological changes in the surface of the oceans on local, regional and basin
scales.
Oceans cover 70% of the earth surface, play a major role in the spatial and temporal
distribution of weather patterns, the production of natural resources, and the large-scale
transport and storage of greenhouse gases.
Ozone
monitoring
by satellites
Total
Ozone
Integrated
Profile
Ozone
Difficulties in use of satellite data for climate
observations
A chronic difficulty in creating a continuous, consistent climate record from
satellite observations alone is that satellites and instruments have a finite
lifetime of a few years and have to be replaced, and their orbits are not stable.
Pre-launch calibration
Post-launch vicarious calibration
Intercalibration
Drift of orbital parameters
Comparison of albedo measurements with and without vicarious calibration. Without proper
postlaunch calibration, spurious trends in the data can occur. SOURCE: Rao and Chen, 1995.
Differences in spectral
characteristics
vs.
Long term vegetation
monitoring
Annual mean anomalies of global average temperature (1979-2002) for the lower
troposphere from satellites (T2) and for the surface.
The surface temperature trend is +0.20 ± 0.06°C decade–1.
The linear trend through 2002 for the UAH T2 product is 0.03 ± 0.09°C decade–1
The linear trend through 2002 for the RSS 0.11 ± 0.09°C decade–1.
University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) 5.1 (Christy et al., 2003)
Remote Sensing System (RSS) (Mears et al., 2003).
Conclusions
Satellite data offer an unprecedented potential for climate
research provided that separate sensor/satellite data are
integrated into high-quality, globally-integrated climate products.
Main issues are accuracy and stability of satellite measurements.
Requirement for much improved calibration of satellite
instruments, and intercalibration of similar instruments flying on
different satellites.
Data management – huge volume of satellite data.
Future missions – new sensors / continuity of observations.