11th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography

Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Improvements to U.S. Air Force Cloud Forecast Model, Advect Cloud
Steven J. Storch, Air Force Weather Agency, Offutt, NE; and D. G. McDonald
Poster PDF (513.2 kB)
The US Air Force's primary cloud forecast model, Advect Cloud (ADVCLD), has been rewritten to address a host of shortcomings that have been identified over the past several years. These include the initialization of the zero-hour forecast with incomplete or aged meteorological satellite data and the assignment of analyzed clouds to the five ADVCLD levels. Other improvements include the correlation of moisture amount to cloud percent at each vertical level and allowing the cross-equatorial advection of cloud amounts. The latest version of ADVCLD uses trajectories to forecast a first-guess field, then updates only those hemispheric grid points having new cloud information available. The correlation between moisture and layer cloud amounts has been generalized for all levels, and cross-equatorial advection/update of cloud information is allowed.

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