Tuesday, 16 October 2001
Cloud stereo heights and motions from satellites imagery: examples and automation
A method has been developed to use satellite imagery from different view point to derive stereo heights. Most important, this method does not require simultaneous observations. The Asynchronous Stereo Height and Motion analysis scheme will be discussed for some hand selected cloud cases. In addition it has been applied to a number of cases where the clouds were selected by the WINDCO analysis scheme of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies or the Univ. of Wisconsin. The WINDCO analysis is the scheme used by NOAA/NESDIS in their automatic cloud tracking system
The WINDCO software also provides a cloud height estimate based upon cloud top temperatures. Reasonable agreements in heights occurs between the stereo and IR methods in the majority of the clouds. The interesting situations are the clouds with height disagreements.
With further validation, this will lead to an automatic asynchronous height and motion program for general use.
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