Examining the Relevancy of NUCAPS Toward Its Ability to Adequately Profile Summertime Saharan Air Layer Outbreaks over the North Tropical Atlantic Basin

The Suomi-NPP NOAA NUCAPS (Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System) is an algorithm that combines infrared with microwave sounders in the form of Skew-T plots for NWS AWIPS platforms that includes Skew-T plots, along with planar gridded cross sections of temperature, moisture, trace gases and cloud-cleared radiances. NUCAPS has been gaining traction operationally by demonstrating skill in diagnosing 3D profiling of cold air aloft, atmospheric rivers, spring and summer pre-convective environments over the Central US and Alaska. During this past summer, a field campaign involving a multinational group of scientists explored the potential application of NUCAPS toward profiling Saharan Air Layer (SAL) outbreaks across the north tropical Atlantic basin. This effort is designed to assist forecasters at the NWS in San Juan, Puerto Rico by issuing more effective alerts of hazardous air quality associated with the dusty SAL air mass propagating across the greater Caribbean. Other agencies standing to benefit from this effort includes the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch at the National Hurricane Center, the International Desk at the Weather Prediction Center, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology in Barbados, and the NOAA NWS WFO's at Key West, Miami, Melbourne, and Ruskin.

In a similar manner to the abovementioned field experiment, the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey (NRL-MRY) is funded by NOAA in a 3 year mission to investigate the unprecedented opportunities of NUCAPS toward better understanding the thermodynamic structure of the SAL propagating across the data sparse Atlantic basin. Additionally, the SAL aspects also translate into improvements toward research related to SAL interactions with tropical cyclones. For this presentation, NRL-MRY will provide preliminary results of NUCAPS profiling of SAL structure. A wealth of remote sensing imagery, in-situ measurements, and model output will be provided that supplement the environment characterization of SAL.