8.2
Recent observations of tropical cyclones with a microwave sounder
Bjorn H. Lambrigtsen, JPL and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; and S. Brown, A. Tanner, J. Oswald, D. Dawson, and R. Denning
The High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) is an atmospheric sounder intended for aircraft deployment. It was designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a grant from the NASA Instrument Incubator Program in 2001 and uses the most advanced technology available to day to achieve excellent performance in a small package. It was first deployed in the field in the 2001 Fourth Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-4) – a hurricane field campaign organized jointly by NASA and the Hurricane Research Division (HRD) of NOAA and operating out of Jacksonville, Florida. HAMSR also participated in the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) hurricane field campaign operating out of Costa Rica in 2005 – also a joint NASA-NOAA experiment. In both of these campaigns HAMSR flew as one of the payloads on the NASA high-altitude ER-2 aircraft. It is also one of the primary payloads in the 2006 NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Activities (NAMMA) field campaign operating out of Sal, Cape Verde off the African coast – this time using the NASA DC-8. Excellent results were obtained in both the CAMEX-4 and TCSP campaigns, and the analysis of the data is proceeding. The primary data products generated with HAMSR consist of calibrated brightness temperatures in two temperature sounding bands and one water vapor sounding bands. Derived products include vertical temperature profiles and water vapor and liquid water profiles from the ground to the flight altitude, and experimental products include estimates of precipitation, ice water path and density in clouds and above convective cells, and convective intensity. We will present selected results from the CAMEX-4 and TCSP campaigns as well as preliminary results from NAMMA. Of particular interest is our experimental products, which may be useful in the assessment of the strength and detection of weakening or intensification of tropical cyclones.
Session 8, Results From Recent Field Experiments and Their Potential Relevance to Operational Prediction
Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, 210B
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