Nowcasting Convective Initation with the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI)

The Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program has funded the development and installation of five Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) systems. These systems have been built at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and deployed in the Oklahoma/Kansas area collocated with wind profilers at Lamont, Vici, Purcell, Morris, and Hillsboro during December 1998. The instruments are robust and operational in the field and are monitored via the Internet in near real time. The AERI systems produce calibrated atmospheric emitted radiances at one wavenumber resolution from 3-20 microns every ten minutes. These radiances contain meteorological information about the vertical structure of temperature and water vapor in the planetary boundary layer. A mature temperature and water vapor retrieval algorithm has been developed over a ten year period which provide ten minute temporal resolution vertical profiles to three kilometers in the planetary boundary layer. These retrievals have now been combined with the hourly GOES temperature and water vapor retrievals from space allowing the retrieval of temperature and water vapor through the entire troposphere at relatively high temporal resolution. Ten minute retrieval of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Convective INhibtion (CIN), and PBL equivalent potential temperature are being provided in near real time at "http://zonda.ssec.wisc.edu/~waynef" from all five AERI systems, providing a unique look at the atmospheric state . This new source of meteorological data has shown excellent skill in detecting rapid atmospheric destabilization, dryline passages, and warm air advection events in partly cloudy and clear atmospheric condition. A series of case studies will be presented from this spring including the inversion "cap" breakdown just prior to the first supercell development on May 3, 1999.