SOME STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THE APPLICATION OF JAPANESE GMS LOW CLOUD WINDS

A statistical study of GMS low cloud winds in January,April,July and October,1983 shows that on an average,there exist 223.5 low cloud winds over western North Pacific each synoptic time.The low cloud winds have a diurnal change with more low cloud winds at 12 Z than at 00 Z. The wind fields at 850 hPa over western North Pacific,with and without application of low cloud winds, have been analyzed by a successive correction scheme.The results indicate that the flow patterns without low cloud winds are considerably distorted from short of wind data over the oceanic region.On the con- trary,with application of low cloud winds,the flow patterns get much more improved over the oceanic region.

DEVELOPING AND NON-DEVELOPING TROPICAL CYCLONES AS REVEALED BY HIGH DENSITY CLOUD MOTION WINDS

An algorithm for computation of cloud motion winds has been developed at the National Satellite Meteorological Center in China. Since 1997, it has been applied to calculate the cloud motion winds for a 1.25 lat. ×1.25 long. mesh over the northwest Pacific region with the satellite data from GMS-5. The development of the tropical cyclones is studied. It shows that the tropical cyclone is usually intrigued by the westerly jet streams at the upper levels of the troposphere, which may be caused by mid-latitude troughs well extending into the tropics. During the prime season of summer, the westerly flowing equatorward of the TUTT may also be a cause for the generation of typhoons.

A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF FY-2E CLOUD DRIFT WIND HEIGHT REASSIGNMENT IN NUMERICAL FORECAST OF TYPHOON CHANTHU(1003) TRACK

In this paper, we first analyzed cloud drift wind(CDW) data distribution in the vertical direction, and then reassigned the height of every CDW in the research domain in terms of background information, and finally, conducted contrast numerical experiments of assimilating the CDW data before and after reassignment to examine the impacts on the forecast of the track of Typhoon Chanthu(1003) from 00:00(Coordinated Universal Time) 21 July to 00:00 UTC23 July, 2010. The analysis results of the CDW data indicate that the number of CDWs is mainly distributed in the midand upper-troposphere above 500 h Pa, with the maximum number at about 300 h Pa. The height reassigning method mentioned in this work may update the height effectively, and the CDW data are distributed reasonably and no obvious contradiction occurs in the horizontal direction after height reassignment. After assimilating the height-reassigned CDW data, especially the water vapor CDW data, the initial wind field around Typhoon Chanthu(1003) became more reasonable, and then the steering current leading the typhoon to move to the correct location became stronger. As a result, the numerical track predictions are improved.

A Method Fusing Conventional Wind Field with Cloud Motion Wind and Its Application in Location Forecast of the Severe Convection

Based on the fast algorithm of meteorological satellite guide wind vector tracing, cloud motion wind vector is calculated. According to the different characteristics of cloud motion wind field and sounding wind field, a method which fuses conventional data with unconventional data based on variation principle is presented. The fundamental is constructing a cost function that makes the value approach conventional data and the gradient approach unconventional data. Using this method, the conventional wind and the cloud motion wind are fused. The fused wind field has high resolu- tion. Its wind direction approaches cloud motion wind which indicates move direction of the synoptic system, and its velocity approaches conventional wind which indicates move velocity of the synoptic system. The wind field data are used for short-time forecast of severe convective weather location, which gets a good result.

Application of FY-2C Cloud Drift Winds in a Mesoscale Numerical Model

Statistical tests and error analysis of cloud drift winds（CDWs） from the FY-2C satellite were made by using radiosonde observations.According to the error characteristics of the CDW,a bias correction using the thermal wind theory was applied in the data quality control.The CDW data were then assimilated into the GRAPES-meso model via the GRAPES-3DVar.A torrential rain event that occurred in northwestern China during 1-2 July 2005 was simulated.The results indicate that the CDW data were mainly distributed above 500 hPa and the largest amount of data were at 250 hPa.The CDW data below 500 hPa had errors in both the wind direction and wind speed,and the distribution of the errors was irregular,so these data were discarded.The CDW data above 500 hPa had smaller errors,which presented a Gaussian distribution,so these data were adopted.With the assimilation of the CDW data,the southwest airflow near the torrential rain area became stronger in the initial wind field,which intensified the moisture transport and water vapor flux convergence,and finally improved the accuracy of the 24-h forecast of the torrential rain in both rain intensity and rain areal coverage.

A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF FOURIER SERIES ANALYSIS ON CLOUD TRACKING WITH GOES HIGH TEMPORAL RESOLUTION IMAGES

Fourier series analysis is proposed as a new technique to address the problem of“sub-pixel motion”in deriving cloud motion winds(CMW)from high temporal resolution images.Based on a concept different from that of maximum correlation matching technique,the Fourier technique computes phase speed as an estimate of cloud motion.It is very effective for tracking small cellular clouds in 1-min interval images and more efficient for computation than the maximum correlation technique because only two templates in same size are involved in primary tracking procedure. Moreover it obtains not only CMW vectors but potentially also velocity spectrum and variance.A practical example is given to show the cloud motion winds from 1-min interval images with the Fourier method versus those from traditional 30-min interval images with maximum correlation technique.Problems that require further investigation before the Fourier technique can be regarded as a viable technique,especially for cloud tracking with high temporal resolution images,are also revealed.