Abstract The operational method for deriving cloud motion winds from METEOSAT infrared (IR: 10.5–12.5μm) images and recent changes are described. The wind extraction works fully automatically and is followed by a manual quality control. At present about 3000 wind vectors per day are produced with four production runs. Improvements to the height assignment of a wind vector and radiance filtering techniques preceding the cloud tracking have ameliorated the METEOSAT winds significantly. The major shortcoming of cloud motion winds is their tendency to underestimate the high speed wind field around jet stream areas, which typically are characterized by extended cirrus cloud. The second part of the paper deals with the use of cirrus clouds as tracers for the wind field. The problem of the height assignment of wind vectors and the question of whether satellite deduced displacements from cirrus clouds do represent a single level wind are discussed.
Operational cloud motion winds from meteosat and the use of cirrus clouds as tracers
Advances in Space Research ; 12 , 7 ; 95-104
1992-01-01
10 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Cloud observations from METEOSAT and the inference of winds
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