Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' preface
- Keynote address to the 1977 Symposium SIR JAMES LIGHTHILL
- Part I The large-scale climatology of the tropical atmosphere
- 1 Teleconnections of rainfall anomalies in the tropics and subtropics
- 2 Northern summer planetary-scale monsoons during drought and normal rainfall months
- 3 The annual oscillation of the tropospheric temperature in the northern hemisphere
- 4 Summer mean energetics for standing and transient eddies in the wavenumber domain
- 5 Monitoring the monsoon outflow from geosynchronous satellite data
- 6 Predictability of monsoons
- 7 A review of general-circulation model experiments on the Indian monsoon
- 8 Simulation of the Asian summer monsoon by an 11-layer general-circulation model
- 9 Analysis of monsoonal quasi-stationary systems as revealed in a real-data prediction experiment
- 10 A model of the seasonally varying planetary-scale monsoon
- 11 Wave interactions in the equatorial atmosphere – an analytical Study
- Part II The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and East Africa
- Part III The physics and dynamics of the Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon
- Part IV Some important mathematical modelling techniques
- Part V Storm surges and flood forecasting
- Index
5 - Monitoring the monsoon outflow from geosynchronous satellite data
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' preface
- Keynote address to the 1977 Symposium SIR JAMES LIGHTHILL
- Part I The large-scale climatology of the tropical atmosphere
- 1 Teleconnections of rainfall anomalies in the tropics and subtropics
- 2 Northern summer planetary-scale monsoons during drought and normal rainfall months
- 3 The annual oscillation of the tropospheric temperature in the northern hemisphere
- 4 Summer mean energetics for standing and transient eddies in the wavenumber domain
- 5 Monitoring the monsoon outflow from geosynchronous satellite data
- 6 Predictability of monsoons
- 7 A review of general-circulation model experiments on the Indian monsoon
- 8 Simulation of the Asian summer monsoon by an 11-layer general-circulation model
- 9 Analysis of monsoonal quasi-stationary systems as revealed in a real-data prediction experiment
- 10 A model of the seasonally varying planetary-scale monsoon
- 11 Wave interactions in the equatorial atmosphere – an analytical Study
- Part II The summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and East Africa
- Part III The physics and dynamics of the Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon
- Part IV Some important mathematical modelling techniques
- Part V Storm surges and flood forecasting
- Index
Summary
Vectors derived from cloud displacements observed from geosynchronous satellites are now a major source of wind data over a large portion of the western hemisphere under surveillance of instruments aboard the United States satellites–Goes East and Goes West. The planned distribution of geostationary satellites during the Global Weather Experiment (FGGE) will provide such data for the entire globe between approximately 50° N and 50° S, and for the first time the wind data base over the tropical belt for levels near the surface and in the upper troposphere will rival that of higher latitudes.
This paper evaluates the use of these data in producing monthly mean circulations of the upper troposphere and discusses some preliminary comparisons with radio–wind finding (rawin) observations.
Data proceduresThe daily operational wind vectors determined by the National Environmental Satellite Service comprise the data base. Fig. 5.1, showing a typical daily distribution of wind vectors, illustrates that the data are not uniformly distributed. Also, the data are not randomly distributed because of their dependence on the presence of cirrus clouds which in turn depend on the atmospheric circulation systems. Some of the circulation systems biases have been discussed by Gruber et al. (1971). Table 5.1 is a typical monthly distribution of data during the northern summer. Data are most seriously deficient just south of the Equator in the eastern Pacific where the cross-equatorial outflow from the northern summer monsoon converges with the southern winter westerlies and sinks (Sadler, 1977).
From the daily data, monthly resultant wind vectors were computed for 2° latitude-10° longitude rectangles, then plotted and analysed subjectively.
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- Monsoon Dynamics , pp. 81 - 98Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981
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