Weather Forecasting Satellites

Weather Forecasting Satellite Orbits

•Weather forecasting satellites are placed into either of the two

types of orbits, namely the polar sun-synchronous low Earth
orbit and the geostationary orbit.

•Polar sun-synchronous weather forecasting satellites revolve

around the Earth in near polar low Earth orbits, visiting a
particular place at a fixed time so as to observe that place under
similar sunlight conditions.

•Polar weather forecasting satellites, due to their low altitudes,

have better spatial resolution as compared to the geostationary
satellites.

•However, these satellites have a poorer temporal resolution,

•Most weather forecasting satellites employ a geostationary orbit as these satellites offer better temporal
resolution as compared to that provided by the polar weather forecasting satellites.

•Satellites in a geostationary orbit revolve around Earth in equatorial circular orbits having an altitude of
around 36 000 km. These satellites have an orbital period of 24 hours, which is also the rotation rate of the
Earth.

•Weather forecasting satellites in geostationary orbits have fairly coarse resolution when compared to those
in the polar orbits.

•However, this resolution is sufficient for most of the weather forecasting applications.

•A single weather satellite in the geostationary orbit covers around 40 % of the Earth’s surface.
Fig: Weather forecasting satellites in geostationary orbit
Weather Forecasting Satellite Payloads

•Weather forecasting satellites carry instruments that scan Earth to form images.

•These instruments usually have a small telescope or an antenna, a scanning mechanism,

a detector assembly that detects the incoming radiation and a signal processing unit that
converts the output of the detectors into the required digital format.

•The processed output is then transmitted to receiving stations on the ground. The most
commonly used instrument on a weather forecasting satellite
is the radiometer.
Radiometer

•A Radiometer is an instrument that makes quantitative measurements of the

amount of electromagnetic radiation incident on it from a given area within
a specified wavelength band.

•The most commonly used bands are the visible, thermal and IR bands.

•The radiometer comprises an optical system, a scanning system, an

electronic system and a calibration system.

•The optical system consists of an assembly of lenses and is used for viewing
radiation from a small field and focusing that radiation on to the detectors.
•The scanning system comprising oscillating or rotating mirrors is used for performing the
scanning operation.

•The typical swath width for weather forecasting satellites extends to around 1500 km on either
side of the orbit.

•The incoming radiation is separated into a number of optical beams having different
wavelengths using optical filters, and each beam is focused on to a separate detector of the
detector array assembly.

•The electronic system comprises an array of different detectors and a signal processing unit.

•The detector array located at the focal plane of the optical system is used for sensing the
incoming radiation and converting it into an electrical voltage.
•This electrical voltage is fed to the signal processing unit, where it undergoes
amplification, filtering, etc.

•It is then converted into the desired digital format for transmission to the control
centres on Earth.

•The radiometers also comprise a calibration system which views on board sources of
known temperatures for calibration purposes.

•Radiometers can operate in one of two modes, namely the imaging mode and the
sounding mode.

•Radiometers operating in the imaging mode are referred to as imagers and those
operating in the sounding mode as sounders.
• Imagers measure and map sea-surface temperatures,
cloud-top temperatures and land-surface temperatures.

• As an example, the imager onboard second generation

GOES satellites (Fig) is a five channel (one visible and
four IR channels) imaging radiometer designed to sense
reflected solar energy from sampled areas of Earth.
Active Payloads

•Satellites also contain active payloads that emit their own radiation and measure the
backscattered portion of this emitted radiation.

•Two such instruments carried by satellites include the radar and the lidar.

•Three types of radar are most commonly used on weather satellites. These are
altimeters, scatterometers and synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

•All of them work on the same principle of sending out a pulse of microwave
radiation and measuring the return signal as a function of time.

•They also measure the intensity and the frequency of the return pulse.
• The amplitude of the return signal gives information on the
kind of particles present in the atmosphere.

• As an example, larger pieces of ice reflect strongly; hence a

strong return signal indicates their presence in the atmosphere.

• Change in the frequency of the return signal gives information

on the wind speed
and direction.
Altimeter

•An altimeter sends a very narrow pulse of microwave radiation with a

duration of a few nanoseconds vertically towards Earth

•The time taken by the reflected signal to reach the satellite determines
the distance of the satellite from Earth with an accuracy of the order of
few centimetres.

•This helps in calculating the surface roughness of the land surface,

strength of ocean currents, wave heights, wind speeds and other
motion over the oceans.
Fig: Principle of operation of an altimeter
Scatterometer

•A scatterometer is a microwave radar sensor used to measure the reflection or

scattering produced while scanning the surface of the Earth using microwave
radiation.

•It emits a fan shaped microwave pulse having a duration of the order of a few
milliseconds and measures the frequency and the intensity profile of the
scattered pulse.

•A rough ocean surface returns a stronger signal because the ocean waves reflect
more of the radar energy back towards the scatterometer whereas a smooth
ocean surface returns a weaker signal because less energy is reflected back in
this case.
Fig: Principle of operation of a scatterometer
 Lidar
•Lidar has the same principle of operation as that of a radar, except that it sends laser pulses rather than microwave pulses.

•Lidar sends a beam of laser light through the atmosphere.

•The particles present in the path of the beam scatter it.

•A portion of the scattered beam returns to he receiver.

•The time delay involved between the transmission and reception of the beam as
well as the amplitude and the frequency of the return beam is measured by the lidar receiver.

•An advantage of using laser pulses is that they offer better resolution than their microwave
counterparts.
•Hence lidar can detect even small particles, such as very thin layers
of haze.

•This helps in predicting the regions where clouds will form, even
before they are actually formed.

•Lidar measurements are used to determine the distance to clouds

and aerosol layers, to detect meteoric and volcanic debris in the
stratosphere and to predict the formation of clouds.

•Both lidar and radar based systems also make use of Doppler effect
based measurements to determine the intensity of storms by
measuring the velocity of wind circulation.
Image Processing and Analysis
•The sensors on board the weather satellites convert the incoming radiation into electrical
signals.

•These electrical signals are further converted into a digital stream of data and then
transmitted back to Earth.

•The information corresponding to the observations forms the major portion of the data
transmitted by the satellite to Earth.

•At the receiving control centres, the relevant data containing the information is separated
from the other data.

•The data is then processed using various techniques to extract the maximum information
from it.
• The visible data is converted in terms of reflectivity using
the basic relation that the brightness of the image is
linearly proportional to the object reflectivity.

• Sometimes the data collected by two or more satellites is

processed together.

• The information collected by the satellites can also be

combined with ground-based observations and information
from other platforms, which act as input to the weather
forecasting centres.
Weather Forecasting Satellite Applications

•Satellites play a major role in weather forecasting.

•Satellites have helped in predicting the paths of tropical cyclones

far more reliably than any other weather forecasting tool.

•They also help in predicting the frost, rainfall, drought and fog
and so on that is of immense help to farmers.

•Various combinations of satellite images are used to identify

clouds and determine their approximate height and thickness.
Measurement of Cloud Parameters
•Satellite imagery enables meteorologists to observe clouds at all levels of
the atmosphere, both over land and the oceans.

•Generally, both visible and IR images are used together for the identification
of clouds.

•Visible images give information on thickness, texture, shape and pattern of

the clouds.

•Information on cloud height is extracted using IR images.

•False colour IR images are used for a detailed analysis of clouds.

•Information from visible and IR images can be combined to identify the types of
clouds and the weather patterns associated with them.

•Figures (a) and (b) show a visible image and IR image respectively, taken from
the GOES satellite.

•The map of the area is overlaid on the image to help in locating the places.

•The clouds marked as A and D in the images appear to be fairly bright in the
visible image and are barely seen in the IR image.

•This indicates that these clouds are low lying warm clouds
of medium thickness.

•The clouds marked as B are very bright in the visible image but they are not seen
in the IR image.
Fig: (a) Visible image taken by GOES satellite used for determining cloud
parameters and (b) IR image taken by GOES satellite used for determining
cloud parameters
• Clouds marked as C appear bright both in the
visible and IR images and hence they
are high-lying thick cold clouds.

• This information on the types of clouds is

further used for estimating rainfall,
thunderstorms and hurricanes.
Rainfall
•Imagery from space is also used to estimate rainfall during thunderstorms and
hurricanes.

•This information forms the basis of flood warnings issued by meteorologists.

•Satellite images of the clouds are processed and analysed to predict the location
and amount of rainfall.

•It is possible to determine the cloud thickness and height using visible and IR
images respectively.

•Both these images are combined to predict the amount of rainfall, as it depends
both on the thickness and height of clouds.
• Thick and high clouds result in more rain. Moreover, clouds
in their early stage of development produce more rain.

• Therefore, regular observations from GEO satellites, which

can track their development, are used for rainfall
prediction.

• Figure shows the distribution of rain intensity in different

regions of Hurricane Charley on the basis of images taken
by the TRMM satellite on 10 August 2004.
Fig: Derivation of rainfall rates on the basis of images taken by the TRMM
satellite (Courtesy: NASA). The image is the grey scale version of the original
colour image.
Wind Speed and Direction
•Determination of wind speed and direction is essential to provide an
accurate picture of the current state of the atmosphere.

•Wind information can be determined by tracking cloud displacements in

successive IR and visible images taken from geostationary weather
forecasting satellites.

•However, these measurements can only be taken when the cloud cover
is present.

•To overcome this, successive water vapour channel images are used to
track the movement of wind fields.
•Ground-level Temperature Measurements

•Air Pollution and Haze

•Fog

•Oceanography

•Severe Storm Support

•Fisheries

•Snow and Ice Studies