Prediction of the Summer Convection with MODIS and NOAA Satellite Data

摘要

The major purpose of this research is to apply a method in retrieving the temperature and dew point profiles from the MODIS and NOAA satellite data, where they can be applied in the analysis of summer afternoon convection. Retrievals were then employed to estimate the atmospheric stability index or K index (KI), the total index or Total Totals Index (TTI), the water vapor content, along with other atmospheric thermal parameters. In addition, ground station data was used to calculate the divergence field in delineating the atmospheric dynamic parameters. This research chose convection cases that occurred between June to September of 2003 to set up the threshold value of three important parameters--Atmospheric stability index, Water vapor content and Divergence field . Convection cases recorded between June to September of 2004 and 2005, were then employed for verification. By considering all three parameters, the results showed that the prediction accuracy for actual convection activity during 2004 and 2005 reached 76% and 74 %, respectively; demonstrating the practical applications in this method.