TOGA COARE was a multidisciplinary, international research effort that investigated the scientific phenomena associated with the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in the warm ... pool region of the western Pacific. The field experiment phase of the program took place from 1 November 1992 through 28 February 1993 and involved the deployment of oceanographic ships and buoys, several ship and land based Doppler radars, multiple low and high-level aircraft equipped with Doppler radar and other airborne sensors, as well as a variety of surface based instruments for in-situ observations.
SATELLITE INFORMATION
GMS-4 (Geostationary Meteorological Satellite) is a Japanese satellite in geostationary orbit over the equator at approximately 140E. GMS-4 is equipped with the Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) imaging sensor, which uses the spin motion of the satellite to scan the earth in the East-West direction. GMS begins a North-South scan every hour on the half hour, with four additional scans daily for wind estimation. At the satellite subpoint, the visible (0.5-0.75 um) channel has a resolution of 1.25 km and the infrared (10.5-12.5 um) channel has a resolution of 5 km. This gives approximately 10,000 visible and 2,500 infrared lines and samples for each full-globe image. The visible channel is digitized at 6 bits and the infrared channel at 8 bits. The S-VISSR telemetry is transmitted digitally at 1.7 GHz with a bit rate of 660 kbps. Detailed documentation the GMS satellite and the VISSR are given in the GMS User's Guide (see reference).
The groups in TOGA COARE that archived GMS images are:
1) US/School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology/University of Hawaii at Manoa
Investigator: P. Flament Spatial Resolution: 5 km (IR, 10.5-12.5 um), 1.25 km (VIS, 0.5-0.75 um) Coverage Period: 1992-11-01 through 1993-03-01 Coverage Area: 10S-10N, 135E-175E Medium: CD-ROM
The telemetry from the GMS-4 geostationary satellite was captured in Hawaii during COARE. The images were calibrated into percent albedo or brightness temperature, regridded to the COARE domain (135E to 175E, 10S to 10N with a 5 km square pixel size), and placed on the anonymous internet server satftp.soest.hawaii.edu less than one hour after capture thorough the IOP. These images are now being published on a pair of ISO-9660 Compact-Disk Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM), in the form of compressed PostScript files with graphic overlays for the geographic grid, the gray scale wedge and the positions of the moorings and ships. A catalog of the images captured (1,910 infrared and 877 visible images), tools to uncompress and convert the images to binary arrays or Sun raster files, and utilities to map the ISO-9660 names into Unix names for workstation users are also provided.
The CD-ROMs can be obtained from the TOGA COARE International Project Office.
2) Australia/Bureau of Meteorology and US/University of Wisconsin
Investigator: C. Velden Spatial Resolution: 5 km (IR), 1.25 km (VIS) Temporal Resolution: Hourly Coverage Period: 1992-11-01 through 1993-02-28 Coverage Area: IR: full disk; VIS: 15S-15N Medium: 8mm Exabyte tapes (8 or 15 4-mm DAT tapes) in McIDASX format.
Note: This is the most complete GMS dataset for the COARE IOP:
GMS satellite data were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM, Melbourne) for the entire TOGA COARE IOP and reprocessed in McIDASX file format. The images have been carefully checked, and renavigated when necessary. 82% of all the hourly images for this period have been recovered. Images that were either missing or corrupted in the BoM dataset were replaced with images provided by the National Central University, Taiwan (see below).
A software package, called MERLIN, is freely available through anonymous ftp and allows basic functions of the McIDAS software. A TOGA COARE subroutine added to the standard MERLIN package allows conversion of McIDAS files to raster-type files for more general use. For information on MERLIN, see Appendix below.
The University of Wisconsin also produced a videotape showing animated satellite imagery for the COARE IOP. The VHS video contains three separate segments:
- a large-scale overview, showing lower-resolution GMS infrared (IR) imagery in animation for the November-December and January-February periods. The imagery covers a large area (almost full-disk) and is presented at 6-hour intervals; - COARE-domain overview, showing loops of the highest-resolution GMS IR for month-long segments during COARE; - a series of selected animated satellite observations.
Requests for copies of this video, in any international format, and the full set of GMS images (IR and VIS), should be addressed to the TCIPO.
3) Japan/Meteorological Research Institute
Investigator: T. Nakazawa Spatial Resolution: approximately 11 km Temporal Resolution: hourly Coverage Period: 1992-11-01 through 1993-03-01 Coverage Area: 15N - 15S, 130E - 180 Medium: one CD-ROM
To obtain a copy of the CD-ROM contact Tetsuo Nakazawa at MRI.
4) Taiwan/Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research/National Central University
Spatial resolution: 5 km (IR) Coverage Area: Centered at 0N 140E Medium: 8 mm tape, 5 GB
Note: two fortran programs are also available (latlon.f for calculation of latitude and longitude of the COARE area; gmstmp.f for conversion of digital count to temperature).
The data are available from the TOGA COARE International Project Office.
5) Taiwan/Department of Atmospheric Sciences/National Taiwan University
Investigator: H. Hsu
Dr. Hsu provides a hard-copy atlas of twice-daily satellite images received by the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, Republic of China together with 2.5 x 2.5 Basic Level-III data (30N-30S, 90E-180) from the ECMWF/TOGA model. These cover 31 Oct 1992 through 28 Feb 93.
To obtain a copy, contact Huang-Hsiung Hsu at National Taiwan University.
Description:
Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) images are available on one CD-ROM from Tetsuo Nakazawa at the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI), Japan.
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin
1225 W Dayton Street, Rm 253
City:
Madison
Province or State:
WI
Postal Code:
53706
Country:
USA
Publications/References
Flament, P., and R. Bernstein, 1993: Images from the GMS-4 Satellite during TOGA-COARE, November 1992 to February 1993. Soest Technical Report 93-12.
Meteorological Satellite Center, 1989: GMS User's Guide (second edition. Tokyo, Japan.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1992: TOGA COARE Operations Plan, Working Version September ... 1992. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 138 pp.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1993: TOGA COARE Intensive Observing Period Operations Summary. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 505 pp.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1994: Summary Report of the TOGA COARE International Data Workshop, Toulouse, France, 2 - 11 August 1994, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 170 pp.
Webster, P.J., and R. Lukas, 1992: TOGA COARE: The Coupled Ocean- Atmosphere Response Experiment. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 73, 1377-1416.
World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), 1985: Scientific Plan for the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment. WCRP Publications Series, No. 3 Addendum, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, 96 pp.
