著者
Hironobu IWABUCHI Nurfiena Sagita PUTRI Masanori SAITO Yuka TOKORO Miho SEKIGUCHI Ping YANG Bryan A. BAUM
出版者
Meteorological Society of Japan
雑誌
気象集誌. 第2輯 (ISSN:00261165)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.96B, pp.27-42, 2018 (Released:2018-03-16)
参考文献数
35
被引用文献数
44

An algorithm for retrieving the macroscopic, physical, and optical properties of clouds from thermal infrared measurements is applied to the Himawari-8 multiband observations. A sensitivity study demonstrates that the addition of the single CO2 band of Himawari-8 is effective for the estimation of cloud top height. For validation, retrieved cloud properties are compared systematically with collocated active remote sensing counterparts with small time lags. While retrievals agree reasonably for single-layer clouds, multilayer cloud systems with optically thin upper clouds overlying lower clouds are the major source of error in the present algorithm. Validation of cloud products is critical for identifying the characteristics, advantages, and limitation of each product and should be continued in the future.  As an application example, data are analyzed for eight days in the vicinity of the New Guinea to study the diurnal cycle of the cloud system. The present cloud property analysis investigates cloud evolution through separation of different cloud types and reveals typical features of diurnal cycles related to the topography. Over land, middle clouds increase from 0900 to 1200 local solar time (LST), deep convective clouds develop rapidly during 1200-1700 LST with a subsequent increase in cirrus and cirrostratus cloud amounts. Over the ocean near coastlines, a broad peak of convective cloud fraction is seen in the early morning. The present study demonstrates the utility of frequent observations by Himawari-8 for life cycle study of cloud systems, owing to the ability to capture their continuous temporal variations.
著者
Nurfiena Sagita PUTRI Tadahiro HAYASAKA Kim Dionne WHITEHALL
出版者
(公社)日本気象学会
雑誌
気象集誌. 第2輯 (ISSN:00261165)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.95, no.6, pp.391-409, 2017 (Released:2017-11-14)
参考文献数
30
被引用文献数
11

A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is organized thunderstorms with connected anvils, which has a significant impact on the global climate. By focusing on MCSs over the Maritime Continent of Indonesia, this study aims to gain a better understanding on the properties of the MCSs over the study area. The “Grab ‘em Tag ‘em Graph ‘em” (GTG) tracking algorithm is applied to hourly Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R data for two years to observe the distribution of MCSs and the evolution of MCSs along their lifetime. The results of MCS identification by using GTG are combined with CloudSat data products to study the vertical structure of the MCSs at various MCS life stages: developing, mature, and dissipating. The distribution of MCSs over Indonesia has a seasonal variation and distinct diurnal cycle. The life stages of the observed MCSs are characterized by distinct cloud microphysics at each stage. In the developing stage, the upper level of the MCS raining region shows the presence of precipitating ice particles. As the MCS progresses to the mature stage, the proportion of the raining area becomes small and the intensity of rain is reduced, accompanied by increasing occurrence of small-sized ice particles at the upper level. In the dissipating stage, large hydrometeors no longer exist at the upper part of the raining region. Within the MCS anvils, the dissipating stage shows a more uniform distribution of ice-particle effective radius compared to that shown by the developing and mature stages. MCS characteristics over the land and ocean differ on the basis of the minimum brightness temperature, the equivalent radius, the maximum rain rate, and the rain fraction that varies along the MCS evolution.