Highlights:
Advancing weather observation capabilities is critical to knowing when to seek shelter from deadly weather.
In 2021, just weeks before Christmas, the
According to the
There is a significant difference between thinking a tornado might hit your county in the late afternoon and knowing with confidence a tornado will touchdown in your neighborhood at a specific hour. The latter scenario triggers a much higher preparedness level than the first.
As forecasting models become more accurate, so will our ability to better prepare for not only tornadoes, but fires, hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
Dynamic data enhances forecast modeling
Although we cannot change the weather, we can certainly better understand its underlying conditions using satellite weather sensors. Data from these space-based assets is the key to improving forecasters' ability to provide trusted and precise severe weather predictions.
In fact, scientists rely on satellite data to measure everything from the moisture content of clouds, ground and ocean temperatures, the temperature and wind speed direction at every layer of the atmosphere, and radiation from the sun. These are just a few of the many variables that they use in their forecasting models to provide us with the weather outlook we all depend on.
To collect such a myriad of data quickly and accurately requires weather observation instruments in both low Earth orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Each orbit provides a unique vantage point and value to severe weather forecasting. Working together, constellations of weather satellites in both orbits can provide real-time global coverage of evolving weather as it is happening.
In LEO, forecasters rely on hyperspectral sounding instruments - like
Although the data these hyperspectral sounders provide is critical to severe weather predictions, there's a notable gap - one that forecasters can't afford to have as severe weather becomes more unpredictable. Hyperspectral sounding instruments in LEO can only measure key indicators of severe weather formation every 12 hours.
From a GEO vantage point, however, a sounding instrument can capture this critical data every 30 minutes.
Deploying a hyperspectral sounder, like CrIS, in GEO is the next logical breakthrough in weather observation. By closing the data gap, forecasters will have the information they need to increase severe warning lead times and provide more precise path predictions and timelines.
With an operational hyperspectral sounder in GEO, the fatality report from
With this additional lead time, the workers who lost their lives at the local Amazon distribution center or candle factory would have been able to evacuate. Residents could have sought shelter far away from the projected path.
At
For over 50 years, we have been at the forefront of advancing weather satellite observation capabilities - working in partnership with organizations like
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