Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.18/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA045046577; Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:16:18 -0800 Return-Path: <schuh@apm-iris1.arc.nasa.gov-DeleteThis> Received: from apm-iris1.arc.nasa.gov by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.16/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA110616577; Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:16:17 -0800 Received: by apm-iris1.arc.nasa.gov (8.7.1/1.35) id MAA23369; Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:12:30 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:12:30 -0800 (PST) From: schuh@apm-iris1.arc.nasa.gov-DeleteThis (Michael Schuh) Message-Id: <199703042012.MAA23369@apm-iris1.arc.nasa.gov-DeleteThis> To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis Subject: web wind movies
I love all of the new technologies and data that is showing
up. This is one is even in color.
Cutting to the point:
] The NSCAT project also is making the wind images
] available to the public via the Internet at the
] following address:
]
] http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/winds
]
] "Each day, we provide a 'daily wind movie' of the
] Pacific Ocean that allows people to see the last 26
] hours of NSCAT wind data. Anyone who has an interest
] in what the winds are doing -- weather forecasters,
] scientists, boaters, surfers, fishermen -- can log on
^ windsurfers,
] and get an up-to-date picture from NSCAT," Graf said.
] Data of the Atlantic Ocean and other oceans will be
] on-line in a few weeks.
Here is the entire announcement:
> From owner-press-release-nasa@spinoza.hq.nasa.gov-DeleteThis Tue Mar 4 10:16:21 1997
> From: NASANews@hq.nasa.gov-DeleteThis
> Subject: New Wind Data Improving Accuracy of Weather Forecasts
> Sender: owner-press-release@spinoza.hq.nasa.gov-DeleteThis
>
> Douglas Isbell
> Headquarters, Washington, DC March 4, 1997
> (Phone: 202/358-1753)
>
> Mary A. Hardin
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
> (Phone: 818/354-5011)
>
> Allen Kenitzer
> Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
> (Phone: 301/286-2806)
>
> Stephanie Kenitzer
> NOAA National Weather Service, Silver Spring, MD
> (Phone: 301/713-0622)
>
> RELEASE: 97-32
>
> NEW WIND DATA IMPROVING ACCURACY OF WEATHER FORECASTS
>
> NASA scientists using weather forecast models with
> newly incorporated data from the wind-measuring NASA
> Scatterometer (NSCAT) instrument onboard Japan's
> Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) are seeing
> significant improvements in their ability to analyze
> weather patterns and generate more accurate forecasts,
> especially in the Southern Hemisphere.
>
> "Initial experiments with the wind measurements
> taken by the scatterometer indicate the potential to
> extend the useful range of weather forecasts in the
> Southern Hemisphere by about 24 hours," said Dr.
> Robert Atlas, an NSCAT science team member from the
> Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. "We have
> also seen improvement in early analyses and forecasts
> of storms in the Northern Hemisphere. Specifically,
> NSCAT appears to more accurately locate both cyclones
> and fronts, and to improve the forecasts of their
> location by as much as several hundred kilometers."
>
> Such information should assist meteorologists at
> the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
> Marine Prediction Center, Camp Springs, MD, to issue
> more accurate warnings that could help reduce the loss
> of life and property at sea and along the U.S.
> coastline.
>
> Accurate measurements of wind velocity in the
> Southern Hemisphere have been virtually non-existent
> due to the vastness of the southern ocean. The
> scatterometer takes 190,000 wind measurements per day,
> mapping more than 90 percent of the world's ice-free
> oceans every two days. The instrument is giving
> scientists more than 100 times the amount of ocean
> wind information than is available from ship reports
> or buoys. Because the scatterometer is a radar
> instrument, it operates 24 hours a day, collecting
> data day or night, regardless of sunlight or weather
> conditions.
>
> "Since the August launch, we've set a new standard
> in terms of how quickly we have been able to calibrate
> and validate our instrument and get the data into the
> hands of the people who are using it," said Jim Graf,
> NSCAT project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
> Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
>
> "Weather forecasters will be able to use these
> data to better predict the evolution of fronts and
> storms over the oceans and track them as they approach
> land and major population centers. The maritime
> industry will benefit by steering ships away from
> storms and toward areas with favorable tailwinds,"
> Graf said. "By combining the scatterometer wind data
> with ocean height data from the TOPEX/Poseidon
> mission, Earth scientists are getting a first hand
> look at the forcing function, the winds, and the
> ocean's response, ocean height and waves, or the yin
> and yang that control much of our planet's weather and
> climate change."
>
> The NSCAT project also is making the wind images
> available to the public via the Internet at the
> following address:
>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/winds
>
> "Each day, we provide a 'daily wind movie' of the
> Pacific Ocean that allows people to see the last 26
> hours of NSCAT wind data. Anyone who has an interest
> in what the winds are doing -- weather forecasters,
> scientists, boaters, surfers, fishermen -- can log on
> and get an up-to-date picture from NSCAT," Graf said.
> Data of the Atlantic Ocean and other oceans will be
> on-line in a few weeks.
>
> The scatterometer uses an array of stick-like
> antennas that radiate microwave pulses in the Ku-band
> across broad regions of the Earth's surface. A small
> fraction of the energy in the radar pulses is
> reflected back and captured by NSCAT's antennas. At
> any given time NSCAT's array of six dual-beam antennas
> scans two swaths of ocean -- one on either side of the
> satellite's near-polar, sun-synchronous 500-mile
> orbit. Each swath is 375 miles wide. The swaths are
> separated by a gap of about 215 miles directly below
> the satellite where no data collection is possible.
>
> The NSCAT instrument was launched August 16, 1996
> on Japan's ADEOS. ADEOS is an international global
> change research mission of the National Space
> Development Agency of Japan, which includes
> instruments from the United States, Japan and France,
> with investigators from many other countries. The
> satellite is a key part of an international
> environmental research effort that includes NASA's
> Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program, a long-term,
> coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a
> global environmental system. The goal of MTPE is to
> develop a better scientific understanding of natural
> environmental changes and to distinguish between
> natural and human-made changes and impacts.
>
> The Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed, built and
> manages the NSCAT instrument for NASA's Office of
> Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC.
>
> -end-
Schuh
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