The use of satellites to monitor and forecast weather conditions has a long history: more than 30 years of consistent data makes it one of the most established sectors of applications of satellite data.
At the international level several programmes are coordinated by WMO (the World Meteorological Organization) with the aim of establishing and maintaining an operational observation network for weather and climate; it also favours the free and open exchange of weather data, fostering global cooperation in the domain. Many of these data and records come from satellite measurements; in particular the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) fosters the development of a "comprehensive, coordinated and sustained Earth observation system of systems to understand and address global environmental and economic challenges". The Global Observing System (GOS) coordinates surface-based and space-based infrastructures and methods for meteorological and environmental observations. The facilities are owned and operated by the Member countries of WMO each of which undertakes to meet certain responsibilities in the agreed global scheme so that all countries can benefit from the consolidated efforts (1).
The international commitment to provide and maintain consistent and comparable time series requires scientists and operators to take into account different satellite characteristics (e.g. sensitivity to Earth signals, evolution of performance over time, orbit stability) to reprocess and calibrate primary data (1).
Weather satellites can be polar orbiting or geostationary. Polar orbits are characterised by satellites passing above both poles on each revolution, while their passage over the eqator is at each time at a different longitude. A geostationary satellite has instead the same rotation period as the Earth and it stays above the equator, in the same area of the sky from the poinf of view of an observer on the Earth.
Environmental satellites, used to monitor the Earth environment, also collect useful meteorological and climate data. For example el Niño and its impacts on weather are constantly monitored via satellite images: it is a band of warm water temperatures that cyclically drops from the Pacific coast of South America, generating extreme climate events such as floods and droughts.
The 1997 El Nino seen by the US/French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite
Data recalibration and reprocessing is the step to make those information available to downstream applications for business and science. Meteorological data can also be reprocessed to fit into climate change models and Essential Climate Variables (ECV) measurements.
The applications of this study and analysis of atmospherical variables, temperature and precipitation are well known to everybody: everybody is a final user of such information for everyday life, while more precise products are for example used in agriculture and in the stock markets. Other domains of applications are hydrometeorology, aviation, maritime navigation, and the military and nuclear sectors.
References
(1) http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/OSY/GOS.html
(2) http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/AboutUs/WhatWeDo/MonitoringClimate/index.html
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China: Meteorological satellite monitors snow cover in drought-hit areas | Report on the National Satellite Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) finding snow covered in North China and Yellow-Huaihe River valley since Feb. 11, the most-hit areas by drought. | Satellite, Meteorological data, China | CMA |
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