Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Multiview Cloud-Top Height and Wind Retrieval with Photogrammetric Methods: Application to Meteosat-8 HRV Observations

Gabriela Seiz Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, Zürich, Switzerland

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Stephen Tjemkes European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, Darmstadt, Germany

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Philip Watts European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, Darmstadt, Germany

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Print Publication:
01 Aug 2007
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JAM2532.1
Page(s):
1182–1195
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Abstract

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) currently operates three geostationary satellites: Meteosat-5, Meteosat-7, and Meteosat-8. Observations by Meteosat-5 can be combined with observations from either Meteosat-7 or Meteosat-8 to allow geostationary stereo height retrievals within the overlap area over the Indian Ocean and east Africa. This paper aims to demonstrate the capabilities of the geostationary stereophotogrammetric cloud-top height retrieval—in particular, with the new high-resolution visible channel (HRV) of Meteosat-8. Conceived as a proof-of-concept study, the retrieval was limited to four distinct cloud areas in northeast Africa. The effects of the geolocation, spatial resolution, satellite position, and acquisition time on the cloud-top height accuracy were studied. It is demonstrated that the matching accuracy is sensitive to the acquisition-time difference and spatial resolution. As a result, there is only a marginal benefit from the good spatial resolution offered by the Meteosat-8 HRV channel because of the low spatial resolution of Meteosat-5 and the poor time synchronization between the observations of the two satellites. On the contrary, the good time synchronization between Meteosat-5 and Meteosat-7 observations offsets the errors in the height assignment resulting from the relatively coarse spatial resolution, if the geolocation accuracy is locally enhanced with additional landmarks from higher-resolution images. With the geolocation correction and the newly implemented time information in the Meteosat-5 and -7 header information, the stereo cloud-top height assignment for the Meteosat-5/-7 and Meteosat-5/-8 HRV combination resulted in about the same accuracy of approximately ±1 km. For the Meteosat-5/-8 HRV combination, the time differences of up to 7.5 min preclude higher accuracy. To validate the cloud-top heights, observations by the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Gabriela Seiz, Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Kraehbuehlstr. 58, Zürich CH-8044, Switzerland. Email: gabriela.seiz@meteoswiss.ch

Abstract

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) currently operates three geostationary satellites: Meteosat-5, Meteosat-7, and Meteosat-8. Observations by Meteosat-5 can be combined with observations from either Meteosat-7 or Meteosat-8 to allow geostationary stereo height retrievals within the overlap area over the Indian Ocean and east Africa. This paper aims to demonstrate the capabilities of the geostationary stereophotogrammetric cloud-top height retrieval—in particular, with the new high-resolution visible channel (HRV) of Meteosat-8. Conceived as a proof-of-concept study, the retrieval was limited to four distinct cloud areas in northeast Africa. The effects of the geolocation, spatial resolution, satellite position, and acquisition time on the cloud-top height accuracy were studied. It is demonstrated that the matching accuracy is sensitive to the acquisition-time difference and spatial resolution. As a result, there is only a marginal benefit from the good spatial resolution offered by the Meteosat-8 HRV channel because of the low spatial resolution of Meteosat-5 and the poor time synchronization between the observations of the two satellites. On the contrary, the good time synchronization between Meteosat-5 and Meteosat-7 observations offsets the errors in the height assignment resulting from the relatively coarse spatial resolution, if the geolocation accuracy is locally enhanced with additional landmarks from higher-resolution images. With the geolocation correction and the newly implemented time information in the Meteosat-5 and -7 header information, the stereo cloud-top height assignment for the Meteosat-5/-7 and Meteosat-5/-8 HRV combination resulted in about the same accuracy of approximately ±1 km. For the Meteosat-5/-8 HRV combination, the time differences of up to 7.5 min preclude higher accuracy. To validate the cloud-top heights, observations by the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Gabriela Seiz, Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Kraehbuehlstr. 58, Zürich CH-8044, Switzerland. Email: gabriela.seiz@meteoswiss.ch

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Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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