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NASA NTRS2004

Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) Sensor Development

One of the recommendations of the National Aviation Weather Program Council was to expand and institutionalize the generation, dissemination, and use of automated pilot reports (PIREPS) to the full spectrum of the aviation community, including general aviation. In response to this and other similar recommendations, NASA initiated cooperative research into the development of an electronic pilot reporting capability (Daniels 2002). The ultimate goal is to develop a small low-cost sensor, collect useful meteorological observations below 25,000 ft., downlink the data in near real time, and use the data to improve weather forecasts. Primary users of the data include pilots, who are one targeted audience for the improved weather information that will result from the TAMDAR data. The weather data will be disseminated and used to improve aviation safety by providing pilots with enhanced weather situational awareness. In addition, the data will be used to improve the accuracy and timeliness of weather forecasts. Other users include air traffic controllers, flight service stations, and airline weather centers. Additionally, the meteorological data collected by TAMDAR is expected to have a significant positive impact on forecast accuracy for ground based applications.

Daniels, Taumi S.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Extreme Meteorological Parameters During Space Shuttle Pad Exposure Periods

During the 113 missions of the Space Transportation System (STS), the Space Shuttle fleet has been exposed to the elements on the launch pad for a total of 4195 days. This paper provides a summary of the historical record of the meteorological extremes encountered by the Space Shuttle fleet during the pad exposure period. Parameters included are temperature, dew point, relative humidity, wind speed, sea level pressure and precipitation. All the data presented are archived by the Marshall Space Flight Center Environments Group, and were obtained from a combination of surface observations and meteorological towers at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. Data are provided from the first launch of the STS in 1981 through the launch of STS-107 in 2003.

B. Glenn Overbey↗
NASA NTRS2002

Transport and Meteorological Analysis

The objectives of this work are twofold. First, to provide real-time meteorological satellite guidance to airborne field missions for NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Program, the Global Tropospheric Experiment, and the Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project. Extensive meteorological satellite datasets were provided for use by the mission scientist and by the science team. These same data were then archived for postdeployment data analysis by the science team. Second, to provide scientific analysis of the data from the airborne field missions supported. The results of these analyses were made public through peer-reviewed publications.

Pfister, Leonhard↗
NASA NTRS2004

Effects of Meteorological Conditions on Reactions to Noise Exposure

More than 80,000 residents' responses to transportation noise at different times of year provide the best, but imprecise, statistical estimates of the effects of season and meteorological conditions on community response to noise. Annoyance with noise is found to be slightly statistically significantly higher in the summer than in the winter in a seven-year study in the Netherlands. Analyses of 41 other surveys drawn from diverse countries, climates, and times of year find noise annoyance is increased by temperature, and may be increased by more sunshine, less precipitation, and reduced wind speeds. Meteorological conditions on the day of the interview or the immediately preceding days do not appear to have any more effect on reactions than do the conditions over the immediately preceding weeks or months.

Shepherd, Kevin P.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Space Shuttle Pad Exposure Period Meteorological Parameters STS-1 Through STS-107

During the 113 missions of the Space Transportation System (STS) to date, the Space Shuttle fleet has been exposed to the elements on the launch pad for approx. 4,195 days. The Natural Environments Branch at Marshall Space Flight Center archives atmospheric environments to which the Space Shuttle vehicles are exposed. This Technical Memorandum (TM) provides a summary of the historical record of the meteorological conditions encountered by the Space Shuttle fleet during the pad exposure period. Parameters included in this TM are temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, sea level pressure, and precipitation. Extremes for each of these parameters for each mission are also summarized. Sources for the data include meteorological towers and hourly surface observations. Data are provided from the first launch of the STS in 1981 through the launch of STS-107 in 2003.

Overbey, B. G.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Surveillance and Control of Malaria Transmission Using Remotely Sensed Meteorological and Environmental Parameters

Meteorological and environmental parameters important to malaria transmission include temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and vegetation conditions. These parameters can most conveniently be obtained using remote sensing. Selected provinces and districts in Thailand and Indonesia are used to illustrate how remotely sensed meteorological and environmental parameters may enhance the capabilities for malaria surveillance and control. Hindcastings based on these environmental parameters have shown good agreement to epidemiological records.

Kiang, R.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Solar Occultation Satellite Data and Derived Meteorological Products: Sampling Issues and Comparisons with Aura MLS

Derived Meteorological Products (DMPs, including potential temperature (theta), potential vorticity, equivalent latitude (EqL), horizontal winds and tropopause locations) have been produced for the locations and times of measurements by several solar occultation (SO) instruments and the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). DMPs are calculated from several meteorological analyses for the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer, Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II and III, Halogen Occultation Experiment, and Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement II and III SO instruments and MLS. Time-series comparisons of MLS version 1.5 and SO data using DMPs show good qualitative agreement in time evolution of O3, N2O, H20, CO, HNO3, HCl and temperature; quantitative agreement is good in most cases. EqL-coordinate comparisons of MLS version 2.2 and SO data show good quantitative agreement throughout the stratosphere for most of these species, with significant biases for a few species in localized regions. Comparisons in EqL coordinates of MLS and SO data, and of SO data with geographically coincident MLS data provide insight into where and how sampling effects are important in interpretation of the sparse SO data, thus assisting in fully utilizing the SO data in scientific studies and comparisons with other sparse datasets. The DMPs are valuable for scientific studies and to facilitate validation of non-coincident measurements.

Manney, Gloria↗
NASA NTRS2010

Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) Sensor Validation and Verification on National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Lockheed WP-3D Aircraft

As part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aviation Safety and Security Program, the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting project (TAMDAR) developed a low-cost sensor for aircraft flying in the lower troposphere. This activity was a joint effort with support from Federal Aviation Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and industry. This paper reports the TAMDAR sensor performance validation and verification, as flown on board NOAA Lockheed WP-3D aircraft. These flight tests were conducted to assess the performance of the TAMDAR sensor for measurements of temperature, relative humidity, and wind parameters. The ultimate goal was to develop a small low-cost sensor, collect useful meteorological data, downlink the data in near real time, and use the data to improve weather forecasts. The envisioned system will initially be used on regional and package carrier aircraft. The ultimate users of the data are National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecast modelers. Other users include air traffic controllers, flight service stations, and airline weather centers. NASA worked with an industry partner to develop the sensor. Prototype sensors were subjected to numerous tests in ground and flight facilities. As a result of these earlier tests, many design improvements were made to the sensor. The results of tests on a final version of the sensor are the subject of this report. The sensor is capable of measuring temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and icing. It can compute pressure altitude, indicated air speed, true air speed, ice presence, wind speed and direction, and eddy dissipation rate. Summary results from the flight test are presented along with corroborative data from aircraft instruments.

Tsoucalas, George↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Applied Meteorology Unit: Nineteen Years Successfully Transitioning Research into Operations for America's Space Program

The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) provides technology transition and technique development to improve operational weather support to the Space Shuttle and the entire American space program. The AMU is funded and managed by NASA and operated by a contractor that provides five meteorologists with a diverse mix of advanced degrees, operational experience, and associated skills including data processing, statistics, and the development of graphical user interfaces. The AMU's primary customers are the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, the National Weather Service Spaceflight Meteorology Group at NASA Johnson Space Center, and the National Weather Service Melbourne FL Forecast Office. The AMU has transitioned research into operations for nineteen years and worked on a wide range of topics, including new forecasting techniques for lightning probability, synoptic peak winds,.convective winds, and summer severe weather; satellite tools to predict anvil cloud trajectories and evaluate camera line of sight for Space Shuttle launch; optimized radar scan strategies; evaluated and implemented local numerical models; evaluated weather sensors; and many more. The AMU has completed 113 projects with 5 more scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010. During this rich history, the AMU and its customers have learned many lessons on how to effectively transition research into operations. Some of these lessons learned include collocating with the operational customer and periodically visiting geographically separated customers, operator submitted projects, consensus tasking process, use of operator primary advocates for each project, customer AMU liaisons with experience in both operations and research, flexibility in adapting the project plan based on lessons learned during the project, and incorporating training and other transition assistance into the project plans. Operator involvement has been critical to the AMU's remarkable success and many awards from NASA, the National Weather Association, and two citations from the Navy's Center of Excellence for Best Manufacturing Practices. This paper will present the AMU's proven methods and explain how they may be applied by other organizations to effectively transition research into operations.

Madura, John T.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU)

This report summarizes the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) activities for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2010 (October - December 2009). A detailed project schedule is included in the Appendix. Included tasks are: (1) Peak Wind Tool for User Launch Commit Criteria (LCC), (2) Objective Lightning Probability Tool, Phase III, (3) Peak Wind Tool for General Forecasting, Phase II, (4) Upgrade Summer Severe Weather Tool in Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS), (5) Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) Data Analysis System (ADAS) Update and Maintainability, (5) Verify 12-km resolution North American Model (MesoNAM) Performance, and (5) Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) Graphical User Interface.

Bauman, William↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Applied Meteorology Unit: Nineteen Years Successfully Transitioning Research Into Operations for America's Space Program

The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) provides technology development and transition services to improve operational weather support to America's space program . The AMU was founded in 1991 and operates under a triagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Air Force (USAF) and the National Weather Service (NWS) (Ernst and Merceret, 1995). It is colocated with the 45th Weather Squadron (45WS) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and funded by the Space Shuttle Program . Its primary customers are the 45WS, the Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) operated for NASA by the NWS at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, TX, and the NWS forecast office in Melbourne, FL (MLB). The gap between research and operations is well known. All too frequently, the process of transitioning research to operations fails for various reasons. The mission of the AMU is in essence to bridge this gap for America's space program.

Madura, John T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU)

The AMU Team began four new tasks in this quarter: (1) began work to improve the AMU-developed tool that provides the launch weather officers information on peak wind speeds that helps them assess their launch commit criteria; (2) began updating lightning climatologies for airfields around central Florida. These climatologies help National Weather Service and Air Force forecasters determine the probability of lightning occurrence at these sites; (3) began a study for the 30th Weather Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to determine if precursors can be found in weather observations to help the forecasters determine when they will get strong wind gusts in their northern towers; and (4) began work to update the AMU-developed severe weather tool with more data and possibly improve its performance using a new statistical technique. Include is a section of summaries and detail reporting on the quarterly tasks: (1) Peak Wind Tool for user Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (LCC), Phase IV, (2) Situational Lightning climatologies for Central Florida, Phase V, (3) Vandenberg AFB North Base Wind Study and (4) Upgrade Summer Severe Weather Tool Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS).

Bauman, William↗
NASA NTRS2009

Configuring the HYSPLIT Model for National Weather Service Forecast Office and Spaceflight Meteorology Group Applications

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Melbourne, FL (NWS MLB) is responsible for providing meteorological support to state and county emergency management agencies across East Central Florida in the event of incidents involving the significant release of harmful chemicals, radiation, and smoke from fires and/or toxic plumes into the atmosphere. NWS MLB uses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model to provide trajectory, concentration, and deposition guidance during such events. Accurate and timely guidance is critical for decision makers charged with protecting the health and well-being of populations at risk. Information that can describe the geographic extent of areas possibly affected by a hazardous release, as well as to indicate locations of primary concern, offer better opportunity for prompt and decisive action. In addition, forecasters at the NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) have expressed interest in using the HYSPLIT model to assist with Weather Flight Rules during Space Shuttle landing operations. In particular, SMG would provide low and mid-level HYSPLIT trajectory forecasts for cumulus clouds associated with smoke plumes, and high-level trajectory forecasts for thunderstorm anvils. Another potential benefit for both NWS MLB and SMG is using the HYSPLIT model concentration and deposition guidance in fog situations.

Dreher, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS2010

Effects of Lightning and Other Meteorological Factors on Fire Activity in the North American Boreal Forest: Implications for Fire Weather Forecasting

The effects of lightning and other meteorological factors on wildfire activity in the North American boreal forest are statistically analyzed during the fire seasons of 2000-2006 through an integration of the following data sets: the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) level 2 fire products, the 3-hourly 32-kin gridded meteorological data from North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and the lightning data collected by the Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN) and the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). Positive anomalies of the 500 hPa geopotential height field, convective available potential energy (CAPE), number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, and the number of consecutive dry days are found to be statistically important to the seasonal variation of MODIS fire counts in a large portion of Canada and the entirety of Alaska. Analysis of fire occurrence patterns in the eastern and western boreal forest regions shows that dry (in the absence of precipitation) lightning strikes account for only 20% of the total lightning strikes, but are associated with (and likely cause) 40% of the MODIS observed fire counts in these regions. The chance for ignition increases when a threshold of at least 10 dry strikes per NARR grid box and at least 10 consecutive dry days is reached. Due to the orientation of the large-scale pattern, complex differences in fire and lightning occurrence and variability were also found between the eastern and western sub-regions. Locations with a high percentage of dry strikes commonly experience an increased number of fire counts, but the mean number of fire counts per dry strike is more than 50% higher in western boreal forest sub-region, suggesting a geographic and possible topographic influence. While wet lightning events are found to occur with a large range of CAPE values, a high probability for dry lightning occurs only when 500 hPa geopotential heights are above 5700m and CAPE values are near the maximum observed level, underscoring the importance of low-level instability to boreal fire weather forecasts-

Peterson, D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Analysis of the Meteorology Associated with the 1997 NASA Glenn Twin Otter Icing Events

This part of the document contains an analysis of the meteorology associated with the premier icing encounters from the January-March 1997 NASA Twin Otter dataset. The purpose of this analysis is to provide a meteorological context for the aircraft data collected during these flights. For each case, the following data elements are presented: (1) A detailed discussion of the Twin Otter encounter, including locations, liquid water contents, temperatures and microphysical makeup of the clouds and precipitation aloft, (2) Upper-air charts, providing hand-analyzed locations of lows, troughs, ridges, saturated/unsaturated air, temperatures, warm/cold advection, and jet streams, (3) Balloon-borne soundings, providing vertical profiles of temperature, moisture and winds, (4) Infrared satellite data, providing cloud locations and cloud top temperature, (5) 3-hourly surface charts, providing hand-analyzed locations of lows, highs, fronts, precipitation (including type) and cloud cover, (6) Hourly plots of icing pilot reports, providing the icing intensity, icing type, icing altitudes and aircraft type, (7) Hourly, regional radar mosaics, providing fine resolution of the locations of precipitation (including intensity and type), pilot reports of icing (including intensity and type), surface observations of precipitation type and Twin Otter tracks for a one hour window centered on the time of the radar data, and (8) Plots of data from individual NEXRAD radars at times and elevation angles that have been matched to Twin Otter flight locations. Outages occurred in nearly every dataset at some point. All relevant data that was available is presented here. All times are in UTC and all heights are in feet above mean sea level (MSL).

Bernstein, Ben C.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Analysis of the Meteorology Associated with the 1998 NASA Glenn Twin Otter Icing Flights

This document contains a basic analysis of the meteorology associated with the NASA Glenn Twin Otter icing encounters between December 1997 and March 1998. The purpose of this analysis is to provide a meteorological context for the aircraft data collected during these flights. For each case, the following data elements are presented: (1) A brief overview of the Twin Otter encounter, including locations, liquid water contents, temperatures and microphysical makeup of the clouds and precipitation aloft, (2) Upper-air charts, providing hand-analyzed locations of lows, troughs, ridges, saturated/unsaturated air, temperatures, warm/cold advection, and jet streams, (3) Balloon-borne soundings, providing vertical profiles of temperature, moisture and winds, (4) Infrared and visible satellite data, providing cloud locations and cloud top temperature, (5) 3-hourly surface charts, providing hand-analyzed locations of lows, highs, fronts, precipitation (including type) and cloud cover, (6) Hourly, regional radar mosaics, providing fine resolution of the locations of precipitation (including intensity and type), pilot reports of icing (including intensity and type), surface observations of precipitation type and Twin Otter tracks for a one hour window centered on the time of the radar data, and (7) Hourly plots of icing pilot reports, providing the icing intensity, icing type, icing altitudes and aircraft type. Outages occurred in nearly every dataset at some point. All relevant data that was available is presented here. All times are in UTC and all heights are in feet above mean sea level (MSL).

Bernstein, Ben C.↗
NASA NTRS2007

An Overview of the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU)

The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) acts as a bridge between research and operations by transitioning technology to improve weather support to the Shuttle and American space program. It is a NASA entity operated under a tri-agency agreement by NASA, the US Air Force, and the National Weather Service (NWS). The AMU contract is managed by NASA, operated by ENSCO, Inc. personnel, and is collocated with Range Weather Operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The AMU is tasked by its customers in the 45th Weather Squadron, Spaceflight Meteorology Group, and the NWS in Melbourne, FL with projects whose results help improve the weather forecast for launch, landing, and ground operations. This presentation describes the history behind the formation of the AMU, its working relationships and goals, how it is tasked by its customers, and examples of completed tasks.

Merceret, Francis↗
NASA NTRS2014

Meteorological Aspects of Two Modes of Lightning Triggered Upward Lightning (LTUL) Events in Sprite-Producing MCSs

During the 2013 convective storm season, a high resolution 3-D Lightning Mapping Array was deployed to north central Kansas (Cummins et al, this conference.) In conjunction with fixed and mobile camera systems and electric field mills, this allowed for detailed investigations of lightning induced upward lighting (LTUL) discharges from tall objects in the region, including wind turbines. Also, concurrent observations using a network of low-light cameras deployed over the central U.S. as part of the PhOCAL program detected transient luminous events (TLEs) above the Kansas LMA (KSLMA). During the night of 29-30 May 2013, waves of precipitation associated with several large MCSs traversing Kansas moved through the KSLMA domain. We focus on two LTUL events that exemplify two modes of upward lightning production from tall structures. At 0859Z, 30 May 2013, a nearby + 92 kA CG, with extensive in-cloud branching passing overhead a wind farm, was followed by complex LTUL discharges from four turbines. In addition, a sprite was confirmed by the Bennett, CO SpriteNet camera. The parent flash covered a very large area. It initiated near the MCS convective leading line ~150 km to the south, and traveled into a stratiform precipitation maximum over the KSLMA. Typically when a +CG precedes an LTUL, the triggering component is either 1) the return stroke that traverses the leader network which initially forms near the towers or 2) new negative leader activity that develops once the return stroke reaches the end of the initial leader network that may not have initially been near the tower. In the latter case, the new leader development passes near the towers and triggers upward positive leaders similar to those associated with only an intracloud flash. The +CG return stroke may hit >10 km from the towers and the new leader development may travel extensive distances before getting close enough to the towers to trigger upward lightning. In this case, there was the typical long delay between the +CG return stroke and LTUL initiation (10s to 100s of ms). The parent lightning discharges for both sprites and LTULs have many common aspects and tend to occur in similar meteorological regimes, with the two phenomena often occurring together. An earlier LUTL, at 2320Z, 29 May 2013 was captured at 9900 fps by a Phantom camera in the PhOCAL mobile Lightning Investigation Vehicle (LIV). This discharge, exhibiting numerous recoil leaders, also occurred in a stratiform region some ~50-100 km north of an MCS convective core. While there was no preceding +CG, there was an extensive network of IC channels, one of which passed overhead close to the turbine. These observations are consistent with the ongoing UPLIGHTS studies of LTULs from tall towers in Rapid City. While a +CG is usually involved (~85% of the time), the LTUL occurs because of the associated extensive in cloud components passing over towers. The earlier case without a +CG typifies this second mode where the triggering component is a negative leader associated with the IC activity passing near the towers initiates the upward positive leaders. We will discuss the parent discharges, shown in their meteorological (radar and satellite) context, and attempt to better understand the charge structures present in both the convective and stratiform regions of the MCS. The sprite and its relationship to the parent discharge will similarly be discussed

Lyons, W. A.↗