UPPER-TROPOSPHERIC WINDS DERIVED FROM GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE WATER-VAPOR OBSERVATIONS

The coverage and quality of remotely sensed upper-tropospheric moistur e parameters have improved considerably with the deployment of a new g eneration of operational geostationary meteorological satellites: GOES -8/9 and GMS-5. The GOES-8/9 water vapor imaging capabilities have inc reased as a result of improved radiometric sensitivity and higher spat ial resolution. The addition of a water vapor sensing channel on the l atest GMS permits nearly global viewing of upper-tropospheric water va por (when joined with GOES and Meteosat) and enhances the commonality of geostationary meteorological satellite observing capabilities. Uppe r-tropospheric motions derived from sequential water vapor imagery pro vided by these satellites can be objectively extracted by automated te chniques. Wind fields can be deduced in both cloudy and cloud-free env ironments. In addition to the spatially coherent nature of these vecto r fields, the GOES-8/9 multispectral water vapor sensing capabilities allow for determination of wind fields over multiple tropospheric laye rs in cloud-free environments. This article provides an update on the latest efforts to extract water vapor motion displacements over meteor ological scales ranging from subsynoptic to global. The potential appl ications of these data to impact operations, numerical assimilation an d prediction, and research studies are discussed.