HIGH-RESOLUTION DEPICTION OF ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE, STABILITY AND SURFACE-TEMPERATURE FROM COMBINED MAMS AND VAS RADIANCES

With the development of remote sensing as a research tool, meteorologi cal investigations into mesoscale (meso beta and meso gamma scales) sp atial variability of the Earth's atmosphere and surface have become fe asible. While meso beta scale (20-200 km) atmospheric and surface vari ability has been the subject of much investigation, relatively little effort has been made to study meso gamma scale (2-20 km) variation, pr imarily because few remote sensing systems exist that can provide mean ingful information at meso gamma scales. In an effort to gain further understanding of mesoscale variability of the Earth-atmosphere system, aircraft-borne Multi-spectral Atmospheric Mapping Sensor (MAMS) 100 m etre resolution radiometric data and geostationary-borne VISSR Atmosph eric Sounder (VAS) 8 km resolution radiometric data have been used tog ether in a physical retrieval method to produce 100 metre resolution d epictions of atmospheric moisture, stability and skin temperature. The VAS, with its infrared sounding capability, provides the vertical inf ormation to the retrieval while the MAMS, with its 100 metre resolutio n, provides the horizontal information. The retrievals show mesoscale features including a moist tongue intrusion and an urban heat island. Meso gamma scale gradients are found to exceed meso beta scale gradien ts, and significant meso gamma scale variability is not captured in cu rrent geostationary sounding data. Horizontal atmospheric moisture and stability and skin temperature gradients are detectable at spatial re solutions down to 300 metres, the smallest resolution at which the gra dients were evaluated. This suggests that improvements to the spatial resolution (while maintaining good signal-to-noise) of operational sou nding data will yield improved information on atmospheric and surface gradients, especially at the meso gamma scale.