HR: 14:25h
AN: IN23B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Nexrad-In-Space - A Geostationary Satellite Doppler Weather Radar for Hurricane Studies
AU: * Im, E
EM: eastwood.im@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mailstop 180-404, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: Chandrasekar, V
EM: chandra@engr.colostate.edu
AF: Colorado State University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States
AU: Chen, S S
EM: schen@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, RSMAS/MPO 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33124, United States
AU: Holland, G J
EM: gholland@ucar.edu
AF: National Center of Atmospheric Research, Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, Boulder, CO 80301, United States
AU: Kakar, R
EM: ramesh.kakar@hq.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Headquarters, Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC 20546, United States
AU: Lewis, W E
EM: welewis@wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Madison, WI 53706, United States
AU: Marks, F D
EM: Frank.Marks@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/AOML, Hurricane Research Division, Miami, FL 33149, United States
AU: Smith, E A
EM: eric.a.smith@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mailstop 613.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Tanelli, S
EM: Simone.Tanelli@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mailstop 180-404, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: Tripoli, G J
EM: tripoli@aos.wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Madison, WI 53706, United States
AB: The Nexrad-In-Space (NIS) is a revolutionary atmospheric radar observation concept from the geostationary orbiting platform. It was developed over the last 4 years under the auspices of NASA's Earth Science Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). The NIS radar would provide Ka-band (35 GHz) reflectivity and line-of-sight Doppler velocity profiles over a circular Earth region of approximately 5200 km in diameter with a 12-km horizontal resolution, and a minimum detectable signal of 5 dBZ. The NIS radar achieves its superb sampling capabilities by use of a 35-m diameter, deployable antenna made from lightweight membrane material. The antenna has two transmit-receive array pairs that create a dual-beam, spiral-feed combined profile image of both reflectivity and Doppler velocity approximately every 60 minutes. This sampling time can be shortened even further by increasing the number of transmit-receive array pairs. It is generally recognized that the processes important in governing hurricane intensity and structure span a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. The environmental forcing considerations require a large domain. The vortex response to the environmental forcing ultimately involves convection on small horizontal scales in the eyewall and rainband regions. Resolving this environment-vortex-convection feedback in a numerical model requires observations on the space and time scales necessary to unambiguously define these structures within and surrounding the tropical cyclone. Because the time and space scales of these processes are small, continuous 3-dimensional independent observations of the 3-dimensional wind and precipitation structures will be needed to initialize numerical models critical for this purpose. The proposed NIS Doppler radar would be the first instrument capable of accomplishing this feat at time scales less than hours, and would create the opportunity for hurricane science to enter a new era of understanding and improved prediction. This talk will give a brief summary of the NIS instrument concept, the current technology status, the anticipated impacts on hurricane monitoring and model prediction, and the future science and technology roadmap.
DE: 1853 Precipitation-radar
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
DE: 3374 Tropical meteorology
DE: 3394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Earth and Space Science Informatics [IN]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting