Monsoon clouds satellite view

This map displays a combination of the latest RealVue satellite image and the color enhanced infrared band of satellites. It provides a detailed real view from above of clouds, weather systems, smoke, dust, and fog; while also allowing the colors to depict cloud heights and precipitation areas. India

• Abstract • 1. Introduction • 2. Data • 3. Methodology • a. Cloud detection algorithm • b. Cloud typing algorithm • 4. Cloud amount comparison with MODIS and ISCCP • a. MODIS • b. ISCCP • 5. Results • a. Spatial patterns of cloud amount • b. Daytime diurnal cycle of cloud amount • c. Daytime diurnal cycle of convection • d. Comparison with numerical models • 6. Summary and future work References Lau , K. M. , K-M. Kim , and C. Hsu , 2005 : Observational evidence of effects of absorbing aerosols on seasonal-to-interannual anomalies of the Asian monsoon. CLIVAR Exchanges, No. 3, International CLIVAR Project Office, Southampton, United Kingdom, 7–9 .)| false• Search Google Scholar • Export Citation • Parthasarathy , B. , A. A. Munot , and D. R. Kothawale , 1995 : Monthly and seasonal rainfall series for all-India homogeneous regions and meteorological subdivisions: 1871–1994. Research Rep. RR-065, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, 113 pp .)| false• Search Google Scholar • Export Citation • Pinker , R. T. , and Coauthors , 2003 : Surface radiation budgets in support of the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP), including the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) Project. J. Geophys. Res. , 108 , 8844 . doi:10.1029/2002JD003301 . Pinker , R. T. , and Coauthors , 2003 : Surface radiation budgets in support of the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) and the GEWEX Americas Pred...

Its name may have “joy” in it, but it actually means calamity in Bengali, which is apt because Cyclone Biprajoy, which developed in the Arabian Sea, may adversely affect the monsoon, which is already delayed this year. The formation process of cyclone Biparjoy began in the Arabian Sea and will have no impact over Maharashtra. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE) Read here: “Biparjoy is not good for our monsoon because it is pulling all the moisture along with it away from the Indian coast. Its formation is not near the India coast and hence monsoon’s progress will remain very poor until around June 12. It may strengthen the cross-equatorial flow after the cyclone dissipates, but that’s a long way away. We are closely monitoring onset conditions over Kerala but cloud cover has reduced owing to the rapidly intensifying deep depression over Arabian Sea. Its intensity will most definitely reach very severe cyclone phase. We are still hoping onset happens soon,” said a senior IMD official who did not wish to be named. In a statement, IMD admitted that the system is “likely to influence the monsoon progress” , although it stated that an update would follow on Wednesday. To be sure, the date of the monsoon’s onset is not correlated with its performance, although the emergence of an El Nino phenomenon (warm currents in the equatorial Pacific Ocean which is correlated with poor monsoons) is a matter of concern. IMD has predicted a normal monsoon with rainfall that is 96% of the long period avera...

A complex system of clouds and aerosols forms over much of South Asia as part of the monsoon - the challenge was to find out what it contains. Credit: Sparsh Karki/Pexels, licenced under CC0 For Stephan Borrmann, a day of high altitude detective work begins early. He wakes at about 05:30am in a hotel in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. After a quick breakfast, he and his team are driven to the city's airport. Their job is to prepare a converted Russian espionage plane so that it can investigate one of the biggest mysteries of the atmosphere. Professor Borrmann is an atmospheric physicist the Johannes Gutenberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. He's interested in the complex system of clouds and aerosols that forms over much of South Asia as part of the monsoon. The Himalayas force air upwards forming a huge mass of swirling cloud. This acts 'like a vacuum cleaner' says Prof. Borrmann, hoovering up air pollution from across Asia. In 2009, satellites picked up that a layer of aerosol—a suspension of tiny particles—accumulated just above the clouds at an altitude of about 14-18km. But no one knew what it was made of. Prof. Borrmann and his team wanted to find out more because it seemed probable that this layer, known as the Asian Tropospheric Aerosol Layer (ATAL), might have an important and undiagnosed effect on our planet's climate. Aerosols generally reflect sunlight and are also known to be important seeds for clouds. So it was exp...

New York City looks more like the Anatomy of a Giant Smoke Plume The layer of smoke closest to the ground towers two miles into the atmosphere before it gives way to relatively clear skies. About four miles up, a thinner layer of smoke hovers above it. And about 7.5 miles above the ground, a very faint layer is all that’s left of fires in Alberta, in western Canada, in May. This image from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16) shows the smoke plume from above on the morning of June 7. NASA “There are different histories to each one of those layers that would be interesting to untangle,” says National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration atmospheric scientist Michael Fromm in Smoke from western Canadian wildfires often blows over the northeastern U.S., but by the time it’s traveled across the continent, it’s risen to such a high altitude that it goes largely unnoticed by people on the ground. But Quebec, in eastern Canada, is only about 500 miles from New York City, so the smoke is still much lower to the ground. That’s not helped by a stubborn area of low atmospheric pressure off the southeastern coast of Canada, which is drawing the smoke right across densely populated areas of the northeastern U.S. We have that information about the smoke plume partly thanks to two networks of lidar instruments, which use lasers to measure the distance to objects or surfaces, like cloud layers. The ground-based Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) and the sat...

We present a satellite-based 13-year (Mar. 2000–Feb. 2013) climatology of net (CERES) data and explained the net CRF variability in terms of cloud properties retrieved by σ) seasonal shortwave (SW) CRF values averaged over the region are −82.7±24.5, −32.1±12.1, −17.2±5.3 and −30.2±16.2Wm −2 respectively for the monsoon (JJAS), post-monsoon (ON), winter (DJF) and pre-monsoon (MAM) −2. Regional analysis reveals the largest (least) negative net CRF over the northeast (northwest) rainfall homogeneous zone throughout the year due to the dominance of optically thick high clouds (low cloud fraction, f c). Mean JJAS f c is found to increase (by > 0.01 per year) over large parts of the −2 respectively. Across a wide range of cloud optical depth (COD) and f c<0.6, near cancellation of SW cooling by LW warming, is observed for low clouds. Net CRF drops below −15Wm −2 for clouds evolving above 400hPa, mainly in the monsoon season. Our results demonstrate that net CRF variability in the Indian monsoon region can be explained by variability in Cloud Top Pressure (CTP), COD and f c. The study highlights the need for resolving a multi-layer cloud field in the future. Introduction Clouds can be considered as one of the major factors influencing the Earth's climate as they exert a cooling effect by reflecting the incoming solar radiation and a warming effect by absorbing the terrestrial longwave radiation (Altaratz et al., 2014, Wacker et al., 2011, Galli et al., 2004). Clouds play a fundam...