Inner structures of convection from EarthCARE satellite
Prof. Masaki Satoh
University of Tokyo
邀请人：段晚锁 研究员
2025 年 6 月 11 日 上午 9:30-10:30
3号楼1218会议室
报告摘要
The newly launched EarthCARE satellite, equipped with the first-ever space-borne Doppler radar through its Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), is providing unprecedented insights into cloud microphysics and mesoscale circulation structures within mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and tropical cyclones. Complementing these observations, global kilometer-scale atmospheric simulations with NICAM—using horizontal mesh sizes of 870 meters and 3.5 kilometers—successfully reproduce cross-sectional structures of convective systems that closely resemble those observed by EarthCARE. In addition, the NICAM simulations provide detailed, time-evolving three-dimensional representations of MCSs, enabling comprehensive analysis of convective dynamics.
By generating EarthCARE-CPR-like signals from the NICAM output, key characteristics of vertical motions within convection can be extracted and examined. This approach allows for the identification of hydrometeor updrafts and downdrafts, along with their associated mass transports, directly from EarthCARE observations. These findings underscore the powerful synergy between advanced satellite observations and high-resolution numerical simulations, opening new pathways for improving our understanding and representation of convective processes in weather and climate models.
Following the above analysis, we propose the EarthCARE-ORCESTRA Model Intercomparison Project (ECOMIP), focusing on the ORCESTRA field campaign period from August 9 to September 29, 2024. The goal is to evaluate model performance using EarthCARE data, both in observation space—via satellite simulators (including radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity, and the lidar Mie and Rayleigh channels)—and in model space, through comparisons with observed radiative fluxes and retrievals of key quantities such as water content, particle size, and precipitation rate. We envision two types of experiments: Two-day simulations, initialized daily from August 9 to September 29, 2024, with specific days selected for detailed analysis. These simulations will be compared directly with EarthCARE observations from the second day of each run, and a two-month free run covering August to September 2024, which will be evaluated statistically using diagnostics such as contoured frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs). Model outputs will be extracted along the EarthCARE satellite “curtain” track, as well as within a 3D domain over the central Atlantic, where the ORCESTRA campaign was conducted. Additionally, global storm-resolving models are encouraged to provide global km-scale mesh datasets for comprehensive comparison.
报告人介绍
Dr. Masaki Satoh is a professor in Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute University of Tokyo, and Typhoon Science and Technology Research Center Yokohama National University. His research covers numerical algorithm, geophysical fluid dynamics, climate dynamics, atmosphere dynamics, tropical cyclones, cloud-resolving model, climate atmospheric general circulation, etc. With more than 300 peer reviewed publications, he was awarded the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan in 2007, and the Science and Technology Award of the Japan MEXT in 2016. He is a fellow of the Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences, the Japanese Society of Fluid Mechanics, American Meteorological Society, and the Meteorological Society of Japan.