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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms
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Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 July 2021) | Viewed by 13125

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Rocky Talchabhadel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M University, El Paso, TX, USA
Interests: hydrologic modeling; remote sensing; machine learning; water resources engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ke Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Interests: climate variability; extreme climate; climate prediction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Extreme weather events, such as floods and landslides, are reported to surge in terms of both frequency and magnitude across the world, posing a risk to lives, property, and the environment. Globally wet regions are getting wetter and dry regions drier. Importantly, under the changing climate, fluctuations in the extremes are stronger compared to those of mean values.

Understanding the spatio-temporal distribution of weather variables such as precipitation and their atmospheric mechanisms during extreme weather events (including pre- and post-events) is crucial, but this is often lacking across poorly gauged regions. Satellite-based products are continuously viewing the Earth. Around the world, the availability of high resolution (spatial and temporal) has been recognized as a crucial achievement, and satellite-based products have been applied in many disciplines. However, these products still have challenges when our focus is on extreme weather events such as cloudbursts or flash floods.

This Special Issue aims to collect state-of-the-art contributions appraising the use of satellite-based products in capturing extreme weather events. Topics of specific interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Review of various satellite-based products;
  • Comparison of different satellite-based products with high-resolution weather observations;
  • Bias correction of satellite-based products;
  • Development of high space–time resolution datasets of meteorological variables to force numerical models;
  • Challenges on the use of satellite-based products in ungauged regions;
  • Statistical analysis of extreme weather data;
  • Extreme weather events (including floods and landslides) and their associated mechanisms;
  • Use of numerical models to assess the atmospheric mechanisms of extreme weather events;
  • Early warning systems for extreme weather events.

Dr. Rocky Talchabhadel
Prof. Dr. Ke Fan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Cloud
  • Extreme weather event
  • Flash flood
  • Heavy precipitation
  • Hydro-meteorological hazard
  • Numerical model
  • Satellite-based product
  • Weather monitoring

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4632 KiB  
Article
Detection of Spatial Rainfall Variation over the Andean Region Demonstrated by Satellite-Based Observations
by Dibas Shrestha, Shankar Sharma, Rocky Talchabhadel, Rashila Deshar, Kalpana Hamal, Nitesh Khadka and Kenji Nakamura
Atmosphere 2021, 12(9), 1204; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atmos12091204 - 16 Sep 2021
Viewed by 2172
Abstract
Topography has an important role in shaping regional and global climate systems, as it acts as a mechanical barrier to the low-level moisture flow. Thus, a complex spatial pattern of rainfall can exist over the mountainous region. Moreover, it is critical to advance [...] Read more.
Topography has an important role in shaping regional and global climate systems, as it acts as a mechanical barrier to the low-level moisture flow. Thus, a complex spatial pattern of rainfall can exist over the mountainous region. Moreover, it is critical to advance our understanding of the relationship between rainfall and topography in terms of rainfall timing, frequency, and magnitude. In this study, characteristics of austral summer (December–February) precipitation are analyzed using 17-year (1998–2014) high-spatial-resolution (0.05° × 0.05°) data obtained from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) over the Andean region focusing on topographic impact. We observe an interaction between precipitation patterns and topography, with clear precipitation–elevation relationships in the Andes regions. The rainfall maxima zone was observed over the higher terrain of the central and southern Andes, and the zone is attributed to frequency and intensity of rainfall, respectively. In the foothills of the central Andes, we find there was a persistent rain system when a moist, low-level flow was lifted due to topography. In contrast, steep mountain slopes and a relatively dry atmosphere modulate deep convection in the foothills of southern Andes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms)
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21 pages, 13778 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Non-Local versus Local Moisture Sources on a Heavy (and Deadly) Rain Event in Israel
by Barry Lynn, Yoav Yair, Yoav Levi, Shlomi Ziskin Ziv, Yuval Reuveni and Alexander Khain
Atmosphere 2021, 12(7), 855; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atmos12070855 - 30 Jun 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1710
Abstract
Motivated by poor forecasting of a deadly convective event within the Levant, the factor separation technique was used to investigate the impact of non-local versus local moisture sources on simulated precipitation and lightning rates in central and southern Israel on 25 and 26 [...] Read more.
Motivated by poor forecasting of a deadly convective event within the Levant, the factor separation technique was used to investigate the impact of non-local versus local moisture sources on simulated precipitation and lightning rates in central and southern Israel on 25 and 26 April 2018. Both days saw unusually heavy rains, and it was hypothesized that antecedent precipitation on 25 April contributed to the development of deadly flooding late morning on the 26th, as well as strong lightning and heavy rains later the same day. Antecedent precipitation led to an increase in the precipitable water content and an overall increase in instability as measured by the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE). The deadly flood occurred in the area of the Tzafit river gorge (hereafter, Tzafit river), about 25 km southeast of the city of Dimona, a semi-arid region in the northeastern Negev desert. The heavy rains and strong lightning occurred throughout the Levant with local peaks in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Factor separation conducted in model simulations showed that local ground moisture sources had a large impact on the CAPE and subsequent precipitation and lightning rates in the area of Jerusalem, while non-local moisture sources enabled weak convection to occur over broad areas, with particularly strong convection in the area of the Tzafit river. The coupled impact of both moisture sources also led to localized enhanced areas of convective activity. The results suggest that forecast models for the Levant should endeavor to incorporate an accurate depiction of soil moisture to predict convective rain, especially during the typically drier spring-time season. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms)
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20 pages, 5760 KiB  
Article
Sea Surface Temperature Variability over the Tropical Indian Ocean during the ENSO and IOD Events in 2016 and 2017
by Sartaj Khan, Shengchun Piao, Guangxue Zheng, Imran Ullah Khan, David Bradley, Shazia Khan and Yang Song
Atmosphere 2021, 12(5), 587; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atmos12050587 - 01 May 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3155
Abstract
2016 and 2017 were marked by strong El Niño and weak La Niña events, respectively, in the tropical East Pacific Ocean. The strong El Niño and weak La Niña events in the Pacific significantly impacted the sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical [...] Read more.
2016 and 2017 were marked by strong El Niño and weak La Niña events, respectively, in the tropical East Pacific Ocean. The strong El Niño and weak La Niña events in the Pacific significantly impacted the sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) and were followed by extreme negative and weak positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) phases in 2016 and 2017, which triggered floods in the Indian subcontinent and drought conditions in East Africa. The IOD is an irregular and periodic oscillation in the Indian Ocean, which has attracted much attention in the last two decades due to its impact on the climate in surrounding landmasses. Much work has been done in the past to investigate global climate change and its impact on the evolution of IOD. The dynamic behind it, however, is still not well understood. The present study, using various satellite datasets, examined and analyzed the dynamics behind these events and their impacts on SST variability in the TIO. For this study, the monthly mean SST data was provided by NOAA Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST). SST anomalies were measured on the basis of 30-year mean daily climatology (1981–2010). It was determined that the eastern and western poles of the TIO play quite different roles during the sequence of negative and positive IOD phases. The analysis of air-sea interactions and the relationship between wind and SST suggested that SST is primarily controlled by wind force in the West pole. On the other hand, the high SST that occurred during the negative IOD phase induced local convection and westerly wind anomalies via the Bjerknes feedback mechanism. The strong convection, which was confined to the (warm) eastern equatorial Indian Ocean was accompanied by east–west SST anomalies that drove a series of downwelling Kelvin waves that deepened the thermocline in the east. Another notable feature of this study was its observation of weak upwelling along the Omani–Arabian coast, which warmed the SST by 1 °C in the summer of 2017 (as compared to 2016). This warming led to increased precipitation in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) region during the summer of 2017. The results of the present work will be important for the study of monsoons and may be useful in predicting both droughts and floods in landmasses in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean, especially in the Indian subcontinent and East African regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms)
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22 pages, 7124 KiB  
Article
Assessment of GPM-Era Satellite Products’ (IMERG and GSMaP) Ability to Detect Precipitation Extremes over Mountainous Country Nepal
by Bikash Nepal, Dibas Shrestha, Shankar Sharma, Mandira Singh Shrestha, Deepak Aryal and Nitesh Shrestha
Atmosphere 2021, 12(2), 254; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atmos12020254 - 15 Feb 2021
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4457
Abstract
The reliability of satellite precipitation products is important in climatic and hydro-meteorological studies, which is especially true in mountainous regions because of the lack of observations in these areas. Two recent satellite rainfall estimates (SREs) from Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)-era—Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for [...] Read more.
The reliability of satellite precipitation products is important in climatic and hydro-meteorological studies, which is especially true in mountainous regions because of the lack of observations in these areas. Two recent satellite rainfall estimates (SREs) from Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)-era—Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG-V06) and gauge calibrated Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP-V07) are evaluated for their spatiotemporal accuracy and ability to capture extreme precipitation events using 279 gauge stations from southern slope of central Himalaya, Nepal, between 2014 and 2019. The overall result suggests that both SREs can capture the spatiotemporal precipitation variability, although they both underestimated the observed precipitation amount. Between the two, the IMERG product shows a more consistent performance with a higher correlation coefficient (0.52) and smaller bias (−2.49 mm/day) than the GSMaP product. It is worth mentioning that the monthly gauge-calibrated IMERG product yields better detection capability (higher probability of detection (POD) values) of daily precipitation events than the daily gauge calibrated GSMaP product; however, they both show similar performance in terms of false alarm ratio (FAR) and critical success index (CSI). Assessment based on extreme precipitation indices revealed that the IMERG product outperforms GSMaP in capturing daily precipitation extremes (RX1Day and RX5Day). In contrast, the GSMaP product tends to be more consistent in capturing the duration and threshold-based precipitation extremes (consecutive dry days (CDD), consecutive wet days (CWD), number of heavy precipitation days (R10mm), and number of extreme precipitation days (R25mm)). Therefore, it is suggested that the IMERG product can be a good alternative for monitoring daily extremes; meanwhile, GSMaP could be a better option for duration-based extremes in the mountainous region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Satellites Applied in Extreme Weather and Their Atmospheric Mechanisms)
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