Since 2005, ECMWF has generated model-simulated satellite images out to five days from the 00 UTC and 12 UTC cycles of the operational HRES forecast for all operational geostationary satellites (i.e., Meteosat-7, Meteosat-10, MTSAT-2, GOES-13 and GOES-15). The simulated images are archived in MARS as GRIB edition 1 files and have been presented on the ECMWF website as PostScript image files. The forecast-generated satellite images have been based on the resolution of the HRES global model with 3-hourly output from T+0 to T+48 and 6-hourly output to T+120.
Up to and including IFS cycle 41r1, the satellite images in both the window and water vapour (WV) channels were simulated over each of the 5 geostationary satellite’s disk. Brightness temperatures were calculated using the same radiative transfer algorithm (e.g., RTTOV-11) as in the operational data assimilation and using the relevant atmospheric model profiles (temperature, specific humidity, ozone mass mixing ratio, cloud cover, specific cloud liquid water content, specific cloud ice water content, specific rain water content, specific snow water content) and the relevant surface parameters (skin temperature, 10m u and v wind components, 2m temperature and 2m dewpoint temperature, volumetric soil water layer 1, convective available potential energy).
Errors in simulated satellite images can derive from errors in the NWP parameters, on which the simulation is based, the resolution of the model and RTTOV model performance.
The simulated satellite images at IFS cycle 41r2 have been enhanced in various aspects.
For the time being only Meteosat-10-like simulated satellite data will be made available. The central wavelength of the channels on other platforms is quite close to those selected to be produced, archived and disseminated.
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48-hour global simulated Meteosat-10 SEVIRI imagery at 10.8 μm (channel 9) from the ECMWF model cycle 41r2 at TCO1279 / O1280 horizontal resolution with 137 vertical levels run on 1 March 2016 at 00 UTC. | 48-hour global simulated Meteosat-10 SEVIRI imagery at 6.30 μm (channel 5)from the ECMWF model cycle 41r2 at TCO1279 / O1280 horizontal resolution with 137 vertical levels run on 1 March 2016 at 00 UTC. |
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Animation of 10 day global simulated Meteosat-10 SEVIRI imagery at 10.8 μm (channel 9) from the ECMWF model cycle 41r2 at TCO1279 / O1280 horizontal resolution with 137 vertical levels run on 1 March 2016 at 00 UTC. | Animation of 10 day global simulated Meteosat-10 SEVIRI imagery at 6.30 μm (channel 5)from the ECMWF model cycle 41r2 at TCO1279 / O1280 horizontal resolution with 137 vertical levels run on 1 March 2016 at 00 UTC. |
The simulated satellite data are specified using the satellite identifer, instrument, channel number and central wavelength as given in the WMO Manual on codes:
COMMON CODE TABLE C–8: Satellite instruments
. For the simulated satellite data based on Meteosat-10 these are as in the table below:
Satellite | Instrument | Satellite ID | Instrument Type | Channel | Central wavelength (μm) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meteosat-10 | SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager) | 57 | 207 | 5 | 6.30 | Water Vapour at ~300 hPa |
6 | 7.36 | Water Vapour at ~500 hPa | ||||
9 | 10.79 | Infra-red |
The simulated satellite data fields are encoded in GRIB edition 2 with the parameter set to Cloudy brightness temperature:
paramId | shortName | name | units | GRIB edition |
---|---|---|---|---|
260510 | clbt | Cloudy brightness temperature | Kelvin | 2 |
The product description uses productDefinitionTemplateNumber=32 (analysis or forecast at a horizontal level or in a horizontal layer at a point in time for simulated (synthetic) satellite data. The relevant GRIB API keys are encoded as:
GRIB key name | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
satelliteSeries | satelliteNumber ident | instrumentType instrument | channelNumber channel | NB numberOfContributingSpectralBands | scaleFactorOfCentralWaveNumber | scaledValueOfCentralWaveNumber (units: m-1) |
333 | 57 | 207 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 158800 |
6 | 1 | 0 | 135800 | |||
9 | 1 | 0 | 92700 |
Other GRIB API keys describing the product are:
Key | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
discipline | 3 | Space products |
parameterCategory | 1 | Quantitative products |
parameterNumber | 14 | Cloudy brightness temperature |
GRIB API version at least 1.14.5 needs to be used in order to decode the simulated satellite data products.
The simulated satellite data are archived in MARS under TYPE=SSD (Simulated Satellite Date). They can be viewed in the MARS Catalogue at:
A sample MARS request for retrieving the fields at all post-processing time steps of a single forecast is:
RETRIEVE, STREAM = OPER, CLASS = OD, EXPVER = 0001, DATE = -1, TIME = 12, TYPE = SSD, IDENT = 57, INSTRUMENT = 207, PARAM = 260510, CHANNEL = 9, STEP = 0/3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/27/30/33/36/39/42/45/48/54/60/66/72/78/84/90/96/102/108/114/120/132/144/156/168/180/192/204/216/228/240, TARGET = "meteosat-10.channel9.grib2" |
The fields are stored on the model O1280 octahedral reduced Gaussian grid. Any MARS post-processing keywords, such as AREA or GRID can be applied to the request to interpolate the fields to lower resolutions or geographical sub-areas.
Prior to the implementation of IFS cycle 41r2, the simulated satellite images were stored in MARS with TYPE=SIM and REPRES=SV (Space View) for the IDENT, INSTRUMENT and CHANNEL as specified in the table below.
Name | Operator | Sector | Longitude | Since | Satellite ID | Instrument | instrument type | Channel | Central wavelength (μm) | Dimensions (pixels) | Satellite subpoint (pixels) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meteosat-7 | EUMETSAT | Indian Ocean | 54.5° E | 2009-03-10 | 54 | MVIRI | 205 | 2 | 6.34 | 2500x2500 | 1250x1250 |
3 | 11.52 | ||||||||||
GOES-13 | NOAA | West Atlantic | 75.0° W | 2010-04-09 | 257 | Imager | 615 | 3 | 6.54 | 1250x1250 | 625x625 |
4 | 10.67 | ||||||||||
MTSAT-2 | JMA | West Pacific | 145.0° E | 2011-01-25 | 172 | JAMI | 294 | 2 | 10.8 | 1250x1250 | 625x625 |
4 | 6.8 | ||||||||||
GOES-15 | NOAA | East Pacific | 135.0° W | 2012-04-25 | 259 | Imager | 615 | 3 | 6.55 | 1250x1250 | 625x625 |
4 | 10.68 | ||||||||||
Meteosat-10 | EUMETSAT | East Atlantic | 0° | 2013-01-14 | 57 | SEVIRI | 207 | 5 | 6.30 | 1856x1856 | 928x928 |
6 | 7.36 | ||||||||||
9 | 10.79 |
These products have been encoded using GRIB edition 1.
An example MARS request for retrieving the old-style (pre-IFS cy41r2) simulated satellite images at all post-processing time steps to day 5 and for a forecast date "YYYYMMDD" prior to 20160308 is:
RETRIEVE, CLASS = OD, TYPE = SIM, STREAM = OPER, EXPVER = 0001, REPRES = SV, DATE = YYYYMMDD, TIME = 0000, STEP = 0/3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/27/30/33/36/39/42/45/48/54/60/66/72/78/84/90/96/102/108/114/120, DOMAIN = G, CHANNEL = 9, IDENT = 57, INSTRUMENT = 207, TARGET = ”old_simulated_meteosat-10.channel9.grib” |