A method for diagnosing surface parameters using geostationary satellite imagery and a boundary-layer model

A method for diagnosing surface parameters on a regional scale via geosynchronous satellite imagery is presented. Moisture availability, thermal inertia, atmospheric heat flux, and total evaporation are determined from three infrared images obtained from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). Three GOES images (early morning, midafternoon, and night) are obtained from computer tape. Two temperature-difference images are then created. The boundary-layer model is run, and its output is inverted via cubic regression equations. The satellite imagery is efficiently converted into output-variable fields. All computations are executed on a PDP 11/34 minicomputer. Output fields can be produced within one hour of the availability of aligned satellite subimages of a target area.