According to a new report from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), new research will improve the accuracy of medium-range weather forecasts in the Northern Hemisphere. This should seriously impact air travel as better forecasting means better air traffic control and navigation around storms.
NASA and NOAA scientists at the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) in Camp Springs, MD, came up with procedures to improve forecasting accuracy. The scientists worked with experimental data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
They found incorporating AIRS data into numerical weather prediction models improves the accuracy range of experimental six-day Northern Hemisphere weather forecasts by up to six hours, a four percent increase. AIRS is a high-spectral resolution infrared instrument that takes 3-D pictures of atmospheric temperatures, water vapor and trace gases.
The instrument data have officially been incorporated into NOAA’s National Weather Service’s operational weather forecasts.
“NASA is assisting the world’s weather prediction agencies by providing very detailed, accurate observations of key atmospheric variables that interact to shape our weather and climate,” said Dr. Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “The forecast improvement accomplishment alone makes the AIRS project well worth the American taxpayers’ investment.”
According to the article, the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts began using data from AIRS in October 2003 and reported “an improvement in forecast accuracy of eight hours in Southern Hemisphere five-day forecasts.”
