Cyclone Impact

Terra2008/12205/01/0804:35 UTC

Cyclone Impact - Conclusions

• The data sets are immediately laid out on the PO.DAAC site.

• Deciding on which data set to use requires reading the data guides (is this surprising?).

• Some links inactive.• The hurricane tracking section is comprehensive.• The Jason-1 data seems reasonably easy to locate and

decode. A lot of TLAs on the Jason-1 page.• No ocean color, or link, at PO.DAAC. However the gsfc

site is very easy to use.• No PO.DAAC search. Most searches on JPL page return

hits for “Cassini-Huygens”.

Steps needed1. Overview – I would start with getting some tracking information and

maybe some observations. I know of operational sites that track hurricanes as well as the Modis rapid response site. Noaa might have a buoy or two in the Indian Ocean. That should do for starters.

2. Identify data sets – an overview of meteorological data from analyses would be good, although analyses are as a rule synoptic scale and not hurricane scale. I would expect to get met analyses from NCAR. The specific ocean products would then be (a.) sea level, (b.) wave heights, and (c.) ocean color. I can guess (a.) Jason, (b.) SAR, or a forecasting center, and (c.) seawifs?? I don’t know too much about ocean color. I’ll search for these at PO-DAAC and browse for others.

3. Results.

Strategy1. Start with data sources that I know about.2. Search away.

Overview InformationThis is what I can typically find in a pinch.This is what I can typically find in a pinch.

• http://weather.unisys.com/hurricaneshttp://weather.unisys.com/hurricanes

• 6-hourly cyclone tracking information and max wind speed

• Max wind speed 115 mph on 6UTC, May 2.

• http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.govhttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov

• Modis• ndbc.noaa.govndbc.noaa.gov

• Noaa National Data Buoy Center

Aqua 1km NDVI 05/05/08

Aqua 1km NDVI 04/27/08

Identify data sets

• MeteorologyMeteorology – I would look for ECMWF operational analyses, if available (high resolution) from http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets. As of Sept 16, the first half of 2008 are in. This requires:• NCAR Mass-stor account

• Familiarity with unpacking software (NCL).

• NCEP reanalyses from NOAA Climate Analysis Branch - http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ (for NCEP II, wait one year).

• Jason-1 ocean elevation anomaly & significant wave height: http://podaac-www.jpl.nasa.gov

• After a while, I identified cycle 232, J1SSHA files available from ftp and there’s a reference manual. C/IDL for reading. On the web page, I stayed away from things I didn’t know. J1SSHA seems like what I want , but not sure… Stumbled across 10-day image archive..

Hurricane Met data from PO.DAAC

Link to radar precip, Link to radar precip, flyover animations, etc.flyover animations, etc.After tedium with the After tedium with the

data download, I notice data download, I notice a link to cyclones and a link to cyclones and try it. Bingo…try it. Bingo…

http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Fruitless search for ocean color at Fruitless search for ocean color at PO.DAAC. I type “ocean color” into PO.DAAC. I type “ocean color” into Google and take the first hit. This is a Google and take the first hit. This is a friendly-looking web page. There’s a friendly-looking web page. There’s a hurricanes page with good imagery. The hurricanes page with good imagery. The interactive image searching page looks do-interactive image searching page looks do-able, and links to hdf files of the data are able, and links to hdf files of the data are given. This looks pretty good.given. This looks pretty good.

Some Conclusions

• I did not expect to find met data, scatterometer winds, etc. at PO.DAAC. The hurricane tracking section is comprehensive.

• The Jason-1 data seems reasonably easy to locate and decode.

• I did expect to find ocean color, or a link, at PO.DAAC. However the gsfc site is very easy to use.

• Most searches on PO.DAAC page return hits for “Cassini-Huygens”.