Meteorological Satellites in Support of Weather Modification

Abstract

During the past several years, many weather modification programs have been incorporating meteorological satellite data into both the operations and the analysis phase of these projects. This has occurred because of the advancement of the satellite as a mesoscale measurement platform, both temporally and spatially, and as the availability of high quality data has increased. This paper surveys the applications of meteorological satellite data to both summer and winter weather modification programs. A description of the types of observations needed by the programs is given, and an assessment of how accurately satellites can determine these necessary parameters is made.