On the Remote Sensing of Mesoscale Tropical Convection Intensity from a Geostationary Satellite

Abstract

This paper develops an objective technique for estimating the mass and energy exchange in convection systems corresponding to altocumulus cumulogenitus and cumulonimbus intensities using measurements of the area change of the cirrus outflow on a sequence of satellite cloud photographs obtained at geostationary altitude. The data clearly show that: 1) the technique is able to isolate vigorous and moderate convection regimes on the geostationary satellite cloud photos; and 2) the model-estimated mass and energy are consistent with ground-based measurements such as those of Braham and Brown.