Satellite Meteorological Parameters

Satellite meteorological parameters help to provide the initial conditions for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). Desired fields include those of temperature, moisture, winds, clouds, fog, aerosols, precipitation, surface properties, heating and other parameters. Thus, for high horizontal resolution and global coverage, weather satellite data are an unrivaled source of NWP information. The basic form of this information is satellite sensor-incident, wavelength-dependent radiance or equivalently and brightness temperature. The process of retrieving meteorological data from the observed radiances involves solving an inverse problem, which often is ill posed or poorly conditioned. In fact, a variety of methods have been used to make the inverse problem more tractable, such as in essence, for which some a priori information is required. The inverse problem in meteorology is the opposite of the calculation of radiances, given the relevant meteorological profiles, surface conditions and sensor geometry. This so-called forward problem is an integral part of physical retrieval methods that are now generally favored over conventional statistical retrieval methods.