Applications of full spatial resolution space-based advanced infrared sounding in the pre-convection environment

Advanced infrared (IR) sounders such as the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) provide atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles with high vertical resolution and high accuracy in pre-convection environments. The derived atmospheric stability indices such as convective available potential energy (CAPE) and lifted index (LI) from advanced IR soundings can provide critical information 1 ∼ 6 hours before the development of severe convective storms. Two convective storms are selected for the evaluation of applying AIRS full spatial resolution soundings and the derived products on providing warning information in the pre-convection environments. In the first case, the AIRS full spatial resolution soundings revealed local extremely atmospheric instability 3 hours ahead the convections on the leading edge of a frontal system, while the second case demonstrates that the extremely low atmospheric instability is associated with the local development of severe thunderstorm in the following hours. These cases suggest that the AIRS full spatial resolution LI product shows the atmospheric instability 3.5 hours before the storm genesis. The CAPE and LI from AIRS full spatial resolution and operational AIRS/AMSU soundings along with Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Sounder derived product image (DPI) products were analyzed and compared. Case studies show that full spatial resolution AIRS retrievals provide useful warning information in the pre-convection environments for determining favorable locations for convective initiation (CI) than the coarser spatial resolution operational soundings and lower spectral resolution GOES Sounder retrievals.