No abstract

Japan’s new geostationary satellite Himawari-8, the first of a series of the third-generation geostationary meteorological satellites including GOES-16, has been operational since July 2015. Himawari-8 produces high-resolution observations with 16 frequency bands every 10 min for full disk, and every 2.5 min for local regions. This study aims to assimilate all-sky every-10-min infrared (IR) radiances from Himawari-8 with a regional numerical weather prediction model and to investigate its impact on real-world tropical cyclone (TC) analyses and forecasts for the first time. The results show that the assimilation of Himawari-8 IR radiances improves the analyzed TC structure in both inner-core and outer-rainband regions. The TC intensity forecasts are also improved due to Himawari-8 data because of the improved TC structure analysis.

Sudden local severe weather is a threat, and we explore what the highest-end supercomputing and sensing technologies can do to address this challenge. Here we show that using the Japanese flagship “K” supercomputer, we can synergistically integrate “big simulations” of 100 parallel simulations of a convective weather system at 100-m grid spacing and “big data” from the next-generation phased array weather radar that produces a high-resolution 3-dimensional rain distribution every 30 s—two orders of magnitude more data than the currently used parabolic-antenna radar. This “big data assimilation” system refreshes 30-min forecasts every 30 s, 120 times more rapidly than the typical hourly updated systems operated at the world’s weather prediction centers. A real high-impact weather case study shows encouraging results of the 30-s-update big data assimilation system.

The next-generation geostationary meteorological satellite of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Himawari-8, entered operation on 7 July 2015. Himawari-8 features the new 16-band Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), whose spatial resolution and observation frequency are improved over those of its predecessor MTSAT-series satellites. These improvements will bring unprecedented levels of performance in nowcasting services and short-range weather forecasting systems. In view of the essential nature of navigation and radiometric calibration in fully leveraging the imager's potential, this study reports on the current status of navigation and calibration for the AHI. Image navigation is accurate to within 1 km, and band-to-band co-registration has also been validated. Infrared-band calibration is accurate to within 0.2 K with no significant diurnal variation, and is being validated using an approach developed under the GSICS project. Validation approaches are currently being tested for the visible and near-infrared bands. In this study, two of such approaches were compared and found to produce largely consistent results.

Life histories of low-level misocyclones, one of which corresponded to a tornado vortex within a winter storm in the Japan Sea coastal region on 1 December 2007, were observed from close range by X-band Doppler radar of the East Japan Railway Company. Continuous plan position indicator (PPI) observations at 30-s intervals at the low-elevation angle revealed at least four cyclonic misocyclones within the head of the comma-shaped echo of the vortical disturbance under winter monsoon conditions. The meso-b-scale vortical disturbance developed within the weak frontal zone at the leading edge of cold-air outbreaks.High-resolution observation of misocyclones revealed the detailed structures of these misocyclones and their temporal evolution. As the parent storm evolved, a low-level convergence line was observed at the edge of the easternmost misocyclone. This convergence line was considered to be important for the initiation and development of the misocyclones and the tornado through vortex stretching. The strongest misocyclone gradually intensified as its diameter contracted until landfall, and then began to dissipate soon after landfall. The temporal evolution of the misocyclones through landfall is discussed.Surface wind and pressure variations suggested a cyclonic vortex passage, which was consistent with the passage of the radar-derived misocyclone. The observed pressure drop was also consistent with that computed from the cyclostrophic equation for the modified Rankine vortex. The observed behavior of two adjacent misocyclones was primarily consistent with the rotational flow associated with the other misocyclone. The generation and development processes of the tornado and misocyclones are discussed.