Data Assimilation of Himawari-8 Aerosol Observations: Asian Dust Forecast in June 2015

Abstract

Himawari-8 is a Japanese geostationary weather satellite that was launched in October 2014 and has been in operation since July 2015. Himawari-8 is equipped with an outstanding highperformance imager that has 16 spectral channels (3 for visible, 3 for near-infrared and 10 for infrared wavelengths) with a 10-minute observation interval. We retrieved aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from visible and near-infrared multispectral observations of Himawari-8 and assimilated the AOT data into a global aerosol forecast model with an ensemble Kalman filter system. The data assimilation result was validated by comparison with conventional products derived from polar-orbiting satellite aerosol observations (i.e., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOT) of an Asian dust storm in June 2015. The Himawari-8 AOT data assimilation successfully produced an analysis and forecast of the Asian dust that was comparable or superior to those of the MODIS AOT data assimilation. The Himawari-8 aerosol product has a much higher temporal coverage than that of polar-orbiting satellites, which is promising for aerosol data assimilation. This study is a first step in the application of geostationary satellites for aerosol research.

Current state of the global operational aerosol multi‐model ensemble: An update from the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP)

“…The variational-based system (MASINGAR/2D-Var: Yumimoto et al, 2018) was used in the development of the JRAero aerosol reanalysis product (Yu et al, 2017) and scheduled for operational use for dust prediction using the Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) from the geostationary satellite Himawari-8. The ensemble-based system (MASINGAR/LETKF: Sekiyama et al, 2016;Yumimoto et al, 2016a) was developed as a research version and applied to assimilation experiments with both a space-based lidar and Himawari-8 inputs (Sekiyama et al, 2010;Yumimoto et al, 2016b).…”

Applying the Dark Target aerosol algorithm with Advanced Himawari Imager observations during the KORUS-AQ field campaign

“…These include the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) for AHI on Himawari (Uesawa, 2016) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) for ABI on the GOES-R se-ries. In addition to these official operational products, other algorithms have been developed that make use of the new generation of GEO observations for aerosol retrievals, especially for AHI data (Sekiyama et al, 2015;Yumimoto et al, 2016;Lim et al, 2016Lim et al, , 2018aZhang et al, 2018;Yoshida et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2018;Shi et al, 2018;Yan et al, 2018;Choi et al, 2019). Some of these alternative aerosol products are research algorithms for specific purposes, while others could be of general interest and could be made public.…”

Retrieval of aerosols over Asia from the Advanced Himawari Imager: Expansion of temporal coverage of the global Dark Target aerosol product

“…These include the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) for AHI on Himawari (Uesawa, 2016) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) for ABI on the GOES-R series. In addition to these official operational products, other algorithms have been developed that make use of the new generation of GEO observations for aerosol retrievals, especially for AHI data (Sekiyama et al, 2015;Yumimoto et al, 2016;Lim et al, 2016Zhang et al, 2018;Yoshida et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2018;Shi et al, 2018;Yan et al, 2018). Some of these alternative aerosol products are research algorithms for specific purposes, while others could be of general interest and could be made public.…”