Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center

SPoRT periodically hosts visitors to learn more about our program and team as well as to discuss opportunities for future collaboration. Typically, during these visits, the guest will present a seminar outlining his or her current work to help provide background on common interests. Please check back soon for information on the next seminar.

RGB Air Mass Depiction of Potent Dry Slot

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 06:34:22

A dry slot approaching NM on Friday, February 8, 2013 will deliver a significant blast of high winds, blowing dust, and critical fire weather conditions to portions of central and eastern NM on Saturday, February 9th. The hybrid RGB Air Mass product from 200pm on the 8th shows an exceptionally well defined delineation between moist [...]

Though we're not 24/7, SPoRT strives to provide the most timely and reliable data products to its partners and end users. A system has been developed to monitor the availability of LDM and FTP products and categorize each product based on its age. Summaries are posted every 10 minutes to the link below.

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Traditional GOES imagery can sometimes be difficult to use to distinguish between clouds and snow cover on the ground due to the similarity of the albedo of these features at visible wavelengths. Using the multispectral channels from MODIS, a false color composite can be made that distinguishes between clear ground, snow cover, and clouds. This image demonstrates this capability from a snow storm in the Tennessee River Valley. Here, clouds remain white, clear ground is green to aqua, and snow cover is designated by the various shades of red.

A modeling and verification study of summer precipitation systems using NASA surface initialization datasets

One of the most challenging weather forecast problems in the southeastern U.S. is daily summertime pulse-type convection. During the summer, atmospheric flow and forcing are generally weak in this region; thus, convection typically initiates in response to local forcing along sea/lake breezes, and other discontinuities often related to horizontal gradients in surface heating rates. Numerical simulations of pulse convection usually have low skill, even in local predictions at high resolution, due to the inherent chaotic nature of these precipitation systems.