Algorithm science to operations for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) visible/infrared imager/radiometer suite (VIIRS)
The VIIRS sensor provides measurements for 22 environmental data records (EDRs) addressing the atmosphere, ocean surface temperature, ocean color, land parameters, aerosols, imaging for clouds and ice, and more. That is, the VIIRS collects visible and infrared radiometric data of the Earth's atmosphere, ocean, and land surfaces. Data types include atmospheric, clouds, Earth radiation budget, land/water and sea surface temperature, ocean color, and low light imagery. This wide scope of measurements calls for the preparation of a multiplicity of algorithm theoretical basis documents (ATBDs), and, additionally, for intermediate products such as cloud mask, et al. Furthermore, the VIIRS interacts with three or more other sensors. This paper addresses selected and crucial elements of the process being used to convert and test an immense volume of a maturing and changing science code to the initial operational source code in preparation for launch of NPP. The integrity of the original science code is maintained and enhanced via baseline comparisons when re-hosted, in addition to multiple planned code performance reviews.
Ozone Profile Retrieval from an Advanced Infrared Sounder: Experiments with Tropopause-Based Climatology and Optimal Estimation Approach
Abstract Motivated by a significant potential for retrieving atmospheric ozone profile information from advanced satellite infrared sounders, this study investigates various methods to optimize ozone retrievals. A set of retrieval experiments has been performed to assess the impact of different background states (or the a priori states) and retrieval algorithms on the retrieved ozone profiles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) using Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) measurements. A new tropopause-based ozone climatology, using publicly available global ozonesonde data to construct the a priori state, is described. Comparisons are made with the AIRS version 5 (v5) ozone climatology. The authors also present the result of a newly implemented optimal estimation (OE) algorithm and compare it to the current AIRS science team (AST) algorithm used in version 5. The ozone climatology using tropopause-referenced coordinates better preserves the shape and the magnitude of the ozone gradient ac...
Wall-to-bed heat transfer in circulating fluidized beds
Heat Transfer from the wall of a circulating fluidized bed to the fast bed suspension has been investigated for several materials. The range of investigation includes dense and dilute phase fast fluidization and pneumatic transport. The overall heat transfer coefficient was found to be a function mainly of cross-sectional average suspension density. Effects of superficial velocity and solids mass flux were obscured by their interrelationship to the suspension density. Two models from the literature are evaluated using present and published data.