2018 Atmospheric Motion Vector (AMV) Intercomparison Study

Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) calculated by six different institutions (Brazil Center for Weather Prediction and Climate Studies/CPTEC/INPE, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites/EUMETSAT, Japan Meteorological Agency/JMA, Korea Meteorological Administration/KMA, Unites States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NOAA, and the Satellite Application Facility on Support to Nowcasting and Very short range forecasting/NWCSAF) with JMA’s Himawari-8 satellite data and other common input data are here compared. The comparison is based on two different AMV input datasets, calculated with two different image triplets for 21 July 2016, and the use of a prescribed and a specific configuration. The main results of the study are summarized as follows: (1) the differences in the AMV datasets depend very much on the ‘AMV height assignment’ used and much less on the use of a prescribed or specific configuration; (2) the use of the ‘Common Quality Indicator (CQI)’ has a quantified skill in filtering collocated AMVs for an improved statistical agreement between centers; (3) Among the six AMV operational algorithms verified by this AMV Intercomparison, JMA AMV algorithm has the best overall performance considering all validation metrics, mainly due to its new height assignment method: ‘Optimal estimation method considering the observed infrared radiances, the vertical profile of the Numerical Weather Prediction wind, and the estimated brightness temperature using a radiative transfer model’.