STATUS REPORT ON THE OPERATIONAL DERIVATION OF ATMOSPHERIC MOTION VECTORS AT EUMETSAT

The operational near-real time wind generation is at EUMETSAT based on two generations of geostationary satellites, namely Meteosat-6 and -7 of the first generation, and Meteosat -8 and 9 of the second generation satellites. The Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites are located over the Gulf of Guinea, providing the primary service for Europe and Africa, with Meteosat-9 being the prime satellite and Meteosa-8 the hot standby. In the near future Meteosat-8 will be used for rapid scanning over Europe, providing images over most of Europe every five minutes, and corresponding wind fields every 20 minute. The first generation satellites are located over the Indian Ocean, with Meteosat-7 providing the primary service and Meteosat-6 being the hot standby. This paper will give an overview of the current Atmospheric Motion Vector (AMV) products derived operationally from geostationary satellite data at EUMETSAT and the changes since the previous International Winds Workshop will be described. In addition to planned changes in the AMV derivation algorithms, the current planning for the geostationary satellite system will be given. In addition to the AMVs from the geostationary satellites EUMETSAT supports global wind generation by deriving the calibrated sigma-0’s from the ASCAT instrument on-board Metop-A and the subsequent wind observations with the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility. However, this paper focuses on the geostationary AMVs and does not cover the ASCAT winds. For further details about the ASCAT data and wind products, please consult the EUMETSAT web-site at www.eumetsat.int. Finally, it should also be noted that in the future EUMETSAT will be deriving polar winds from AVHRR data. Further details on this subject are provided in Dew (2008).