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  • An evolutionary system was developed for generation of complete tracks of northern midlatitude synoptic-scale storm systems based on optical flow and cloud motion analyses of global satellite-based datasets produced by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). The tracking results were compared with low sea level pressure anomaly (SLPA) tracks obtained from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The SLPA tracks were produced at GISS by analysis of meteorological, ground-based National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) datasets. Results from the evolutionary system were also compared with results from using (a) the k-nearest neighbor rule (k-NN) and (b) self-organizing maps (SOM) to determine correspondences between consecutive locations within a track. The consistency of our evolutionary storm tracking results with the behavior of the low sea level pressure anomaly tracks, the ability of our evolutionary system to generate and evaluate complete tracks, and the close comparison between the results obtained by the evolutionary, k-NN, and SOM analyses of the ISCCP-derived datasets at tracking steps in which proximity or optical flow information sufficed to determine movement, demonstrate the applicability and the potential of evolutionary systems for tracking midlatitude storm systems through low-resolution ISCCP cloud product datasets.

  • Cloud analyses provide information which is vital to the detection, understanding and prediction of meteorological trends and environmental changes. This paper compares statistical, neural network and genetic algorithm methods for recognition and tracking of midlatitude storm clouds in sequences of low-resolution cloud-top pressure data sets. Regions of interest are identified and tracked from one image frame to the next consecutive frame in an eight-frame sequence. Classification techniques are used to determine the relationships between regions of interest in consecutive time frames. A genetic algorithm procedure is then used to revise classifier outputs to ensure that consistency constraints are not violated. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

  • The objective of this research is to automate the classification of the temporal behavior of storm cloud systems based on measurements derived from consecutive satellite images. The motivation behind this study is to develop improved descriptions of cloud dynamics which can be used in general circulation models for prediction of global climate change. Analysis was applied to the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) low resolution cloud top pressure database for the first six days in April, 1989. A total of 296 midlatitude storm cloud components were tracked between consecutive 3-hour time frames. For each pair of components, temporal correspondence events were classified as either 1.) direct, 2.) merge, 3.) split, or 4.) reject. The reject class, which was used primarily to categorize pairs of unrelated systems, included storm cloud system dissipation and creation as well. Statistical, neural network, and evolutionary techniques were developed for finding solutions to the storm cloud correspondence problem. Evolutionary techniques applied to the problem consisted of 1.) a constraint-handling hybrid evolutionary technique and 2.) a genetic local search algorithm. The results demonstrate the potential of evolutionary techniques to yield meteorologically-feasible solutions, given appropriate constraints, to the two-frame storm tracking problem. © 1998 SPIE. All rights reserved.

  • Temporal analysis has been applied to a sequence of cloud top pressure (CTP) images and cloud optical thickness (TAU) images stored in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) D1 database located at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Each pixel in the D1 data set has a resolution of 2.5 degrees or 280 kilometers. These images were collected in consecutive three-hour intervals for the entire month of April 1989. The primary objective of this project was to develop a sequence of storm tracks from the satellite images to follow the formation, progression and dissipation of storm systems over time. Composite images where created by projecting ahead in time and substituting the first available valid pixel for missing data and a variety of CTP and TAU cut-off values were used to identify regions of interest. Region correspondences were determined from one time frame to another yielding the coordinates of storm centers. These tracks were compared to storm tracks computed from sea level pressure data obtain from the National Meteorological Center (NMC) for the same time period. The location of sea level storm center provides insight as to whether storms have occurred anywhere in a region and can be helpful in determining the presence or absence of storms in a general geographic region.

  • The objective of this research is to automate the classification of clouds from satellite images providing a method for studying their properties over time. Analysis was applied to the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) low resolution (2.5 degrees per pixel) database for January 1987. Our approach differs from earlier studies by taking advantage of cloud top pressure and optical thickness from the ISCCP database, providing more accurate measures of cloud height with less dependency on the sun's angle of illumination. A total of 365 regions of interest (ROI), each classified Storm or Non Storm were used in the analysis. The algorithms used were Backpropagation Artificial Neural Network and Nearest Neighbor Pattern Classification. Each ROI was assigned on identification number between 1 and 365. One third of the ROIs were randomly selected for testing using a random number generator and the remaining ROIs were assigned to be training set. This process was repeated 29 times resulting in a mean classification error of 5.76% for the nearest neighbor algorithm and 3.97% for the backpropagation neural network.

Last update from database: 3/13/26, 4:15 PM (UTC)

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