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Diurnal cycle of dust and cirrus over West Africa as seen from Meteosat Second Generation satellite and a regional forecast model
Author(s) -
Chaboureau JeanPierre,
Tulet Pierre,
Mari Céline
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl027771
Subject(s) - cirrus , environmental science , satellite , atmospheric sciences , climatology , brightness temperature , aerosol , infrared window , meteorology , brightness , infrared , geology , geography , physics , astronomy , optics
A brightness temperature difference (BTD) technique is used to evaluate the dust and cirrus forecasts of a regional meteorological model. The technique based on a contrasted absorption property of dust and cirrus at two wavelengths within the atmospheric infrared window is applied to 3‐hourly Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) observations in the 10.8‐ and 12‐ μ m bands over West Africa. The satellite observation of dust coverage over the Sahara shows a well marked diurnal cycle associated with the boundary layer activity peaking at 15 UTC. A similar signature is obtained from the regional model when the dust scheme is activated. The cirrus cover over West Africa is maximum at 12 UTC as seen both from MSG and the model. The use of prognostic dust aerosol, instead of climatology, furthermore better captures the observed convective activity.