NWCSAF High Resolution Winds (NWCSAF GEO-I HRW) Stereo AMVs over the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

The “stereo height assignment method” developed for NASA and NOAA for GOES-R ABI Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs), a purely geometric method using the parallax observed from different satellites, has been included in the NWCSAF AMV product (NWCSAF GEO-I HRW, High Resolution Winds) as an additional height assignment option for AMVs in the region jointly observed by MTG-I and GOES-East over the Atlantic Ocean. Stereo and the alternative non-stereo height assignment (“Cross Correlation Contribution (CCC)”) are compared with ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis winds and EarthCARE ATLID Mie Attenuated Backscatter (MAB) curtains. For low-level clouds, both methods generally conform well with apparent cloud tops in MAB curtains. For higher clouds, more differences are seen between stereo and non-stereo heights. Compared with ERA5 winds, stereo shows the most improvement above 6 km. However, the stereo method produces 70–90% less AMVs since additional high-quality matches are needed from both FCI and ABI imagery. An updated HRW will be released to NWCSAF users in 2027 as version “NWCSAF GEO-I v2027.” The combined provision of both stereo and non-stereo CCC height assignment methods will enable further studies (already planned) of the AMV best-fit level for different satellite channels and cloud types, heights and depths.