THE USE OF METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES FOR DISCERNING MARINE FOG

Accurate charting of marine fog distribution is made difficult because of the sparseness of transient-ship observations. The meteorological satellite offers the possibility of improving fog diagnosis by specifying areas (vice a discrete number of points) of marine fog. The study explores the feasibility of using meteorological satellite data, visual and/or infrared, as means of discerning the presence of marine fog. Transient-ship and satellite data from a summer-season period in 1973, eastern North Pacific Ocean served as data base. A qualitative comparison is made between NOAA-2 satellite imagery and verifying marine fog, as determined from the synoptic-time ship data; qualitative guidelines for diagnosing the presence of marine fog from the visual and infrared imagery were formulated. A quantitative determination of the presence of marine fog, using visual and infrared NOAA-2 digital satellite data is presented, from which a technique is developed for objectively diagnosing regions of marine fog.

• Corporate Authors:

  Naval Postgraduate School

  1 University Circle
  Monterey, CA  United States  93943
• Authors:
  • Wallace, R T
• Publication Date: 1975-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 59 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fog; Infrared detectors; Weather forecasting
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00126028
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: MS Thesis
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 18 1975 12:00AM