Radiative Transfer and Surface Property Modelling

9-11 June 2009, Toulouse, France
Meteo France
Centre International de Conferences

2nd Workshop Concluded

Subject of the workshop

Remote sensing and modeling of radiometric and geophysical surface properties, including the impacts of assimilating surface-sensitive measurements.

• Microwave and infrared spectra and all surface types are of interest:
  • ocean
  • land
  • snow
  • ice

This focused meeting will have no parallel sessions and only oral sessions. The workshop format will encourage open discourse with plenty of time for questions, and discussions.

Venue
The meeting will convene in the Centre International de Conférences on the campus Météo France in Toulouse. The Météo-France Toulouse site is a campus area named Météopole, in the western part of Toulouse circa 7 km away from downtown.

Special Thanks
The Groupement de Recherche (GdR) Radiométrie Microonde has awarded sponsorship for the participation of selected Phd students.

Meeting topics
The following non-exhaustive list of scientific topics is suggested:

• Description of methodologies to assimilate surface-sensitive radiances in NWP centers (both in operational and research modes), including cloud screening approaches and handling of surface temperature (IR and MW).
• Data assimilation impact studies and diagnostics performed using surface-sensitive IR and MW radiances with an emphasis on ocean, land surfaces, Arctic and Antarctic regions.
• Discussion about the use of satellite observations in limited area models and specification of land surface parameter requirements for such models.
• Overview of emissivity/reflectivity models and description of available land emissivity databases/atlases (MW and IR). Review of current available parameters for forward modeling of infrared and microwave emissivities.
• Intercomparison/validation of physical models and directly retrieved emissivities (MW and IR, including land, ocean, and ice surfaces).
• State of the operational land surface modeling systems and recent developments.
• Retrievals of surface parameters such as sea surface wind, soil moisture, canopy water content, sea-ice concentration, snow water equivalent, etc. and the resulting surface emissivity/reflectance spectra.
• Methods of assimilating surface parameters into numerical weather prediction models.

See the announcement in pdf format for more details.

This workshop is sponsored by Météo-France, NOAA/NESDIS Office of Research and Applications (STAR), EUMETSAT, l’Observatoire de Paris, the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) and the International TOVS Working Group.

Activities

June 10 – Conference dinner