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The next-generation geostationary meteorological satellite of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Himawari-8, entered operation on 7 July 2015. Himawari-8 features the new 16-band Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), whose spatial resolution and observation frequency are improved over those of its predecessor MTSAT-series satellites. These improvements will bring unprecedented levels of performance in nowcasting services and short-range weather forecasting systems. In view of the essential nature of navigation and radiometric calibration in fully leveraging the imager's potential, this study reports on the current status of navigation and calibration for the AHI. Image navigation is accurate to within 1 km, and band-to-band co-registration has also been validated. Infrared-band calibration is accurate to within 0.2 K with no significant diurnal variation, and is being validated using an approach developed under the GSICS project. Validation approaches are currently being tested for the visible and near-infrared bands. In this study, two of such approaches were compared and found to produce largely consistent results.

This paper presents a framework for dissipative dynamical systems excited by external temporal inputs. We introduce a set {I l } of temporal inputs with finite intervals. The set {I l } defines two other sets of dynamical systems. The first is the set of continuous dynamical systems that are defined by a set {f l } of vector fields on the hyper-cylindrical phase space M. The second is the set of discrete dynamical systems that are defined by a set {g l } of iterated functions on the global Poincaré section Σ. When the inputs are switched stochastically, a trajectory in the space M converges to an attractive invariant set with fractal-like structure. We can analytically prove this result when all of the iterated functions satisfy a contraction property. Even without this property, we can numerically show that an attractive invariant set with fractal-like structure exists.In the hyper-cylindrical space M, we can define the Poincaré section:Fractals 1999.07:205-220. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by YALE UNIVERSITY on 07/06/15. For personal use only.

Climate has been recognized to have direct and indirect impact on society and economy, both in the long term and daily life. The challenge of understanding the climate system, with its variability and changes, is enormous and requires a joint long-term international commitment from research and governmental institutions. An important international body to coordinate worldwide climate monitoring efforts is the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) has the mission to provide coordination and the requirements for global observations and essential climate variables (ECVs) to monitor climate changes. The WMO-led activity on Sustained, Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) is responding to these requirements by ensuring a continuous and sustained generation of climate data records (CDRs) from satellite data in compliance with the principles and guidelines of GCOS. SCOPE-CM represents a new partnership between operational space agencies to coordinate the generation of CDRs. To this end, pilot projects for different ECVs, such as surface albedo, cloud properties, water vapor, atmospheric motion winds, and upper-tropospheric humidity, have been initiated. The coordinated activity on land surface albedo involves the operational meteorological satellite agencies in Europe [European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)], in Japan [the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)], and in the United States [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)]. This paper presents the first results toward the generation of a unique land surface albedo CDR, involving five different geostationary satellite positions and approximately three decades of data starting in the 1980s, and combining close to 30 different satellite instruments.

A Sierpinski gasket with continuous trajectories is presented as an example of the fractal transition that characterizes the behavior of dissipative dynamical systems excited by external temporal inputs. Using this example, we investigate the fractal transition from two points of views, i.e. a hierarchical structure and a noise effect. Depending on internal and external parameters, the structure can be geometrically classified as one of three types, i.e. totally disconnected, just-touching, and overlapping. For the totally disconnected structure, continuous trajectories and their starting points can be characterized by a definite hierarchical tree structure. Even for the just-touching and overlapping structure, a similar hierarchy exists. White noise contaminating the external inputs breaks the hierarchy. In particular, small clustered structures are sensitive to the noise. In such a case, the difference between trajectories and starting points is remarkable in the hierarchy. * 313 Fractals 1999.07:313-326. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by FLINDERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on 02/03/15. For personal use only.