Examples of CCC Services

Weather Radar Loop
Weather Satellite Loop
Aviation Weather Example
Marine Weather Example

Weather Radar Loop

CCC can produce animations of weather radar data that are familiar to many people who have seen weather news on TV.  In addition to the animation, CCC can mark the incident location and other points of interest on the images for better reference. The following image represents the lowest level reflectivity data, which is one of the most commonly used products. Other radar products include composite reflectivity, storm velocity (example 2 below), 1-hour precipitation totals, storm precipitation totals and many others.  The example below is from June 24, 1998 using the base reflectivity radar data from the National Weather Service (NWS) station in Knoxville, TN.  The white crosshairs represent the location of a helicopter accident.  This animated loop of radar images shows a significant line of thunderstorms that rapidly entered the area of interest at the time of the accident.

The example below is from February 3, 1998 using the storm relative velocity data from the NWS radar station in Miami,  FL.  The black X represents the location of a property that sustained damage during severe weather on that date.  The loop shows a tornadic storm (with tornadoes of F2 and F1 strength on the Fujita scale) that affected the area of interest.   The estimated total amount of damage in the Miami area was $175 million. The tornadic storm is indicated by the area of bright red pixels that is moving from the southwest to the northeast. 

Weather Satellite Loop

Weather satellites provide us with very valuable information about cloud cover, moisture content, cloud top temperatures, sea surface temperatures, ocean wave heights and many other atmospheric and oceanic variables.  CCC produces high-resolution satellite images and movies using many different satellites: GOES-8, GOES-10, TOPEX, ERS-2 and others.  The example below shows a loop of the cloud cover from GOES-8 images in the visible wavelength.  This animation shows the growth and movement of thunderstorms over a couple of hours in the area of a helicopter accident in eastern Tennessee (see the reflectivity loop above for some of the weather radar data relevant to the accident). 

Aviation Weather Examples 

CCC has worked on many cases related to commercial and general aviation.  The National Weather Service produces many aviation-related products in a simple text format.  CCC decodes the weather information and then plots the information on maps to help clients  better understand the data or forecasts.  The following image shows two AIRMET reports plotted on a map of the eastern US.
 

CCC also has the capability to overlay aircraft track data over the weather data. The following is a simple example of overlaying the crash site and a portion of an aircraft track over a weather radar image.  More sophisticated animations showing the movement of the aircraft and the evolution of the weather conditions can also be produced. 

Marine Weather Example

The following example shows how Computer Modeling and Satellite Derived Wave Heights are very useful tools for Marine cases. The following images show an analysis of wave heights in the North Atlantic during a storm on January 21, 2002. The first image is a loop from NOAA's WaveWatch computer model. The orange and red colors indicate wave heights of 10-13 meters (33-43 feet).

The following image shows all of the swaths from the TOPEX and ERS-2 satellites during the same time period. The swath closest to the center of the storm was chosen to have the wave height data plotted (see chart below). The satellite data confirms the computer model, showing maximum wave heights of 12-13 meters (39-43 feet).

(source Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research)