Searching "nasa cloud top height product" gets http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/MOD06_L2/ and http://enso.larc.nasa.gov/calipso_cloudsat/pub/journal/Minnis.etal.GRL.08.pdf which suggest that they're reading the temperature of the cloud tops from the IR imagery, and that they calibrated a linear fit between temperature and altitude cloud top using Lidar data from another satellite.
Seems like it should be a standard cell phone camera surveying application to compute the angular altitude of an object above the horizon and the range of possible linear altitudes given the range of visible distances along the azimuth. -- rec -- On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Stephen Guerin <[email protected]>wrote: > Roger, > > After seeing this, I sent a question to the quoted researcher, Scott > Bachmeier, about his method for calculating plume height. I asked if it was > based on from a single image using sun angle and shadows, multiple > offset satellite images or ground triangulation His reply just came in: > > "I was using a Cloud Top Height product derived using POES AVHRR data. > Actually, I fear that one of my emails was misquted: I think those numbers > referred to the Silver fire on the following day!" > > Here's a NOAA page on AVHRR: > http://www.class.ngdc.noaa.gov/data_available/avhrr/index.htm > > I skimmed the page but don't completely grok how height is estimated from > the measurements. > > -S > > > On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 9:19 PM, Roger Critchlow <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Here's a pyrocumulus over the Silver fire estimated at 6-7 miles (31-37 >> thousand feet), though I don't know how he worked out the angles from >> Wisconsin. >> >> >> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=81402&src=eorss-nh >> >> -- rec -- >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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