An investigation of the Himawari-8 geostationary satellite as a dust monitoring platform for Australia

Abstract

Examined with insitu ground data from the 12/2/19 from Dustwatch. It was found that the JMA adjusted EUMETSAT dust enhancement scheme works well and is able to clearly find raised dust at all times of the day and night. The algorithm adapted from this recipe however performed well during the day getting a probability of detection score as high as 0.75 but did not do so well at night producing a large false alarm ratio of 0.65. Regardless of the algorithm used the temporal resolution and spatial coverage of the Himawari-8 is very promising with the potential to revolutionise Australian dust literature and become the backbone of a country wide early warning and monitoring schemes.