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GOES-R Proving Ground CIRA / RAMMB Progress Report

10 January 2011

National Center Interactions WFO InteractionsORI Case Study

Conferences and Meetings

NHC Interaction

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GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series)January 2011

www.goes-r.gov

What Is GOES-R? The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - R Series (GOES-R) is the next generation of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) geostationary Earth-observing systems. Superior spacecraft and instrument technology will support expanded detection of environmental phenomena, resulting in more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a sixteen channel imager with two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels, will provide three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage than the current system. Other advancements over current GOES capabilities include total lightning detection (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) and mapping from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), and increased dynamic range, resolution, and sensitivity in monitoring solar X-ray flux with the Solar UV Imager (SUVI). GOES-R is scheduled for launch in 2015.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) GOES-R Proving Ground Hurricane Season ExperimentThe GOES-R Proving Ground engages the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast and warning community in pre-operational demonstrations of select capabilities of GOES-R. The objective of the NHC Hurricane Season Proving Ground Experiment is to demonstrate identified GOES-R surrogate products in real-time at the NHC during hurricane season so the forecasters can use, get familiar with, and evaluate the products and provide valuable feedback to the GOES-R Program Office (GPO). The 2010 NHC GOES-R Proving Ground ran from Aug. 1, 2010 through Nov. 30, 2010. Proving Ground products evaluated during 2010 were a hurricane intensity estimate product, a lightning-based tropical cyclone rapid intensity product, three different red-green-blue products , and super rapid scan operations imagery from GOES-15.

GOES-15 Visible imagery of Hurricane Earl taken on 3 September 2010 at 12:45 UTC

GOES-R Proving GroundNational Hurricane Center 2010 Experiment

Hurricane Forecaster Daniel Brown (back) and GOES-R product developer Mark DeMaria (front) viewing the RGB Air Mass product at NHC.

GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series)

www.goes-r.gov

To help prepare forecasters for new applications in the GOES-R ABI era three Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image products were tested during the 2010 hurricane season. One of these RGB products is the RGB Air Mass Product. Originally designed by scientists at the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), it has been adapted for tropical applications to highlight differences between dry, tropical and cold air masses. The RGB Dust Product works in a similar fashion. This product is designed to monitor the evolution of dust storms during both day and night. Dust plumes in the tropical Atlantic have been hypothesized to slow tropical storm development and to affect sea surface temperatures directly where tropical cyclones form . The third RGB product is the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) Product. This is another example of an enhanced image product potentially related to tropical cyclone evolution by tracking dry, dusty air in the lower to middle levels of the atmosphere.

The Super Rapid Scan Imagery (SRSO) product allows forecasters to gain experience with the utility of the high time resolution observations from the future GOES-R . The SRSO demonstration was possible because the GOES-15 science test coincided with the Atlantic hurricane season. Part of the science test included the collection of 1 minute data over several tropical cyclone cases.

The Hurricane Intensity Estimate (HIE) product is designed to estimate hurricane intensity (minimum sea-level pressure and maximum surface wind) from ABI infrared-window channel imagery. The code has been derived from the current Advanced Dvorak Technique.

What Products Are Being Tested?

6 hour period of lightning locations (gold points) from 16 Sep 2010 at 15:21 UTC superimposed on a color-enhanced infrared GOES image which depicts 3 hurricanes: Hurricane Igor (center), Julia (east of Igor), and Karl (in the southern Gulf of Mexico).

What Are The Benefits?The GOES-R Proving Ground bridges the gap between research and operations, providing sustained interaction between developers and end users for the purposes of training, product evaluation, and user feedback-based development. These efforts will maximize utilization of GOES-R products and services and provide an effective transition to operations. The advanced observational capabilities available from GOES-R will enable the NHC to make more accurate estimates of hurricane intensity, position, and structure. The new information from the GLM and ABI will improve hurricane model initialization and forecast algorithms such at the rapid intensity index, and therefore will result in improved forecasts and extended forecast lead times.

The Rapid Intensity Index (RII) is based on simulated GLM data. The lightning data were received from the ground-based Vaisala GLD360 feed that was established at CIRA. The product also uses input from other sources, including GOES imagery and forecast model fields. The RII is a text product which informs forecasters about changes in lightning rates close to tropical cyclones, which can be used as an indication for intensification of tropical storms.

GOES-R Proving Ground Hurricane Experiment• Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)• Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin • NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research (NESDIS/STAR) • NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC)On the Web http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/research/tropical_cyclones/ http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic2/http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/For More Information, Contact: GOES-R Program Office Code 417 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771 301-286-1355 Jim Gurka, james.gurka@noaa.gov Steve Goodman, steve.goodman@noaa.gov

• NHC Fact Sheet

• NHC Proving Ground Experiment 2010 debriefing on 13 Jan 2011

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SPC Interaction / Synthetic Imagery

• Note: CIRA upgraded to a new cluster – resulting in significant faster production of the real-time NSSL-WRF synthetic imagery

• Changed real-time synthetic imagery production- From: 6.185 µm, 6.95 µm, 7.34 µm, 10.35 µm (running real-time since May 2010) - To: 6.95 µm, 7.34 µm, 8.50 µm, 10.35 µm, 12.3 µm

- all bands now running for 25 hour periods (12 Z to 12 Z) - 6.95 µm and 10.35 µm are done by 10 UTC - 7.34 µm, 8.5 µm, 12.3 µm are completed by 1515 UTC.

- Additional channel difference products will be created in the future: 12.30 µm – 10.35 µm, 12.3 µm – 8.5 µm, 10.35 µm – 8.50 µm

• Synthetic imagery also available at 3 WFOs: BOU, PUB, RIW

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NSSL-WRF Synthetic ABI Imagery

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/goes-r_proving_ground.asp

• New bands are displayed on CIRA/RAMMB real-time webpage

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Synthetic Imagery – WFO BOU feedback

Note

From: Eric Thaler [mailto:Eric.Thaler@noaa.gov] Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 11:04 AMTo: Lindsey, DanielCc: Ed SzokeSubject: Re: simulated imagery

 

Daniel,WOW!!!!  I am working the short term desk today and noticed the same thing (synthetic imagery picking up on the low clouds northeast of Denver) and am most impressed!!!!  It also did a decent job picking up some of the clouds in the mountains.  Have you noticed that it "sees" the cities?

Eric

We are receiving more feedback from WFO BOU

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OPC / HPC

• Participated in OPC/HPC teleconference on 07 Dec 2010• CIRA and CIMSS will provide synthetic cloud/moisture imagery

for the OPC Proving Ground • Current SPC products cover sufficient off-shore areas for OPC• RGB Air Mass Product:

– From GOES – Sounder for HPC– From MSG for OPC (same as the NHC product) – Product demonstration will be transitioned from GoogleEarth to N-AWIPS

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WFO Interactions

• New CIRA PG product installation packages available at:• ERHQ / WFO BUF and BOU: MODIS snow and cirrus• ERHQ / WFO BUF: GOES low cloud fog• WFO MTR: ORI• WFO GJT: GeoColor• WFO PUB RIW: improved transmission of synthetic imagery

after feedback from the WFOs (less data)• MODIS Proving Ground data reduction: WFOs only receive

imagery in case it covers their entire forecast area

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Other Progress• N-AWIPS: Evaluation of SPORT true color conversion to 7 bit

• AWIPS / WES data archive: 7 days of west coast rain/snow events (17 – 24 Dec 2010): PG products, models, observation, satellite data

• Procured new Linux box for GeoColor and MODIS imagery processing at CIRA

• GeoColor GOES-West imagery now available every 15 min (instead of 30 min)

• Work continues with Geoffrey Stano / SPORT for a specialized GOES-R lightning product overlay GeoColor product

Quick look at ORI imagery during the California pre-Christmas big rains

Images from 17-18 December 2010

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IR imagery on AWIPS for 09z/18 Dec – onset of 1st big precip

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Radar imagery also at 09z/18 Dec from WFO/Monterey

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Comparison of radar and ORI imagery for 09z/18 Dec

The ORI imagery has far more detail of course than the radar and highlights the areas where the heaviest orographic-induced precipitation is occurring.

Also, areas out of radar range are still covered by the ORI product (for example, in the ovals shown on the imagery). 12

Comparison of zoomed ORI imagery and ORI combined with a topography image, from AWIPS for 09z/18 Dec

This zoomed ORI imagery on the left and then the same image combined with a topographic image on the right further illustrate the detail shown by the

ORI product.13

The 24-h observed precipitation estimate indicates the sharp

increase in precipitation that fell along the coastal mountains

(and of course over the inland mountains as well).

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Conference / Meetings

• Ed Szoke,R.Brummer, M.DeMaria, H.Gosden, S.Miller, D.Molenar: An overview of CIRA’s contribution to the GOES-R Proving

Ground

• Mark DeMaria, J. Knaff, M. Brennan, J. Beven, N. Demetriades, R.DeMaria, A.Schumacher, J. Kaplan: Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensity Change Forecasting Using Lightning Data during the 2010 GOES-R Proving Ground at the National Hurricane Center

• 12 Jan 2011: AWIPS II Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) telecon

• 13 Jan 2011: NHC Proving Ground Hurricane Experiment 2010 debriefing telecon

• End of Jan 2011: Steve Miller visit to NRL and WFO MTR for technical discussions on Proving Ground and other topics.

• March 2011: Paper submission to Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference: Mark DeMaria, J. Knaff, M. Brennan, J. Beven: 2010 NHC Proving Ground Hurricane Experiment.

AMS 2011: Seventh Annual Symposium on Future Operational Environmental Satellite Systems: