20 April 2009 Boulder WFO Spring Workshop Talk GOES-R Proving Ground WFO Interaction Activities – An Update Presentation at Boulder Spring Workshop – Ed

20 April 2009 Boulder WFO Spring Workshop Talk

GOES-R Proving Ground WFO Interaction Activities – An Update

Presentation at Boulder Spring Workshop – Ed Szoke (CIRA & NOAA/ESRL/GSD) CIRA members working on this project: Mark DeMaria, Steve Miller, Don Hillger, Deb Molenar, Hiro Gosden, Bernie Connell, Greg DeMaria and Renate Brummer

Outline of today's talk

- What has been going on?

- Or, why hasn’t much been happening yet?

- Review of what the first product will be and its purpose

- How you can help evaluate this product

- Future activities...


Why haven’t any products been installed since the Winter Workshop talk in October?

Too busy hoisting! Or…

It was decided to go through official channels to get the products into AWIPS This has taken longer, but an agreement is now in place with Central Region

This will make it easier to supply products to other CR WFOs

It has taken longer to make sure the product is working Has been running well on the AWIPS at CIRA in Fort Collins


What is the current status?

Early April: Deb and Hiro (from CIRA) worked with Dave T. to get the first product (GeoColor) installed on a test AWIPS at the BOU WFO.

Installation went okay, but there were color table issues Dave has since figured these out The images right now are on ALPS and we are still making sure

That they are correct That there is no problem getting them to AWIPS, etc.

Soon (if no problems arise) Dave will get these to the regular AWIPS

The first product will be the GeoColor image product I will describe this after a brief review of GOES-R and the purpose

of the GOES-R Proving Ground


Overview of GOES-R Homepage at http://www.goes-r.gov/

The first launch of GOES-R is scheduled for FY2015.

http://www.goes-r.gov/


GOES-R Proving Ground Homepage at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes_r/proving-ground.html

The purpose of interaction now is to provide better knowledge of the potential new capabilities of GOES-R to forecasters so that they can take full advantage of the products when the satellite comes online, as well as to get feedback from forecasters in order to develop useful products now and in the future.


What new capabilities will be available with GOES-R?

New bandwidths 16 channels in GOES-R vs. 5 (of the 6 available) in the current GOES

So new products can be created to address specific forecast issues Higher spatial resolution

2 km for IR 0.5 to 1 km for visible (depending on band)

Increased temporal resolution Full-disk every 5 minutes 1 minute rapid scan


List of our test products, along with detailed information on these, can be found at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/goes_r_proving_ground/

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/goes_r_proving_ground/


The first product to be tested is called the GeoColor Image Product


GeoColor Image Product

We have created a detailed documentation of this product At http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/goes_r_proving_ground/gci.asp

It can be accessed through the GOES-R Proving Ground homepage Dave will put a link on the intranet page

Note: part of the feedback we would like to get includes what you think of this documentation

The template for this product is what we hope to use for all the GOES-R Proving Ground products

Next I will go through the highlights of what is in the documentation

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/goes_r_proving_ground/gci.asp


GeoColor Image Product informationpage.

Basic information,plus expandes to more detailed info.



Purpose of this product

This product displays GOES data in a new way Customized background – allows for “natural” background color and nighttime city lights Seamless transition from daytime (visible) to nighttime (IR) imagery Specially developed color scheme that allows low cloud/fog areas to stand out distinctly

The color table is a crucial part of this product and should not be adjusted



low clouds/fog nighttme imagedaytime image

night lights


Here is an image that is currently on ALPS.


Here is an image from Saturday at 2315z.







Why is this a GOES-R Proving Ground product?

This product demonstrates the kind of imagery that will be available in the GOES-R era

When GOES-R is available the product will be created using The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) sensor on GOES-R Combined with Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) satellites

So in the GOES-R era the GeoColor product can be created without the need for some of the special blending techniques used Also the product would be available at higher time and space resolution



How is this product created now?

This product can be created now by doing the following For the full CONUS image (which we will get soon) GOES-East and

GOES-West visible and IR images are used The natural color comes from the NASA Blue Marble data set The nighttime lights come from National Geophysical Data Center's

(NGDC) 2003 "Nighttime Lights of the World" dataset (which uses the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)

Note that the above two sources are static images

A vertical blending techniques is used to put all the images together Another technique allows low clouds/fog (these cannot be

distinguished with this product) to stand out This involves use of the difference between the 3.9 and 11.0 micron channels

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Visible Data Foreground

True Color Background

Solar Zenith Weighting

Blended VIS/IR/Background

Infrared Data Foreground

Night Lights Background

true color from the NASA Blue Marble dataset

nighttime lights fromNGDC data set

From current GOES imagery



What do we want from you?

Feedback on the product and the documentation

How best to get this Dave suggested using the shift log on the intranet He has set up a “GOES-R Proving” heading

Later perhaps some sort of web-based form may also be useful (?)



“Low cloud/fog” product: The demo product will be available every 30 min at 4 km resolution In the GOES-R era, this will improve to 5 min and 2 km.

This is a GOES-based day/night technique which distinguishes low (water) clouds and fog from high (ice) clouds in a satellite image. High clouds are masked out (black) based on cloud-top temperatures below 0 oC. The product is computed from GOES shortwave and longwave spectral bands, to retrieve the reflected component in the shortwave by subtracting the spectrally-equivalent emitted component using the longwave infrared band. Water-drop/fog/stratus clouds show up because of their high reflectance/albedo in the shortwave


GOES-R Proving Ground Homepage


“Geo-Color Multi-Layer Blending” product

This is an exciting new product that allows one to identify several different features in a single image

For example, low clouds and fog appear as normally seen in a visible image during the day, but then in the same image appear as a different color at night. This product demonstrates the multi-parameter visualization possible with GOES-R

And in addition the natural color imagery available from GOES-R

How is it constructed for this demonstration? Technique blends VIS/IR satellite imagery with MODIS blue marble and DMSP/OLS backgrounds.

Demonstration resolution 4 km every 30 minutes

Final GOES-R product resolution 2 km every 5 minutes


Note the offshore clouds in the current GOES imagery


Note the difference with the new product...


Hurricane Katrina in GeoColor

GOES-12: 27 August 2005


So....what does all this mean for you?

We provide to you:

Test products displayable on AWIPS (to be discussed in detail to follow) - These based on an earlier meeting here in June - These products allow you to see some of the new capabilities - We expect to have the first products on your AWIPS by the end of October

What we hope to get back from you: Feedback on these products, such as - How useful are they - Presentation (color combos, etc.)

Methods to gather this feedback are still being determined - free-form comments, perhaps sent by email - online forms (SpoRT uses these)

Some benefits of participation in the GOES-R Proving Ground activities - Opportunity to get new products that you deem useful into AWIPS now - Influence what will be available in AWIPS2 - Products will be improved when GOES-R comes online because of your help - Important to remember that this is an ongoing process, not something that is only off in the distance somewhere...


GOES-R channels

(Note that the currentMODIS satellite has similar channels, soMODIS imagery willoften be used to demonstrate GOES-Rcapabilities.)


Current GOES Channels


To this end the GOES-R Proving Ground project has been developed. Here is the mission statement....

GOES-R Satellite Proving Ground Mission Statement

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) Satellite Proving Ground project engages the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast and warning community in an interactive demonstration of selected capabilities anticipated from the next generation of NOAA geostationary earth observing systems.

The Proving Ground project objective is to bridge the gap between research and operations by:

Utilizing current systems (satellite, terrestrial, or model/synthetic) to emulate various aspects of future GOES-R capabilities

Focusing on environmental applications bearing highest practical value to NWS users Infusing GOES-R products and techniques into the NWS operational platform, AWIPS.

A key element of this activity is a sustained interaction between Proving Ground team and NWS users for the purposes of training, product evaluation, and solicitation of user feedback. The Proving Ground relies on close coordination with the GOES-R Algorithm Working Group (AWG) and Risk Reduction programs as sources of demonstration products, and will enhance the operational transition pathway for those programs.

The intended outcomes of this project are an increased awareness for both developers and users of the GOES-R observing system, and an effective transition of unique GOES-R research products to the operational weather community.


Who is involved in the GOES-R Proving Ground Project? Here is a listing, along with their interactions with the NWS.

CIRA: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, at CSU in Fort Collins Interact with WFOs in Cheyenne and Boulder

Longer term may also interact with other WFOs, and perhaps NHC website: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/goes_r_proving_ground/

CIMSS: Center for Satellite Applications and Research (Madison, Wisconsin, with the University of Wisconsin).

Interacting directly with Wisconsin WFOs (Sullivan, LaCrosse) Also provide some MODIS imagery to a number of WFOs on AWIPS website: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/cimss-satellite-proving-ground

SPoRT: Short-term Prediction Research and Transition in Huntsville, Alabama They are with NASA, and their goal is to transition NASA data and research Also involved in the GOES-R Proving Ground activities Have established close interaction with Southern Region WFOs

They have online assessment forms that might be something we can use website: http://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/sport/

AWG – Algorithm Working Group A collection of 15 teams responsible for developing the new algorithms from GOES-R Close interaction with the algorithm developers through this project should lead to better products for forecasters when GOES-R is launched.


extra slides...........


Documents

20 April 2009 Boulder WFO Spring Workshop Talk GOES-R Proving Ground WFO Interaction Activities – An Update Presentation at Boulder Spring Workshop – Ed