ASPB and CIMSS Highlights April – August 2012

1. ASPB and CIMSS HighlightsApril – August 2012 CoRP All-Hands MeetingSeptember 4, 2012

2. Administrative Highlights Important Meetings (non-conference)JPSS Cal/Val Team Meeting, Washington (Heidinger, Key)NOAA Science Week, Kansas City (Schmit, Pavolonis, Heidinger, Key)Presentation on GOES-R Imagery to the Korean Delegation to STAR, Washington (remote) (Schmit)Second Meeting of the Polar Space Task Group, Geneva (Key)NASA Air Quality Applied Science Team Meeting, Madison (Pierce)Visit to National Weather Center, Norman (Pavolonis)TORERO Science Team and JCSDA Summer Colloquium, Boulder and Santa Fe (Pierce)Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) Review Committee-Onsite Coordination Meeting, Boulder (Pierce)

3. Administrative Highlights Important Meetings (non-conference), cont.NOAA Climate Data Records annual meeting, Asheville (Heidinger)WMO SCOPE-CM Meeting (remote) (Heidinger)International Radiation Commission Business Meeting (Heidinger)McIDAS User Group (MUG) meeting, Madison (Wade, Schmit)Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, Washington (remote) (Key)Publications19 peer-reviewed publications so far this fiscal year.

4. Administrative Highlights, cont. VisitorsJohannes Loschnigg, a Senior Policy Analyst with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, visited SSEC/CIMSS on July 20, 2012.Tiziana Cherubini,University of Hawaii's Department of Meteorology, gave a CIMSS seminar describing the Mauna Kea Weather Center and the need for custom forecasts.Shane Hubbard, University of Iowa, gave a CIMSS seminar on "Tracking spatiotemporal patterns of building vulnerabilities and evacuations during flood hazards." Rod Potts, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR) in the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), visited to facilitate continued collaboration between ASPB and BoM on volcanic cloud remote sensing.

5. Administrative Highlights, cont. MediaThe Next generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) volcanic ash products were featured in an article in the May 2012 issue of Meteorological Technology International.A comparison of GOES-15 and GOES-13 visible channel images showing pyrocumulus clouds and a thick smoke plume associated with a large wildfire burning in Arizona appeared on a NBC Nightly News segment covering the Arizona fires on May 17, 2012.An article appeared in the Sun Sentinel (Florida) on how the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will improve hurricane monitoring and forecasts. Several NOAA employees were quoted, including Jack Beven, John Leslie and Tim Schmit.

6. Administrative Highlights, cont. OtherSteve Ackerman is now Associate Dean for Physical Sciences20th CIMSS Student Workshop (see highlight slide)Grandparents University at UW - Meteorology Major (see highlight slide) The SSEC Schwerdtfeger Library team released the SSEC Satellite Meteorology Timeline, the most recent addition to its collection of digital resources.

7. 4-hour Nearcast of Ɵe lapse rate 5-hour Nearcast of Ɵe lapse rate GOES-R Proving GroundCIMSS Nearcasting Evaluation at the Storm Prediction Center Two cases where forecasters found the CIMSS nearcasting products useful: At left, the nearcasted Ɵe lapse rate identified a potentially active area of development in NE Arkansas 4 hours in advance. At right, an area of suppressed convection was identified 5 hours in advance over central Florida.

8. CIMSS/ASPB GOES-R ABI Real-time Proxy • Real-time Proxy Framework Support: WRF-Chem/RAQMS Component • Nested RAQMS/WRF-CHEM aerosol simulations are now being produced in real-time to support GOES-R Proxy Framework • GOES-R Proxy aerosol optical depth (AOD) simulation captures observed smoke due to wildfires in Northern California Real-time Proxy AOD/COT (left) and GOES-14 visible image (right) of August 21, 2012 Northern California Wildfires GOES-R Proxy Framework supports GOES-R ABI pre-launch activities by providing real-time GOES Rebroadcast (GRB) files containing synthetic ABI radiances that will be distributed to AIT and Proving Ground partners for testing GOES-R algorithms and data systems in real-time.

9. CIMSS/ASPB GOES-R Cal/Val Field Campaign Support • GOES-R Calibration/Validation Field Campaign Support • RAQMS provided daily forecasting support for the NSF Deep Convective Clouds & Chemistry field mission during May-June, 2012 • Air Quality forecasters from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment used RAQMS forecasts to document the contribution from Stratospheric Intrusions to non-attainment of EPA surface ozone standards. RAQMS 36hr ozone X-section forecast at 40oN valid 00Z on May 25th, 2012 (upper) and time series of observed (black) and predicted (red) surface ozone at Colorado Springs, CO during May 21-June 10, 2012 This effort supports validation of GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) aerosol, cloud, land and sounding retrievals during NSF sponsored field campaigns during 2012. The airborne and surface validation tools and procedures developed under this effort will provide the foundation for post-launch ABI validation activities in 2015.

10. STAR MILESTONE: PROCESS ONE MONTH OF VIIRS DATA THROUGH PATMOS-x Example of Cloud Mask from Day 152 of 2012 from PATMOS-x run on VIIRS (top) and AVHRR (bottom) • Last POES sensor in 13:30 orbit launched in 2009 and climate records established with POES will have to continue on the Suomi NPP and JPSS imager (VIIRS : Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite). • Current official VIIRS products are too immature for climate analysis. • The Pathfinder Atmospheres Extended (PATMOS-x) is a NESDIS satellite cloud climatology processing system that was extended to include VIIRS data. PATMOS-x data extends from 1981-2012 on the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and stored at NCDC. • Application of PATMOS-x algorithms to one month (May 2012) has been accomplished at UW/CIMSS. Final algorithms are still being developed. • One month of Level-2 VIIRS PATMOS-x products requires 2 Tb of disk space. • Consistency with POES/AVHRR is being verified. VIIRS AVHRR

11. GOES-15 Imager Stray Light Correction • STAR assists with GOES-15: • Imager Stray Light Correction • Working with OSPO demonstrate the improvements of the SLC • Awaiting sample ‘un-corrected’ GOES-15 data • More information at: • http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/9816 • The SLC allows for many images to the scanned that were previously cancelled. • Investigating cases of ‘over-correction’ Sample GOES-13 Imager band 2 (4 micrometer) with and without Stray Light Correction (SLC). GOES-13 Imager had the Stray Light Correction (SLC) for the spring eclipse season. GOES-15 SLC was implemented by OSPO on 7/30/2012.

12. GOES-14 in Special Rapid Scan mode • STAR assists with GOES-14: • Idea to operate GOES-14 in this manner while it was out of storage. • Worked with OSPO to define schedules • Deciding on daily location for scanning between mid-August and end of October • Posting many animations • http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/srsor/GOES-14_SRSOR.html • Many phenomena were observed: convection, hurricanes, fires, smoke, etc., to many groups HPC, OPC, AWC, SPC, etc. Animation from GOES-14 Imager water at 1-min time resolution. (click to loop) GOES-14 is now providing very unique information and offers a glimpse into the possibilities that will be provided by the ABI on GOES-R.

13. Special Real-time Access to COMS • COMS (Communication, Ocean, Meteorological Satellite) is the new Korean geostationary imager • Worked with SSEC data center for routine near real-time access from KMA (Korean Meteorological Agency). • Outcome of May 2012 Technical Working Group meeting held in MD • Data are now available to STAR scientists. • Others have shown the improved performance of the COMS wrt fire characterizations Water vapor bands from COMS of two Typhoons SSEC Data Center, working with ASPB, set-up real-time COMS from KMA

14. Keeping our foot on the gas – for GOES soundings Promoting improvements … GOES-13 Sounder TPW comparisons with RAOB TPW over Eastern US (Feb 2011 – Jan 2012) Li algo TPW Retrieval algorithm  “User” 1) “Ma” algo ----------------------- OSPO (NWS) 2) “Li” algo ----------------- OPDB (ProvGrnd) 3) “GOES-R” algo --- CIMSS GFS first-guess GOES-13 Sounder TPW comparisons with GPS TPW over Eastern US (01-29 Aug 2012) GOES-R algo TPW CIMSS development by J.Li, Z.Li, Y-K.Lee Collaborating with OAR ESRL (Birkenheuer, Gutman, Holub) The GOES-R version bests both guess and the Li version (by ~6-7%). Examine current Li and Ma versions for GOES-13 at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/realtime/eus/begin-eus.html ASPB supporting the NOAA Mission Goal to serve society's needs for weather and water information, and the NOAA Cross-Cutting Priority for sound, reliable state-of-the-art research. The Li version easily betters the Ma version, but struggles to better the guess. GSW 2012-08-30

15. Community Educational Outreach Grandparents University at UW – Meteorology Major University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison alumni and their grandchildren spent two days at the Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences (AOSS) building attending "Grandparents University“ on 26-27 July 2012, a novel program developed at UW-Madison that serves as a pipeline for students interested in science as well as a venue to showcase the university and its research. Meteorology activities were led by Patrick Rowley, Jean Phillips, Gary S. Wade, Kaba Bah, Erik Olson, Lee Wellhouse, Joey Snarski, and Margaret Mooney. Even Ball Aerospace contributed this year by shipping models of the new Suomi NPP Satellite for assembly! 20th CIMSS Student Workshop CIMSS held the 20th CIMSS Student Workshop on Atmospheric, Satellite, and Earth Sciences on the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) campus from 24 to 28 June 2012, for eight high school students. CIMSS, ASPB and UW staff presented a variety of talks, demonstrations, and activity sessions for the students on topics of meteorology, geology, earth remote sensing, and astronomy. Fields trips included visits to a local television station, a local private vendor and developer of meteorological products and displays, the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, the local NWS office, the UW Geology Museum, the UW Washburn Observatory, and Devil’s Lake. For more details: see cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/studentworkshop/. ASPB supporting the NOAA Cross-Cutting Priority for Environmental Literacy, Outreach, and Education.

16. An updated training module in PowerPoint and VisitView formats is now available • A live training session with the NWS Central Region was conducted (July 24, 2012) • WFO’s from every region (sans Pacific) are currently evaluating the products • A blog dedicated solely to the GOES-R fog/low cloud products was created to keep training current GOES-R Fog/Low Cloud Activities http://fusedfog.blogspot.com/ • Rapid Refresh (11 km) data are now being used over Alaska. • In-person forecaster training/refresher training will be conducted next week in Fairbanks and Anchorage

17. Volcanic Cloud Activities • A test data set of over 1400 AVHRR overpasses captured by Gilmore Creek was processed (2 false alarms, 4 hits, ? misses) • Near real-time volcanic ash alerts from AVHRR and MODIS will soon be distributed to VAAC’s in Anchorage and Washington • Paper on volcanic ash retrievals to be submitted soon • Live training/re-training sessions will be conducted at AAWU next week

18. Global Cryosphere Watch Implementation Plan The first complete draft of the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) Implementation Plan has been produced and is being reviewed by the WMO Executive Council panel on Polar Observations, Research, and Services (EC-PORS). J. Key is the primary author. GCW is a legacy of the International Polar Year, a part of the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS), and a contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). NOAA has much to offer GCW, particularly satellite products (NESDIS), in situ data (OAR), and manpower.

19. Extras

20. CIMSS/ASPB GOES-R ABI Real-time Proxy Real-time Proxy AOD/COT (right) and Simulated ABI Band 01 Radiance (left) for August 29-30, 2012 Hurricane Isaac Landfall • Real-time Proxy Framework Support: Real-time Proxy Framework Support: CRTM and Validation Component • CRTM is being used to produce all ABI Bands in real-time to support GOES-R Proxy Framework • Real-time geophysical validation using MODIS AOD/COT is currently being tested. • Real-time radiance validation using GOES visible and IR bands is currently under development GOES-R Proxy Framework supports GOES-R ABI pre-launch activities by providing real-time GOES Rebroadcast (GRB) files containing synthetic ABI radiances that will be distributed to AIT and Proving Ground partners for testing GOES-R algorithms and data systems in real-time.

21. GOES-13 Radiance Diagnostic work (Filter Wheel and Co-registration Anomalies) • STAR assists with GOES-13: • Sounder Filter wheel anomalies investigation. • Worked with OSPO, ITT and others. • Monitored affect on imagery and products • More information at: • http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/10807 • Also reported the out-of-spec GOES-13 Imager co-registration issue. • This work is un-funded. GOES-13 Sounder data are being used by OSPO to monitor filter wheel anomalies. The GOES-13 Sounder filter wheel has shown anomalies, most likely due to the amount of lubrication on the bearings.

22. GOES-12 Electronics Switch • STAR assists with GOES-12: • The electronics side was switched (in June of 2012) on the GOES-12 imager. GOES-12 is operating over South America. • Coordinated with OSPO and several others on the potential benefits • Monitored before and after • More information at: • http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/10528 • This work is un-funded. GOES-12 Imager before (left) and after (right) electronics side switch Improved GOES-12 Imager data was provided to South America after an imager electronics side switch. This experience could be helpful if an operational sensor starts showing these ‘cycle slips’.

23. GOES-R Award to Hillger and Schmit • The 7th GOES Users' Conference Support Team received the GOES-R Outstanding Team award for 1QFY12. • This was for work in organizing and coordinating the 7th GOES Users' Conference. • Conference report at: • http://www.goes-r.gov/downloads/GUC-7/docs/Final_Report_03AUG12_accepted.pdf Two from NOAA NESDIS STAR recognized for their efforts associated with the latest GOES Users’ Conference.