NPOESS User Working Group

1. NPOESS User Working Group A Proposal to the NOAA Science Advisory Board Gregory W. Withee Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services November 3, 2003

2. Background • The IPO and NESDIS together share responsibility for the overall NPOESS system • A number of groups provide guidance, advice and/or oversight concerning various aspects of the overall NPOESS system • There is no group looking at the overall NPOESS system from the perspective of NOAA end users

3. Command, Control & Communications NOAA IPO Data Utilization • L3/4 Product Generation • Blended Products • Reformatted Products Environ. Modeling Systems Interface Data Processing Segment Product Processing • System Integration • Operational Test & Eval. • Data Assimilation NPOESS Functional Architecture NPOESS Satellite Data Collection Science Support NOAA Central XDRs (HDF5) User Community Long Term Archive (CLASS)

4. Groups providing guidance, advice and/or oversight for NPOESS • NPOESS Science Team, an internal group reporting to Northrop Grumman • NPOESS Science Advisory Team, an external group chaired by Joe Friday reporting to Northrop Grumman • Integrated Weather Product Test Bed Team, overseeing Raytheon’s IDPS and reporting to Northrop Grumman • A number of Instrument Cal/Val Teams reporting to Northrop Grumman and the IPO • Eight Operational Algorithm Teams (OAT) and a Central Users’ Forum reporting to the IPO • Data Archive Board reporting to NESDIS OSDPD • Climate Monitoring Working Group, chaired by Mark Abbott and reporting to NOAA SAB • Climate and Global Change Working Group, chaired by Otis Brown and reporting to NOAA SAB • A new 1-year NAS/BASC study looking at Climate Data Records

5. Wide Range of NOAA Users • Operational – operational observations to support weather forecasting – where there is feedback within hours to days on the impact of observations on forecasts • Research – sustained systematic observations to support climate change – where similar feedback may not come for years to a decade or more

6. Proposed Terms of Reference • As a sanctioned Working Group of the NOAA SAB, provide scientific advise and broad program direction on the on the condition and capabilities of the NPOESS system from the user perspective • The NPOESS system is meant to include the space segment, NOAA Central (from Interface Data Processing Segment thru product generation to utilization), CLASS archive, and supporting science • Complement, and coordinate with, the existing Climate Monitoring and Climate & Global Change Working Groups

7. What are some initial issues? • Identification of gaps: How will needs be met in the NPOESS era for: • QuikSCAT-class surface vector winds? • Jason-class sea surface topography? • Preplanned product improvement EDRs (eg, carbon gases)? • Assessment of planned system: • Will CLASS have sufficient capacity in time for NPOESS? • How well will resulting products contribute to the long-term climate record • Product improvement: What is the plan for evolving the algorithms in response to applications such as fine-spatial-resolution ocean products approaching the coast?

8. What are some initial issues?(continued) • Regarding product improvement: During the NPOESS era, to what extent will/might there be: • Access to lower-level data? • Open and transparent algorithms? • Competitively selected, peer-reviewed science teams?

9. Next Steps • NOAA SAB: • approve written Terms of Reference • address membership & designation of chair • First meeting in early CY04 • NPOESS User Working Group starts by reviewing the components of the overall NPOESS system