National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS NOAA Satellite Research to Operations (R2O) Status Presented to CGMS-43 Plenary or Working Group 3 Session

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Global Satellite Observing System is Key to Assess and Predict Environmental Impacts on Society NOAA Product and Services rely on Operational and Research Satellites in an operational environment 2

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS 3 NOAA's 11 testbeds and proving grounds facilitate the orderly transition of research capabilities to operational implementation through development testing (in testbeds), pre-deployment testing, and operational readiness/suitability evaluation (in operational proving grounds). NOAA Testbed and Proving Ground Portal

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS U.S. Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) The JCSDA was established in 2001 to improve and accelerate the use of research and operational satellite data in numerical weather, ocean, and climate analysis and prediction. The goal of the JCSDA is to contribute to the forecast skill of the operational NWP systems of the JCSDA partners by assimilating the satellite observations in the most effective way 4

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Operational and Research Satellite Data assimilated by JCSDA into NOAA Operational weather forecasts * Indicates Research Satellite or Sensor HIRS sounder radiances AMSU-A & B sounder radiances S-NPP ATMS sounder radiances S-NPP CrIS sounder radiances Aqua AIRS* sounder radiances MetOp IASI sounder radiances GOES imager and sounder radiances GOES, MSG, MTSAT wind vectors GPM* precipitation rates SSM/IS sounder data and wind speeds Jason altimeter sea surface heights POES AVHRR Sea Surface Temperatures POES AVHRR vegetation products Multi-satellite snow cover Multi-satellite sea ice POES SBUV/2 ozone profile & total ozone Terra and Aqua MODIS* polar winds GPS Radio Occultation ‒ COSMIC, MetOp/GRAS, CNOFS, GRACE,* SAC-C*, TerraSAR-X* Aqua OMI* MSG SEVIRI MetOp ASCAT GCOM-W1 AMSR-2* SMOS soil moisture* WINDSAT ocean wind vectors* Planned: SMAP*, Himawari-8, GOES-R, JPSS 5

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS JCSDA Assimilation of Non-NOAA Research Satellites NASA's Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) – Polar Winds assimilated in the Global Forecast System (GFS) NASA's Aqua Advanced InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) – Radiances assimilated in the GFS Global Change Observation Mission-Weather (GCOM-W)/Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) 2 – JCSDA testing assimilation of GCOM-W data NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) – JCSDA testing assimilation of GPM data Japan Meteorological Agency’s (JMA) Himawari-8 – JCSDA preparing to test assimilation of Himawari-8 data NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission – JCSDA preparing to develop and test assimilation of SMAP data Planned: European Space Agency’s (ESA) Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM)/Aeolus (Doppler Wind Lidar) – JCSDA partners have conducted Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs); plan operations-parallel testing of ADM data when these are provided after launch 6

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Soil Moisture Operational Product System (SMOPS) NESDIS Soil Moisture Operational Product System provides and blends global soil moisture products from available microwave satellite sensors, including NASA SMAP WindSat SMOS MetOp ASCAT Blended Aqua AMSR2 SMAP NCEP NWP Models USAF USDA NASA 7

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS SPSRB is the NOAA / NESDIS body responsible for the oversight and guidance to effectively manage the satellite product life cycle process from product development, transition into operations, enhancements and retirement – SPSRB Co-chaired by NOAA Research and Operations Managers All NOAA major organizations participate Provides decision authority at key decision points Over the last 15 years, NOAA used the SPSRB process to transition over 1000 products into operations from seven NOAA polar, six NOAA geostationary satellites, and numerous non-NOAA satellites 8 Satellite Product and Services Review Board (SPSRB)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Example of the NOAA / NESDIS SPSRB Process (GPM) 1. Began with a formal request by National Weather Service (NWS) to SPSRB – Need for GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) Level-1 and Level-2 products Serve many users: NCEP / Environmental Modeling Center, National Hurricane Center, Climate Prediction Center, and NWS Forecast Offices Support common data formats and standards: McIDAS, BUFR, AWIPS Enable blending with other algorithms and data sources: Microwave Integrated Retrieval System, blended Total Precipitable Water and Rainfall Rate 2. NESDIS (OSPO and STAR) worked together to vet request through SPSRB process – Early adaptation of GPM was accelerated by preparing a formal MOU between NOAA and NASA 3. Early Results: GMI data are currently being tested at JCSDA 4. Success! -- Data will be incorporated into operational NWP models during the next major computer center / assimilation system update (~ early 2016), and into NWS user systems (e.g., AWIPS) 9

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Summary Incorporating new operational and research satellite data into NWP models, public warnings, and weather forecasts benefits society through: – Mitigating the loss of life and property – Improving our knowledge and understanding of short-term weather impacts and long-term climate change – Enabling better planning and decision-making by end users 10

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Backup Slides 11

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Challenges for Incorporating Future Research Satellite Data Into Operations Fully exploiting potential operational value from increasing numbers and sophistication of new research satellite measurements entails tremendous opportunities and challenges. – Increased temporal, spectral and spatial resolution of next generation research satellite systems and sensors, and demonstration of their potential value for operational forecasting and decision support will raise expectations for Research to Operations (R2O) (opportunity). This requires planning and assessment of expected operational performance vs. resources available for operational infrastructure and associated costs (challenge). – Full exploitation of GPM and SMAP observations in operational NWP requires continued advancements in data assimilation (opportunity and challenge) 12

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS 13

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Global Precipitation Mission - GPM (NASA/JAXA) Satellite and Sensor Status: – GPM Core – successful launch Feb. 27, 2014 (by JAXA) – GMI data and derived products flowing to NOAA and being distributed on ESPC and DDS in native format – Primary sensors GMI (NASA) – 13 channel ( GHz) conically scanning radiometer (successor to TRMM TMI) – Enhancement for cold season precipitation over land DPR (JAXA) – Ka/Ku band radar (successor to TRMM PR) – Dual frequency helps improve vertical structure of precipitation – Dual frequency improves sensitivity to lighter precipitation More Mission Details at: 14

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Soil Moisture Active Passive – SMAP (NASA) Active L-band radar – High-resolution may provide 1-3km products Passive L-band radiometer – Soil Moisture (SM) at 36km resolution Active-passive combined – Soil Moisture at 9km resolution Best satellite soil moisture – Enhance drought monitoring – Complement Climate Prediction Center (CPC) CPC MORPHing Technique (CMORPH) rain data for land forcing of NWP Freeze/thaw products benefit both NWP and carbon cycle studies 15

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS MetOp Advanced Scatterometer (EUMETSAT) Declared operational by SPSRB in June 2008 Advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) flies on EUMETSAT’s MetOp satellites ASCAT surface wind products are produced at 25-km and 50-km resolution Products / Applications – Marine analysis and forecasting – Numerical Weather Prediction STAR’s ocean scientists’ efforts have resulted in the generation and flow of operational ASCAT ocean surface wind products to the user community Available on AWIPS for NWS forecasters Positive impact on NCEP GFS forecast accuracy (Courtesy Jung et al; JCSDA) 16

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR): High-Resolution Coastal Winds Product Superstructure Icing SAR-derived Wind Image – Alaska Peninsula 3/19/2013, 16:47 UT, RADARSAT-2. Original SAR image © MDA, Winds processed for the National Ice Center by NOAA/NESDIS 17

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, May 2015 Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites - CGMS NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) leads the NOAA CoastWatch Program, which facilitates the development and transition of satellite ocean remote sensing products from research into operations CoastWatch partnership – NESDIS Office of Satellite and Product Operations and the National Oceanographic Data Center – NOAA line offices National Marine Fisheries Service National Ocean Service Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research National Weather Service Supports a number of national and regional coastal activities and applications – Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) – Chesapeake Bay, Southern California Ocean Color Products SST Ocean Surface Winds 18