University of Wisconsin GOES-R Proving Ground Participation in NOAA HWT Wayne Feltz *, Kaba Bah*, Kristopher Bedka@, Lee Cronce*, Jordan Gerth*, Jack Kain#, Scott Lindstrom*, Jason Otkin*, Tim Schmit#, Justin Sieglaff*, Chris Siewert$, and Robert Rabin# *CIMSS University of Wisconsin-Madison, @SSAI NASA LaRC, #NOAA/NESDIS/STAR #National Severe Storms Laboratory, %NASA Langley Research Center, $University of Oklahoma - CIMMS P813 1. INTRODUCTION 3. WRF Derived Synthetic ABI Radiances 2. University of Wisconsin - CONVECTIVE INITIATION (See Sieglaff et al P9.4) UW-CIMSS provided real-time access to University of Wisconsin-Madison Convective Initiation (UWCI), GOES-R Overshooting-top enhanced-V proxy, and WRF simulated ABI radiance decision support products via N-AWIPS (Advanced Weather Information Processing System) to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) as part of the Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) Spring 2010 Experiment. This poster overviews the products, training, and forecaster interaction during the NOAA HWT May 17 – June 18th 2010. A summary of GOES-R proxy decision support products provided by UW-CIMSS to NOAA HWT is contained within table below. Simulated GOES-R ABI imagery generated from the NSSL-WRF 00Z 4km model run was provided within the HWT N-AWIPS. UW-CIMSS provided simulated satellite data for all GOES-R ABI IR bands from the 12 Z through 03 Z forecast times. The UWCI and associated cloud-top cooling rate product has been delivered to the SPC since the 2009 Spring Experiment. The product is currently provided within SPC operations and was provided within the HWT via the EFP in N-AWIPS gridded format, and the EWP in AWIPS gridded format for the 2010 Spring Experiment. The product utilizes GOES-13 infrared (IR) window brightness temperature changes based on an operational day/night cloud mask to infer cloud-top cooling as a proxy for vertical development in growing cumulus clouds as described by Sieglaff et al. (2010). UWCI is generated at the University of Wisconsin for each GOES-13 scan, including rapid-scans, and distributed via LDM in GRIB2 format to AWIPS and N-AWIPS systems 1 1 1 “ABI” 21 UTC “ABI” 00 UTC Demonstration Product (contacts) Category PG Testbed Activity Cloud and Moisture Imagery (WRF ARW simulated) (Feltz/Schmit) Baseline SPC HWT and WES Overshooting-Top/Enhanced-V (Feltz) Option 2 SPC HWT, AWC GOES Imager Convective Initiation (Feltz) GIMPAP SPC HWT, NWS, DOD, SMG 2000 UTC 30 March 2005 GOES-13 21:15 UTC GOES-13 23:45 UTC SPC Storm Reports GOES-R Overshooting-top/ Enhanced-V Proxy (See Dworak et al. P9.6) The OTTC product is a new addition within the 2010 Spring Experiment. The product utilizes GOES-13 IR window brightness temperature spatial testing to identify overshooting-top and thermal couplet (also known as enhanced-V) features within mature convective storm cloud-tops as described by Bedka et al. (2010). The OTTC product provides detections and relative magnitudes of overshooting-top and thermal couplet features in real-time. Similar to the UWCI product, the OTTC product is generated at the University of Wisconsin for each GOES-13 scan, including rapid-scans, and distributed via LDM in GRIB2 format to AWIPS and N-AWIPS systems. NLDN CG Lightning UW-CIMSS NSSL-WRF simulated GOES-R ABI band 9 imagery (left) and GOES-13 water vapor imagery for 2300 UTC on 19 May 2010 show within N-AWIPS display. Forecaster Feedback: There is much excitement regarding the possibilities of making simulated satellite imagery readily available alongside all the traditional and other experimental model fields. There is also a strong recommendation for simulating GOES-R products and channel differences using the simulated satellite imagery as a decision ai In the future we expect to leverage other high resolution model runs, such as the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, to better simulate the GOES-R ABI temporal and spatial resolutions. . References: Bedka, Kristopher; Brunner, Jason; Dworak, Richard; Feltz, Wayne; Otkin, Jason and Greenwald, Thomas. Objective satellite-based detection of overshooting tops using infrared window channel brightness temperature gradients. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Volume 49, Issue 2, 2010, pp.181-202. Call Number: Reprint # 6245 Sieglaff, J., L. Cronce, K. Bedka, W. F. Feltz, K. M. Bedka, M. J. Pavolonis, and A. K. Heidinger, 2010. Nowcasting Convective Storm Initiation Using Satellite Based Box-averaged Cloud Top Cooling and Cloud Typing Trends. Jour. Appl. Meteor. and Clim., Accepted for publication, on-line format. 5. Acknowledgments Acknowledgments: The support of the research sponsor, the GOES-R Program Office is greatly appreciated. The authors would also like to thank Steve Goodman, Mitch Goldberg, and Greg Mandt for their support in this endeavor. 4-panel display within AWIPS of GOES-R products provided within EWP including 8-km Psuedo-GLM (top left), UWCI convective initiation (top right), UWCI cloud top cooling rate (bottom left), and overshooting-top magnitude (bottom right) for 24 May 2008 archive case event. Overshooting-top magnitudes overlaid on visible satellite imagery within AWIPS at 2131 UTC on 8 June 2010 Forecaster Feedback: In general, forecasters found that the UWCI products are a useful tool to help them increase situational awareness prior to warning operations during severe weather days. Forecasters also noticed lead-times on their subjective interpretation of convective initiation based on signals from radar generally of about 5 to 30 minutes. When comparing UWCI to the first occurrence of CG lightning detected by the NLDN, forecasters found that UWCI lead times extended, often to 60 minutes. More valuable at night Forecasters did mention some frustration with the temporal resolution of the product as provided from GOES-13, RSO mode optimal Product unavailable due to thin cirrus. Cloud top cooling preferred over convective initiation flag Forecaster Feedback: In general, while forecasters found the idea of the OTTC product exciting, the limitations of the current observational system severely limited the OTTC product as demonstrated in severe weather warning operations. The coarse horizontal IR resolution (4-km) of GOES-13 was often unable to detect overshoots, easily seen in visible imagery since they are generally smaller than the GOES-13 IR footprint. The temporal resolution of the current observational systems also limited the evaluation of the OTTC product in severe weather warning operations. . “ The OTTC product was most useful in indicating locations where storm strength was at a relative maximum… Quickly highlighting the strongest thunderstorms on the visible satellite imagery where it can be hard to distinguish storms due to similar brightness.” Corresponding author address: Wayne F. Feltz University of Wisconsin-Madison,1225 W. Dayton, Madison, WI 53706 E-mail: wayne.feltz@ssec.wisc.edu http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~waynef