The National Weather Service “Polar Book Club” Matt Foster, Chad Gravelle, Jeff Manion, Dave Radell, Mike Stavish and NWS Office of Observations TOWR-S Team

What is the NWS Polar Book Club? The NWS “Polar Book Club” (PBC) is a team formed by the National Weather Service Office of Observations The PBC was established in September 2018 to identify and evaluate polar satellite imagery and products that may have critical usage to NWS CONUS WFO and RFC forecasters The PBC addresses a new polar satellite product each month, like a book club, get it?

Who is a Member of the Polar Book Club? The PBC has one representative from each NWS CONUS Regions and the OPG: Eastern Region: Dave Radell Central Region: Jeff Manion Southern Region: Chad Gravelle Western Region: Mike Stavish Operations Proving Ground: Matt Foster The TOWR-S team in the Office of Observations facilities PBC meetings, conducts WFO evaluations, and migrates recommended products to NWS operations

Why does the Polar Book Club Exist? NWS requirements for CONUS polar satellite imagery and products have changed Historically, polar data over CONUS was strictly for weather model ingest As new satellite products and capabilities are introduced (specifically things that cannot be replicated using GOES satellites) that is no longer the case The PBC identifies potential polar satellite products that will impact the workflow of forecasters making specific NWS products, evaluates these satellite products with volunteer WFOs, and makes recommendations on which products should be migrated to full operations at NWS The PBC does not need to address products that are obviously useful (such as NOAA-20 NUCAPS soundings). The PBC is designed to investigate products of uncertain operational utility.

How Does the Polar Book Club Accomplish its Mission? ~ 1 Month ~ 2 Months PBC Approves WFO Evaluation of Product TOWR-S Establishes Operational Data Feed with Evaluation WFOs via AWIPS DAM Evaluations WFOs Provide AWIPS & Product Feedback to TOWR-S Evaluation WFOs Recommend to PBC that Product be Migrated to Operations TOWR-S Briefs a Polar Satellite Product to PBC PBC Decides if Product has Potential in Operations Evaluation WFOs Find No Operational Value, TOWR-S Migrates Product to NWS Operations PBC Finds No Operational Value ~ 6 Months

What has the Polar Book Club Addressed? The first product the PBC has analysed is the GCOM-W1 AMSR Sea Surface Wind Speed product PBC recommended for an evaluation with specific WFOs at the end of November 2018 Dataflow began to these WFOs in January 2019 via the AWIPS DAM Participating WFOs provided their final feedback in March 2019

GCOM-W1 AMSR2 Sea Surface Wind Speed GCOM-W1 = Global Change Observation Mission - Water Satellite launched by Japan in May 2012, turned on in July 2012 Satellite carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR) sensor Satellite is part of the “Afternoon Train” (A-Train) Satellite is at the equator at about 1:30am and 1:30pm local time Forecasters can expect to get an image time roughly 20-30 minutes after that

AMSR2 Sea Surface Wind Speed Algorithm Regression algorithm correlates 12 channels of brightness temperatures in the microwave regime to sea surface wind speed Does not tell you wind direction, speed only Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/jpss/documents/ATBD/ATBD_AMSR2_Ocean_EDR_v2.0.pdf Product latency ~3-4 hours Product not created within 25km of coastline Product cannot detect winds higher than 90 kts

Sea Surface Wind Speed Product Details Advantages: Wind observations in data-denied/remote areas Data available most everywhere since microwave sensor sees through clouds Caveats: Masked out within much of WFO Coastal Waters areas Latency (~3-4 hours) Unrealistically high values/no data in areas of heavy rain

Product Complete Orbit in AWIPS

East Coast Sample Image in AWIPS

Great Lakes Sample Image in AWIPS

Gulf of Mexico Sample Image in AWIPS

Sea Surface Wind Speed Evaluation WFOs Central Region: WFO Marquette WFO Milwaukee Southern Region: WFO Tallahassee WFO San Juan Western Region WFO Portland WFO Medford

Sea Surface Wind Speed Feedback WFO Evaluation Meeting occurred on 27 March 2019 What did WR WFOs think? Improved lead time for Gale/Storm Warnings Able to better assess model performance in data sparse Pacific Ocean (pick one to go with) What did CR WFOs think? Able to modify the National Blend GFE wind grids to be more accurate over the Great Lakes The wave height model GFE grids are more accurate over the Great Lakes Difficult to use during the winter due to clouds and ice What did SR WFOs think? Tallahassee has no operating buoys offshore, GCOM data improves the coastal zone GFE wind grids San Juan is able to identify trade wind surges, improving their Offshore Waters Forecast Why did ER WFOs not participate in evaluation? Data was made available via ER LDM, but felt latency/product timeliness was too long Masking of data along coast and Great Lakes limits usefulness

Sea Surface Wind Speed AWIPS Improvements WR WFOs suggested AWIPS improvements: New color table corresponding to Gale/Storm/Hurricane force wind thresholds AWIPS banner or text (for alerting) when new data is available to keep the data in a forecaster workflow CR WFOs suggested AWIPS improvements: Get data into GFE as a grid (makes it easier to modify the wind grid) Make the coastal mask smaller SR WFOs suggested AWIPS improvements:

Polar Book Club Tentative Schedule NOAA-20 VIIRS Active Fires (August - October 2019) ScatSat Winds (September - November 2019) NOAA-20 VIIRS 0.64um Imagery (October - December 2019) NOAA-20 VIIRS 10.8um Imagery (October - December 2019) NOAA-20 VIIRS Ice Cover/Ice Concentration (November - January 2020) NOAA-20 ATMS Ice Concentration (November - January 2020) NOAA-20 ATMS Snow Water Equivalent (December - February 2020) NOAA-20 ATMS Snow Depth (January - March 2020)

Future Polar Book Club(s)? Is there a need for an OCONUS Polar Book Club? Different missions and satellite orbits than CONUS offices Different data dissemination methods Many of these products are already used by OCONUS Is there a need for a National Centers Polar Book Club? Different missions and larger areas of responsibilities than WFOs or RFCs Contact Eric Guillot at eric.guillot@noaa.gov if you’re interested in kicking off either of these groups