1 Emergency Managers Weather Information Network in the GOES-N Era: a Status Report Satellite Direct Readout Conference for the Americas Miami, Florida December 10, 2002 Lloyd E. Irvin (NOAA/NWS)

2 EMWIN A system to provide timely watches, warnings, and forecasts to the nation’s emergency managers using NOAA’s GOES satellites and low cost user receive systems –EMWIN is broadcast from GOES East and GOES West –EMWIN will be impacted as current GOES satellites are replaced by newer satellites

3 EMWIN in GOES-N Era Changes Reduced broadcast power –Complies with ITU power levels –Mitigated by use of Forward Error Correction and higher-order modulation Broadcast frequency change –From: MHz To: MHz

4 Impacts on Users Receiving site changes required –Upgrade for FEC and modulation –Accommodation for frequency change Receiving site antennas –Above 5 o – no change –Below 5 o – may require a larger antenna

5 GOES East (75 o W), Goes West (135 o W) Visibility Contours Outer Ring is 5 o Elevation Angle

6 Transition to GOES-N Guiding Principles Minimize impacts on users –Maintain at least the same level of service –Ensure EMWIN vendors are ready –Inform users of changes and schedule Ensure graceful transition –Provide adequate time for users and NOAA to make changes –Avoid abrupt changes

7 Transition to GOES-N Approach Formed joint NESDIS/NWS coordination group –Actively planning the transition activities NESDIS coordinating with receiver manufacturers –Sponsoring FEC and modulator prototype development –Fostering low cost receive systems through testing opportunities NESDIS providing pro-active user community coordination NWS providing timely user information

8 Transition to GOES-N Coordination Group Activities Recommended to NESDIS management the operation of a parallel broadcast of GOES-N EMWIN from a normally stored third satellite before GOES-N becomes operational Developing a Transition Plan based on third satellite approach to provide date-certain start of a parallel broadcast

9 Transition to GOES-N Receive System Development EMWIN system manufacturer developing prototype hardware solution using: –BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Key) modulation –American Hardware Architectures’ TurboCoding Forward Error Correction Hardware solution experiencing technical problems

10 Transition to GOES-N Receive System Development NESDIS contractor developing PC software solution –Processing to be hosted on inexpensive PC –Uses processors of 1 GHz or more –Should be widely configurable for third party applications (DLL) –Provides complete tuning capability

11 Transition to GOES-N Next Steps Test s oftware solution

12 Transition to GOES-N User Information Updates Periodic general User Notification Administrative Messages EMWIN Web site – Related User Conferences in 2003 –NWS annual Partners Workshop: Summer –Annual emergency managers conferences: Fall