Science Mission Directorate Meeting of the Working Group on Space-Based Lidar Winds: View from NASA Headquarters Ramesh Kakar Weather Focus Area Leader January 27, 2009

2 Recent Developments “Tropospheric winds are the number one unmet measurement for improving weather forecasts” In the last 2-3 years the mission design studies at GSFC have shown viability of the 400 km and 828 km orbit 3-D winds mission concepts with only very reasonable advances in Doppler lidar technology. Also the studies have shown coherent Doppler only needs 0.25 J pulse energy while the technology has (separately) demonstrated 1.2 J, fully conductive cooling, and compact packaging. The NRC Decadal Survey specifically calls out for space-borne demonstration of 3-D winds but puts this in the third tier of its recommendation NASA/ESD has spent considerable effort in developing the needed technology, specifications and the theoretical framework

3 Recent Developments NASA has selected seven proposals for funding as a result of the ROSES07 Wind Lidar Science Announcement Two additional proposals were selected by the Airborne Instrument Technology Transfer ROSES07 element The IIP selected two new Wind Lidar proposals in April 2008 ACT and AIST ROSES08 elements also selected one and two proposals respectively that are related to the 3D Wind measurements NASA plans to support a “hurricane genesis” field experiment during the 2010 hurricane season and expects a hybrid wind lidar system to be the primary instrument for this experiment

ROSES Wind Lidar Science Selections PI First na me PI Last nameInstitutionTitle Lars Pe ter RiishojgaardUMBCObserving System Simulation Experiments for the Global Winds Observing Sounder BruceGentryGSFC A multi-year direct detection Doppler lidar tropospheric wind measurement program to assess instrument performance in various atmospheric conditions RobertHardestyNOAA Doppler lidar characterization of horizontal and vertical wind and aerosol profiles over ice-free regions of the Arctic: Impacts on satellite wind measurements Upendr a SinghLaRCIntercomparison of Multiple Doppler Lidars for Wind Measurements Matthe w McGillGSFC Using satellite-based lidar measurements to simulate Doppler lidar performance and improve simulation models Zhaoxi a PuU of Utah Targeted Doppler wind lidar observations for seasonal climate studies and high-impact weather forecasting GeorgeEmmitt Simpson Weat her CALIPSO and LITE data for space-based DWL design and data utility studies

Moving Objects Database Technology for Weather Event Analysis and Tracking Key Milestones Application/User requirement study1 st Quarter Data Migration 3 rd Quarter Component developmentYear 1 IntegrationYear 2 Performance evaluationYear 3 Co-I’s/Partners Ashit Talukder/JPL, Tim Liu/JPL, Shen-Shyang Ho/JPL PI: Markus Schneider / University of Florida TRL current = 2TRL in = 2 Approach Design & implement a Moving Objects Software Library (MOSL), which provides a representation of moving objects, enables the execution of operations on them, and can be integrated into databases. Design & implement a spatial-temporal query language (STQL) which enables users to –Comfortably pose ad-hoc queries on weather data like tropical cyclone data –Obtain an immediate response –Retrieve satellite data based on user queries Objective Provide earth scientists with previously unavailable database management, analysis, & query capabilities that will integrate 1) raw satellite data,2) analysis, forecasts & model information, and 3) decision processes to support both the research & understanding of dynamic weather events, & the decision processes related to them. Proposed technology components will be applied to tropical cyclone weather events and observations from QuikSCAT and TRMM to ensure data continuity to the wind and precipitation data from GPM, and the XOVWM, 3D Wind and PATH decadal survey missions. Resulting system will be reusable: mission-independent, weather event-type independent and system-independent (Assuming April 2009 start) Technology components integrated into currently available database systems. Draft 21 January 2009

End-to-End Design and Objective Evaluation of Sensor Web Modeling and Data Assimilation System Architectures: Phase II Key Milestones Co-I’s/Partners Steve Talabac/GSFC, Robert Atlas NOAA, Robert Burns/Northrop Grumman, George Emmitt/Simpson Weather Associates PI: Mike Seablom / GSFC TRL current = 4 TRL in = 4 Approach Build on previous work on Sensor Web Simulator (SWS). Focus on meteorological applications where information derived from a numerical model is used to intelligently drive data collection for operational weather forecasting. Simulation is essential—the development costs & deployment risk of an operational sensor web system are very high. This lets us: –identify types and quantities of sensor assets and their interactions; –evaluate alternative observing system implementations; –quantify potential development costs; –reduce operational deployment risk. Objective Deliver an end-to-end simulator that will quantitatively assess the scientific value of a fully functional, model-driven sensor web to provide an objective analysis tool for Decadal Survey mission planning. The tool would enable systems engineers and Earth scientists to define and model candidate mission designs and operations concepts and accurately assess their impacts. Tool capabilities will be derived from detailed case studies for a hurricane prediction scenario using simulated data from three of the Decadal Survey missions: - Global Wind Observing Sounder (GWOS “3D Winds”) - Extended Ocean Vector Winds Mission (XOVWM), and - Precipitation and All-weather Temperature & Humidity (PATH) (Assuming March 2009 start) Screenshot of SWS Scenario Design tool Establish working relationship with new partners, execute use case from Phase I using latest nature run & new data assimilation system, extend capabilities of prototype simulator Year 1 Generate simulated Decadal Survey mission data & conduct OSSEs Year 2 Prepare for and deliver sensor web simulator to GSFC Integrated Design Center (IDC) Year 3 Draft 21 January 2009

Summary  Considerable activity related to the measurement of vector wind profiles is ongoing at NASA  The NRC Decadal Survey specifically calls out for space-borne demonstration of 3-D winds but puts this in the third tier of its recommendation  The NASA management is committed to implement the NRC advice strictly along the suggested sequence