Getting Forecasters Ready for Himawari-10 Advanced Sounder Data

When Himawari-10 becomes operational in late 2029, forecasters under its footprint should have access to data from the Advanced Himawari-10 Geostationary Himawari Sounder (GHMS). Users will include forecasters at the National Weather Service on Guam and aviation forecasters at NWS Honolulu. The GHMS (and Meteosat’s IRS) is designed to improve services in extreme weather monitoring and nowcasting. How should forecasters be trained on this novel set of data – hyperspectral soundings with excellent temporal (hourly or more frequently) and spatial (around 5 km) resolution? Assimilation into Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), retrievals and derived products have a place, but GHMS spectral data at grid points should be available as well. This talk will show Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) spectra as they vary with time and tie those observations to evolving weather conditions to demonstrate why spectra can give useful information to a forecaster. Examples from this presentation can guide decisions on how to distribute data in a way that best exploits the information in the satellite-observed spectra.