Environmental satellite data comprise a vital element of Air Force Weather’s (AFW) support to U.S. Department of Defense and allied military operations worldwide. This presentation provides an overview of the satellite data types, ingest and processing systems, scientific techniques, and operational procedures used to generate products for AFW customers. Focus will be on operations in the field as well as at our fixed operational weather squadrons and strategic centers. Meteorological satellite data are critical for supporting operations in deployed scenarios where Combat Weather Teams use lightweight, transportable terminals for real-time data ingest and to generate mission-tailored products using polar orbiting and geosynchronous meteorological satellites. Operations at AFW’s twelve regional forecasting centers and at the primary satellite data processing center located at Offutt AFB, Nebraska involve terabytes of data processed on state-of-the-art super-computing systems. Output from these support national programs and are disseminated to forecasters the world over. The several cooperative agreements for shared satellite data processing between AFW and the U.S. Navy and various other DoD organizations, NOAA/NESDIS, and the National Weather Service will also be discussed.
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