Digital data was first introduced in 1995 through the use of RAMSDIS, which was developed at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). Initially, digital data from the GOES-8 imager was sent to all 24 WR Weather Forecast Offices (WFO). Once GOES-9 became operational as GOES-West, data from that satellite was sent to all WR WFOs for display on RAMSDIS. Additional data sets sent to the WR WFOs included: SSM/I products (ocean surface wind speed, total precipitable water, and rain rate), GOES derived product imagery (total precipitable water, lifted index, cloud top pressure) and GOES high density winds. This data proved to be very useful to forecasters in both the convective warning program and in the normal day-to-day forecasting program.
In 1997 AWIPS began to be deployed to all NWS WFOs, all WR WFOs had AWIPS by 1999. AWIPS allowed for the ingest and display of digital satellite data. However, the early versions of AWIPS were only supplied with the basic image data from GOES (VIS, IR, WV). At the present time only GOES derived product imagery (DPI) has been added to the delivery of satellite data to AWIPS. To alleviate this problem, WR developed a method to easily ingest digital satellite imagery from various sources into AWIPS. The data is retrieved from the various sources, reformatted to be compatible with AWIPS, and then sent to all 24 WR WFOs using ldm and the LDAD system. AWIPS menus were modified to make the data displayable. The data currently being sent to all 24 WR WFOs includes: GOES DPI (total precipitable water, lifted index, cloud top pressure, CAPE, total ozone, and the fog/reflectivity product), SSM/I products (ocean surface wind speed, total precipitable water, and rain rate), AMSU products (total precipitable water, rain rate, cloud liquid water, and snow cover), GOES sounder imagery (6.5um, 7.0um, 7.4um, 11um, 13.4um), global composite IR and WV, POES sea surface temperatures, QuikSCAT ocean surface winds, and GOES high density winds.
Examples of how these data sets are displayed in AWIPS will be shown. Also, instances will be shown in which these data had an impact on the services provided by the WR WFOs.
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