Analysis of Simulated GOES-R Data and Products for Mesoscale Meteorology

An extensive program is underway to simulate imagery and sounder data from future GOES-R instrumentation. The goal is to assess the potential for new products from GOES-R long before it becomes operational. In spite of the long lead-time needed to design, build, and test this new and complex satellite system, it is time to do the background work needed to prepare for the implementation of GOES-R. Simulations of GOES-R data are being accomplished by utilizing datasets from current operational and experimental satellites. Weather situations under study include applications to forecasting mesoscale weather events, including severe storms, tropical cyclones, lake effect snowstorms and fog outbreaks. The simulations are needed to assess the impact of the increased resolutions available from GOES-R instrumentation. Increases in spatial, temporal, spectral, and radiometric resolution will all be available, the latter two being manifest as both increased number of spectral bands and increased precision for measurements from those bands. One of the approaches being used for these “Risk Reduction” activities is to use data from existing operational and experimental satellites to create subsets of observations that will be available from GOES-R. Then an assessment of the potential applications of these GOES-R data will be made using techniques to manipulate both the multi-spectral imagery and the hyper-spectral sounding data. The image manipulation techniques that will be applied not only pare the data down to its essential components, eliminating redundant information, but also assess the quality and applicability of the data to the weather situations under study. In addition, the data manipulation also has an application toward data compression that will be needed to assure the maximum benefit to the end user while reducing the ever-increasing volume of data that inevitably comes with increased capabilities of new satellite instrumentation.