IDEA as a template for an Air Quality Proving Ground (AQPG) for GOES-R

NOAA maintains and supports the Infusing Satellite Data into Environmental Applications (IDEA) product at http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/spb/aq/. Designed to disseminate NOAA GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product (GASP) data, NASA MODIS data, and EPA ground-based PM2.5 measurements, IDEA has become a core product in the toolkits used by state and local air quality analysts and forecasters. Over the next few years in preparation for the revolutionary capabilities of the GOES-R series of geostationary imagers, a new capability to deliver the large volume of GOES-R data to the public must be developed. Unlike the meteorological parameters from GOES-R which will be delivered to weather forecast offices (WFO's) through the AWIPS-II processing architecture, we envisage a product delivery system for state and local authorities so that regional air quality forecasters have access to measurements from GOES-R, from ground based sites, and from models to better predict particulate air quality in the US. NOAA has created an Air Quality Proving Ground (AQPG) for GOES-R to facilitate this transition. Evolving from the current Three-Dimensional Air Quality System User Group and adding members from the NWS Forecast Guidance User community, a user group has been formed to assess Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) proxy data which has been and will be processed in the future. Using data sets from existing satellites, ground based remote sensing, ground based air quality measurements, and models, at least ten case studies will be created which exercise the ABI algorithm and allow the User Group to comment on how those data would be used in their forecast tasks. ABI proxy outputs will be integrated into an IDEA-like platform which will be the AQPG testbed for dissemination of the AOD data from GOES-R to the public.