LaRC Real-Time Satellite-Derived Products – Applications and Limitations

The use of real-time satellite derived microphysical properties like optical depth, water path and particle size in numerical weather prediction model assimilation and now-casting applications is gaining wider acceptance as these properties have demonstrated to improve the model performance. NASA Langley Research Center's (LaRC) North American domain cloud products from GOES-11 and GOES-13 are currently assimilated in the NOAA operational Rapid Refresh model (RR) covering North America and are included in the NCAR Current Icing Potential (CIP) developmental product covering the CONUS. By including the LaRC cloud-top height and ice and liquid water paths among its many input variables, the RR assimilation has produced more accurate analyses and forecasts of cloud vertical and horizontal distributions as well as ceiling heights critical for aviation planning and safety. The LaRC cloud-top heights, temperatures, effective particle sizes and water paths have increased the accuracy of nowcasting the horizontal and vertical locations of aircraft icing hazards in the CIP. More recently, the LaRC products from five geostationary satellites, GOES-11, GOES-13, METEOSAT-9, MTSAT-2R, FY2D/E have been merged together to derive 3-hourly global products between 60°N and 60°S. The remainder of the globe is covered by retrievals of the same cloud parameters from MODIS data taken from the Sun-synchronous Terra and Aqua satellites. Clouds and radiative parameters over multiple regional domains are retrieved from data taken by the GOES, Meteosat, and MTSAT imagers at high spatial and temporal resolution centered over various ground-sites equipped with arrays of ground-based instruments for validation and modeling studies. The LaRC products are also used to support a variety of DOE ASR, NASA, and other national and international field experiments such as TC4, SPARTICUS, and CALNEX in daily mission planning operations and post-experiment scientific studies. This paper presents an update on our real-time products, demonstrating recent improvements and validations. Tools to view our data on the web and download them, in user-friendly formats are demonstrated. Future developments in the product accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility are also discussed.