JPSS Arctic Initiative—Supporting Sea Ice Analysis and Forecasting

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program generates global environmental products that are available to domestic and international operational users and climate communities from Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W1), and JPSS-1. The JPSS Proving Ground and Risk Reduction (PGRR) program brings together data product developers and the operational users to develop partnerships, provide training, and perform joint activities that aid in satellite data exploitation for operational applications. The JPSS PGRR Arctic Initiative was created to support the National Weather Service (NWS) Alaska Sea Ice Program (ASIP) and the National Ice Center (NIC) fulfill their missions of providing Arctic-based and global sea ice analysis and forecasting. In the Spring of 2018, the Arctic Initiative held their first demonstration of JPSS products within the ASIP. In April, four JPSS cryosphere products were provided to the ASIP and used in daily operations. The ASIP analysts evaluated the four products and provided feedback on their experience which was shared with the algorithm developers and product providers in order to improve upon the usability of each product in operations. The feedback provided resulted in updates to the how the products are viewed and displayed in ArcGIS and encouraged additional discussions about other JPSS products that would be beneficial to the ASIP operations. A second Arctic Initiative demonstration is planned for the Fall of 2018 which will include additional JPSS products provided to both the ASIP and the NIC for evaluation. JPSS cryosphere products are expected to aid and improve ice monitoring and forecasting, which supports many commerce and transportation activities in the Arctic such as ship navigation, fishing, and oil and gas exploitation