Utilizing Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Coverage to Monitor Meteorological Conditions in the Alaska Region

The Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) JPSS Environmental Data Records (EDR) Long Term Monitoring (LTM) team was established in 2016 to monitor the performance of JPSS EDR products. Recently, the EDR LTM team has constructed a new website named AlaskaWatch, which aims to assist operational forecasters and other users whose mission focuses on monitoring changes in meteorological and geophysical conditions in the Alaska region. AlaskaWatch takes advantage of multiple daily overpasses of polar orbiting satellites in areas of high latitudes to create composite images of VIIRS imagery products for the Alaska region. The addition of NOAA-20 to JPSS also increases the temporal resolution of these images due to the fifty minute interval between Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 overpasses, enabling phenomena with shorter timescales to be tracked more accurately.

This report will detail the methods used to create the composite images displayed on the site. An overview of the products currently available to users on AlaskaWatch will be included, as well as examples of images from select products. Finally, a list of all derived products that are planned to be added to the web site will be provided.