Exploring Satellite Observations in Virtual Reality

To produce skillful and timely forecasts, weather forecasters must have the proper tools to display and interpret an ever increasing variety and quantity of data. Data products range from point location measurements at surface stations, to vertically resolved profiles of the atmospheric state derived from satellite observations and numerical weather prediction models. Current methods to interrogate datasets require forecasters to efficiently switch between multi-monitor displays, often with multiple panes on each monitor. Virtual reality offers an alternative approach so that users can visualize data while maintaining the full 3-dimensional context of the observations. To demonstrate the utility of VR as a forecasting tool, we have developed the capability to display and analyze a variety of weather datasets in an immersive VR demonstration. Our selection of datasets includes satellite observations of radiance, cloud height, and wind speed from the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), and experimental atmospheric profile products from JPSS and other low-earth orbit satellites. This presentation will give an overview of the capability of the demonstration by focusing on an Atmospheric River event that caused intense flooding and snow storms along the western coast of North America during February 2019.