CIRA's current and future contributions to the GOES-R Proving Ground as we approach the launch of GOES-R

The GOES-R Proving Ground (PG) was conceived as a way to prepare forecasters for the big changes that will come with the launch of GOES-R. For the last several years CIRA, along with the other PG partners at NASA SPoRT and CIMSS, have been interacting with forecasters at the various National Centers and National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). While the PG effort has had some setbacks over the years including bandwidth limitations at some WFOs and dealing with the transition to AWIPS II and other competing programs, many forecasters have been exposed to the new bands and products that will be available in the GOES-R era. This should make the transition much smoother and the formal GOES-R training that is to come more effective.

In this presentation we will review the current GOES-R PG activities at CIRA and note some of the issues and successes that have occurred. Then we will look ahead to what future role the PG might have after the launch of GOES-R. Although many new bands and products will be introduced to forecasters as soon as the GOES-R data is made available, there will still be many other potential products that could be useful. Assessing these possible products will remain an effective role of the PG, with the advantage over today's PG demonstrations the ability to use the real GOES-R data to generate the products, which should make them more attractive and useful to forecasters. We will present some of the products that CIRA hopes to test after the launch through the GOES-R PG and what role they might play in helping forecasters.