High-resolution simulated ABI datasets used for GOES-R research activities

The next generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), beginning with GOES-R in a few years, will contain improved spacecraft and instrument technologies capable of observing the earth's atmosphere with greater accuracy and at higher resolutions than current GOES satellites. The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is heavily involved in GOES-R satellite algorithm development, risk reduction, data processing, and measurement capability demonstration activities. To support this work, an end-to-end processing system that utilizes proxy top of atmosphere radiance datasets has been developed. High-resolution numerical model simulations are used to generate simulated atmospheric profile datasets that are subsequently passed through a sophisticated forward radiative transfer model to generate proxy top of atmosphere radiances for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) spectral bands.

In this paper, results from several large-scale, high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations will be presented. Proxy ABI radiances generated from the model-simulated data are a critical component of the GOES-R Proving Ground and GRAFIIR projects that are used to demonstrate future ABI-derived cloud and stability products for the operational community and to test the sensitivity of various retrieval algorithms to potential errors in the ABI radiances. Representative examples of how these projects use the proxy radiance data will be shown.