Using GOES-R Demonstration Products to Bridge the Gap Between Severe Weather Watches and Warnings for the 20 May 2013 Moore, OK Tornado Outbreak

The GOES-R Proving Ground program is helping prepare the satellite user community for data, imagery, and products from the next generation of NOAA geostationary satellites that will include improved spectral and spatial resolution, as well as higher temporal refresh rates. Pre-operational product developments were accomplished employing data from the current series of GOES satellites, higher-resolution data provided by polar-orbiting and EUMETSAT geostationary satellites, and model-simulated satellite data. The research-to-operations loop is completed through interaction and feedback between developers (e.g., CIMSS, ESSC, SPoRT) and users (e.g., NWS forecasters) at various NOAA Testbeds and Proving Grounds.

This presentation focuses on GOES-R demonstration products that have been designed to allow forecasters to better monitor the atmospheric conditions preceding and associated with the development of deep convection, a time period that often occurs between the issuance of National Weather Service convective watches and warnings. Results from ongoing Proving Grounds tests have shown substantial synergy between some of these products, including the NearCast Model that provides short-term forecasts (1-9 hour) of convective instability using moisture retrievals from the GOES sounder, the Convective Initiation algorithm that reduces 0-2 hour probabilistic forecasts of cloud objects reaching 35 dBZ, and the Convective Cloud-Top Cooling product that monitors cloud-top cooling rates of immature, vertically growing convective clouds. Once convection develops, the pseudo Geostationary Lightning Mapper products can enhance situational awareness for the severe weather warning forecaster. Examples from the 20 May 2013 Moore, OK tornado outbreak will demonstrate how the fusion of these future real-time GOES-R convection products could have been used in the time period between convective watches and warnings. The concept of a "convective toolbox" will also be presented as a means of assisting the NWS in bridging the gap between convective watches and warnings.