Expanding the GOES-R Proving Ground to Include Broadcasters

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R will provide a great leap forward in observing capabilities, but will also offer a significant challenge to ensure that users are ready to exploit the vast improvements in spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. To ensure user readiness, forecasters and other users must have access to prototype advanced products well before launch, and have the opportunity to provide feedback to product developers and computing and communications managers. The operational assessment is critical to ensure that the end products and NOAA's computing and communications systems truly meet their needs in a rapidly evolving environment.

The GOES-R Proving Ground (PG) currently engages the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast, watch and warning community and other agency users in pre-operational demonstrations of select products with GOES-R attributes (enhanced spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution). In the PG, developers and forecasters test and apply algorithms for new GOES-R satellite data and products using proxy and simulated data sets, including observations from current and future satellite instruments, lightning networks, and computer simulated products.

At the 7th GOES Users' Conference in October, 2011, participating broadcasters recommended including the broadcast community in more GOES-R activities including the Proving Ground. One specific recommendation is to include broadcasters in the Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Experiment at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma. A partnership between the GOES-R Program and the broadcast community could provide new and exciting products for television viewers and help educate the public on the uses of satellite technology. The improved imagery of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the GOES-R series, coupled with information from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), will offer many ways to better visualize for broadcast applications. There are challenges that need to be addressed in introducing some of the new capabilities, such as how to overcome the loss of resolution on television when imagery is remapped over a color map base. Also, vendors almost never send rapid scan imagery to the broadcast meteorologists. Training is another key issue to ensure that broadcasters are comfortable interpreting the satellite data in regards to severe weather.

This presentation will provide samples of products available in the Proving Ground now and in the future, and how the broadcast community can access the information and use it to be ready for the GOES-R era.