The next generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), beginning with GOES-R, 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 (TOA) radiance datasets has been developed. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is a critical component of this system since high-resolution model simulations are used to generate simulated atmospheric profile datasets that are subsequently passed through a sophisticated forward radiative transfer model to generate proxy TOA radiances in the GOES-R spectral range.

In this paper, we will describe recent simulation activities, including a massive WRF model simulation that was performed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The simulation contains 3 nested domains configured to represent the anticipated GOES-R scanning regions (i.e. full disk, CONUS, and mesoscale). The outermost domain covers the entire GOES-R viewing area (55° S – 55° N; 160° W – 5° E) with 6-km horizontal grid spacing, while the inner domains cover the CONUS and mesoscale regions with 2-km and 667-m resolution, respectively. Proxy TOA radiances generated for this case study provide an important opportunity to realistically demonstrate GOES-R measurement capabilities.