GOES-R proving ground: ensuring user readiness

A proving ground is a place where technologies and ideas are tested and proven before they are finalized and incorporated into critical operations. The key mission of the GOES-R Proving Ground is to demonstrate new satellite observing data, products and capabilities in operational NOAA Offices. This key activity facilitates the transfer of new capabilities into NOAA operations in an efficient and reliable manner. This program directly addresses the concerns raised by various studies that identified the major challenges posed when trying to move new products into NOAA's operational programs, also known as trying to “Cross the Valley of Death”.

In 2008, the GOES-R Proving Ground (PG) was established with funding from the GOES-R Program Office and support from NWS Training Division and the Cooperative Institute of Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) in Madison Wisconsin, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2009, the Proving Ground expanded to include NASA's SPoRT program in Huntsville, AL and NOAA's Hazardous Weather Test Bed in Norman, OK. In the 2009 Spring Experiment at the NWS Storm Prediction Center, 3 potential GOES-R products were evaluated as part of the Proving Ground Project, including Convective Initiation, a hail product and total lightning from ground based networks.

In the GOES-R PG, developers and forecasters will 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 (MODIS, AIRS, IASI, SEVIRI, NAST-I, NPP/VIIRS/CrIS, LIS), lightning networks, and computer simulated products. The PG will test and validate data processing and distribution systems and the applications of these products in operational settings. Additionally developers and forecasters will test and apply display techniques and decision aid tools in an operational setting. To better familiarize forecasters with the data from GOES-R, a weather event simulator will be developed in coordination with NWS Training Division. A key component of the proving ground is a two-way interaction where researchers introduce new products to forecasters and forecasters providing feedback and ideas for improved or new products.