The GOES-R Proving Ground at NOAA's Storm Prediction Center and Hazardous Weather Testbed

The GOES-R Proving Ground's activities at NOAA's Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) in the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, OK provide a unique opportunity to interact with and study new products available on the next generation GOES-R satellite in an operational framework. The overall goal of the proving ground is to provide forecasters with the knowledge and experience needed to effectively use the products in day to day operations once they become available. This past year during the GOES-R Proving Ground's Spring Experiment at the SPC, this goal was met through constant interaction with the products in real-time forecasting situations by both forecasters and product developers. Constructive feedback given by forecasters during the Spring Experiment and throughout the year is provided to product developers in order to facilitate required improvements to the products.

GOES-R proxy products focusing on detecting and forecasting convection, lightning and severe weather were studied this year in a broad range of forecasting strategies, from short term convective outlooks to real-time nowcasting exercises. The products available currently at the SPC include a 15-minute cloud-top cooling and 0-1 hour convective nowcast product from the University of Wisconsin – Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (UW-CIMSS), a 10-km total lightning GLM proxy from NASA's Short-term Prediction Research Transition (SPoRT) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), and a 0-1 hour severe hail probability forecast from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA).

The presentation will focus on the GOES-R Proving Ground's activities at the SPC, preliminary findings from this past year's experiment, product improvements and case examples, forecaster interactions, and goals for the GOES-R Proving Ground's activities in years to come including additional experiment activities throughout the year.