Atmospheric Applications From The Advanced Baseline Imager

The next generation Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) a NASA administered and NOAA funded program, designed and built by ITT Geospatial Systems for the GOES-R series of metrological satellites will have a substantial amount of benefits for the weather community at large. Scheduled to launch in 2015, the imager will provide data that will be used for meteorological and environmental applications. The applications include atmospheric, oceanographic, climate, and hazard prevention products. In comparison to the current GOES imager, there are significant differences that allow the ABI to monitor and measure data at a higher rate and resolution. With 16 spectral bands, resolution as high as 0.5 kilometers, and images updated as much as every 30 seconds, ABI represents a giant leap in capability over the current geostationary weather satellites. The additional bands alone will allow for aerosol detection, visibility estimation, the detection of thin cirrus clouds, snow/cloud discrimination, cloud particle sizes and properties, snow detection, detection of volcanic dust clouds and the monitoring of upper level dynamics. The list of sample uses for each of the spectral bands is exhaustive.

While the differences in capabilities between ABI and the current GOES imagers are well known and documented, there is less comprehension in the community on how these capabilities will translate into new products and improvements for weather forecasting, climate applications and hazard detection and mitigation. This presentation will investigate some of the imagery radiance and atmospheric applications/products, as well as how they will be produced/used and who the potential users may be. In particular, this poster will highlight the improvement of rainfall estimations, the improvement of hurricane location and intensity, and the improved monitoring of convection.