Polar Orbiting Weather Satellite Proving Ground: Facilitating Broad and Optimal Use of Global Direct Broadcast Data

In close partnership with NOAA and NASA of United States, EUMETSAT of European Union and National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) of China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) of University of Wisconsin-Madison is embarking upon demonstrating the operational uses of both research and operational weather satellite data to support operational users such as NOAA's National Weather Service and other federal agencies.

Over the past many years, polar orbiting satellite systems have employed direct broadcast as a primary downlink to afford users the opportunity to meet their real-time (within half an hour) applications in various disciplines. Our companion paper covers the likely examples of global impact of polar orbiting weather satellite data and their various uses and applications from developed and developing countries such as United States, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, South Africa, and Brazil, just to name just a few. This talk, however, will mainly focus on the proving ground activities dedicated to facilitate and demonstrate the use of direct broadcast data collected from the current NASA Terra and Aqua, EUMETSAT METOP-A, NSMC FY-3A and the future global joint polar orbiting satellite system such as NPP/JPSS, METOP-B and FY-3B series.

Special attention will be paid to the seamless interface with the operational end users in the United States, especially those of NWS field offices and other emerging government offices which have growing interest in leveraging the real time capability of NPP/JPSS, METOP and FY-3 systems.