The GOES-R Proving Ground: Results from the 2012 Demonstrations and Future Plans

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R will provide a significant advancement in observing capabilities with an enhanced imager, space weather instruments and a new lightning mapper. These new observations offer a significant challenge: users must be ready to exploit the significant improvements in spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. To ensure user readiness, forecasters and other users must have access to prototype advanced products and training well before launch, and have the opportunity to provide feedback to product developers and computing and communications managers. A prelaunch operational assessment is critical to ensure that the end products and NOAA's computing and communications systems truly meet user needs in a rapidly evolving environment.

The GOES-R Proving Ground (PG) engages the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast, watch, and warning communities and other agencies and external users in pre-operational demonstrations of select products with GOES-R attributes (enhanced spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution). In the PG, developers and forecasters 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, VIIRS, CrIS, LIS), lightning networks, and computer simulated products.

The products tested in 2012 included: cloud and moisture imagery, cloud phase, cloud/snow discrimination, low cloud and fog, convective initiation, volcanic ash detection and height, sulfur dioxide detection, enhanced “V”/overshooting top detection, hurricane intensity estimates, red-green-blue (RGB) air mass product, Saharan air layer (SAL) product, super rapid scan imagery, tropical cyclone rapid intensification index, lightning detection, and a “nearcasting product”. This presentation will show examples of the proxy and simulated GOES-R products and provide feedback on their operational value from Proving Ground participants at the Storm Prediction Center, the National Hurricane Center, Aviation Weather Center, Ocean Prediction Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, the NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch, and from the six NWS regions.