VIIRS in AWIPS: Supporting Operational Forecasters

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) project has funded the inclusion of Soumi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) in support of operational National Weather Service (NWS) Forecasters. The focus of this effort is to provide VIIRS data to high latitude regions (Alaska), where there are more frequent polar overpasses, and where the geostationary data large view angles make it less effective in monitoring small scale events. Because the Suomi NPP data is available via direct broadcast (DB), it can be acquired by X/L band antennas and processed in near-real time using the free Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP), which transforms VIIRS raw data into SDRs identical to the IDPS VIIRS SDRs. Working closely with the University of Alaska – Fairbanks Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) team, the CSPP software is running operationally with products remapped and fed to the forecast offices for display in AWIPS. Along with the installation, forecaster training was provided to help operations personnel understand the kinds of events where the high resolution data will be most useful. The high quality of the VIIRS data, the improved spatial resolution and coverage as well as the new day/night band, point to operational use of the data over all AWIPS domains. Examples are provided from different domains using direct broadcast data over Alaska, CONUS (collected and processed at SSEC), as well as Hawaii (antenna installation summer 2012).