GOES-R Convective Product Demonstrations at HPC, OPC, SAB, and TAFB

The GOES-R Proving Ground (PG) Program was organized to demonstrate the next generation geostationary satellite products and capabilities that will be incorporated into NOAA operations. Starting in July 2012, proxy GOES-R convective products were demonstrated for forecasters at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC), the Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch (TAFB), and the Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB) of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). These pre-operational demonstrations allowed forecasters to evaluate and validate satellite convective products from research and operational satellite instruments (MODIS, SEVIRI, and GOES) including the Overshooting Top Detection algorithm (Bedka et al., JAMC, 2010), the Convective Initiation product from the University of Alabama-Huntsville, and the Lightning Detection Products provided by NASA SPoRT. In evaluating these products, the forecasters were exposed to the strengths, limitations, and constraints of the new GOES-R convective products prior to launch and provided valuable feedback to the product developers. The product developers then had an opportunity to use these evaluations to improve the products before they are incorporated into operations. This presentation discusses the various uses of these satellite convective products at these National Centers and provides feedback on how the forecasters benefitted from the additional information when making short-term forecasts.