User-Centric Distribution of Satellite Products from GOES-R and JPSS

The transfer of huge volumes of data files en masse from new weather satellites like GOES-R and S-NPP to fill the information troughs of priority users is no longer an efficient model of real-time data management. Such a model, which could drop terabytes of data daily into local data stores will burden users with the “searching for a needle in a haystack” problem. The NOAA/NESDIS Environmental Satellite Processing and Distribution System (ESPDS) coming on line in 2015 provides a level of satellite product selectivity unseen before, will afford user-centric data transfer efficiencies, and a savings of bandwidth. ESPDS will provide an intuitive interface for selecting only the files needed for the weather or environmental event in question, from the entire universe of NOAA's real-time satellite product holdings. The ability to subset selectable product files by geographic region of interest for specific periods in time means forecasters and others can be delivered high information-content files only when and where they need them. This presentation will explain the user-centric functionality of the ESPDS currently under development.