An Update to the NRL NexSat Webpage

The Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey California (NRL-MRY) has been providing the global community with state of the art satellite imagery via its “NexSat” website since 2004. Our Next Generation Satellite (NexSat) web product suite has evolved into a “one-stop shop” resource by hosting imagery products derived from a global network of geostationary and low earth orbiting satellite, most recently including sensors on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite. NexSat assisted in previewing (pre-launch) and then demonstrating (post-launch) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor data records in the form of multiple satellite imagery products. Currently, NRL-MRY accesses, processes, and stores ~21 Terabytes of VIIRS data together with ~1.4 Terabytes of data from 30+ other sensors. The aforementioned datasets are accessed in near real time (latency under 2 hours), thanks to our collaborations with the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies Direct Readout and Product and Evaluation and Test Elements (CIMSS-DR and CIMSS-PEATE), and the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC). NexSat includes domains that cover the continental US (CONUS), South America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Australia, the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. NexSat also provides products over the Arctic and Antarctic to support growing operational interest and to prepare for an ice-free Arctic summer. NexSat leverages from a variety of sponsored activities including VIIRS cal/val efforts and US Navy funded work units. Public outreach for NexSat consists of social networking, satellite and product training, and active participation in educational, operational, and weather-related field campaigns. NRL-MRY supports education and training by supplying NexSat-based materials to the COMET program.

This talk will focus on the following: a) Present recent additions to NexSat that includes organic (in-house developed) VIIRS products: aerosol optical depth, dust, and several nighttime applications featuring the VIIRS Day Night Band (DNB). b) Using the DNB data, the VIIRS near constant contrast EDR will be compared to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) low light visible imagery during nighttime and day/night terminator conditions. c) Finally, we will describe NexSat's role in social media and its outreach efforts to the National Weather Service in Puerto Rico and several field campaigns within the US.