NWS Pacific Region: Preparing for GOES-R with Himawari-8

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) and the Joint Polar Processing System (JPSS) programs support a proving ground concept to demonstrate the capabilities and utilities of the instruments and algorithms prior to launch and operational deployment. The proving ground ensures that the primary users of the new generation satellites, meteorologists at the National Weather Service (NWS), are easily and immediately able to incorporate the improved and increased satellite information into the forecast process. In order to accomplish this for meteorologists in the Pacific Basin, who are heavily reliant on satellite imagery and products due to the lack of proximal in-situ observations, the NWS Pacific Region operates a Visiting Scientist Program (VSP).

The VSP is designed to bring satellite science product developers to interface directly with the field once the science product is suitable for field evaluation. The VSP leads to two outcomes as a result of this. First, the product developer is able to make improvements to the science product based on forecaster feedback. Second, the forecasters gain increased knowledge about the capabilities of the satellite and science product. The VSP will be particularly beneficial to both product developers and forecasters with the launch of Japan's new Himawari satellite to observe the Western Pacific Basin. Himawari-8 has an imager very similar to the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI).

This presentation will focus on the proving ground activities in NWS Pacific Region, including the VSP, and outline plans for how Himawari-8 imagery will be incorporated into the forecast process to prepare NWS meteorologists for the capabilities of GOES-R and ABI.