A Day in the Life Using 1-Minute Satellite Imagery: An Operational Forecaster Perspective

During May and June of 2015, the National Weather Service (NWS) Operations Proving Ground (OPG) completed formal evaluations of the impact high-temporal satellite imagery has on NWS warning decision making. Using satellite imagery from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-14 Super Rapid Scan Operations for GOES-R (SRSOR) experiment, participants simulated the role of the warning forecaster. To keep the evaluation as realistic and focused as possible, participants were given the SRSOR imagery along with datasets and tools NWS forecasters normally use during warning operations. In this evaluation, participants were given two tasks: to monitor their NWS County Warning Areas for convective development and issue convective warnings if necessary. The goals of the evaluation were to assess the usefulness of 1-minute satellite imagery and the ease of assimilating that imagery into the warning decision-making process. In addition to providing an overview of the evaluation and simulated warning operations at the OPG, this presentation will chronologically walk through a “day in the life” as the operational forecaster using 1-minute satellite imagery. The chronology will begin assessing the state of the atmosphere as the sun rises on the SRSOR domain and end as the setting sun illuminates overshooting tops associated with severe thunderstorms across Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. As the day progresses, animations will show atmospheric features and process important to the warning forecaster that are difficult , if not impossible, to diagnose without high-temporal satellite imagery. Some of these include the ability to understand where convective inhibition is weak due to cirrus spissatus clouds (i.e., orphan anvils), to determine if thunderstorms are rooted in the boundary layer or elevated, and to anticipate convective evolution prior to signals on WSR-88D data.