NOAA/NWS Training for User Readiness for GOES-R and JPSS

New instruments on GOES-R and JPSS are starting to provide a great leap forward in environmental observing capabilities.  The GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will provide 5 times faster scanning, a fourfold improvement in spatial resolution, 11 additional spectral channels and improved bit depth resolution over the current GOES Imager.  GOES-R will also host a totally new instrument, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) plus advanced Space Weather Instruments. The JPSS satellite will provide Day/Night Band plus many other channels and NUCAPS soundings of interest to NWS field forecasters.   To ensure users are ready, the NWS and their partners in NESDIS and NOAA’s cooperative institutes have developed a comprehensive training plan for operational forecasters.

The training plan consists of several phases, Foundation Course, Application Phase, Archived Exercise Cases, Make it Stick reviews and Continuous Learning.   Implementing the plan is underway and is continuing through launch of GOES-R in November 2016, JPSS in January 2017, and into 2018 with the launch of GOES-S.  

The goal of the training plan is to ensure that forecasters are ready to integrate GOES-R and JPSS data and products into forecast and warning operations.  Foundational training will be available just after launch utilizing examples from the Japanese Himawari satellite and will consist of a series of 38 short modules for a total of 8-9 hours of learning.  Application training will be prepared when operational data becomes available from both satellites later in 2017.  After forecasters complete the training modules they will be able to:   1) understand the differences between legacy GOES and GOES-R observations; 2) interpret and utilize GOES-R ABI imagery and derived products in the preparation of NWS forecasts and warnings; 3) utilize the GLM in forecast and warning operations; 4) understand the fundamentals of Red-Green-Blue (RGB) satellite product techniques and apply these to the identification of meteorological phenomena; and 5)  utilize the JPSS Day/Night Band, derived products and NUCAPS soundings.

There are several groups responsible for developing, delivering and updating the training, including the NWS Office of the Chief Learning Officer (mainly the Warning Decision Training Division and the Forecast Decision Training Division), NESDIS GOES-R and JPSS programs, the Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training (VISIT), the satellite liaisons at NOAA’s cooperative institutes (CIRA, CIMSS, CIMMS, CICS), NASA SPoRT and UCAR’s Cooperative Program for Meteorology Education and Training (COMET).