NOAA New Generation Satellite Capabilities for Improved Severe Storm Forecasts and Warnings (Invited Presentation)

The next generation of GOES, the GOES-R series, launched in November 2016 offers improved spacecraft and instrument technology to provide more accurate, detailed and timely detection of severe storms and high impact environmental phenomena, and at the same time significant opportunities for quickly creating, updating, and disseminating data and products in near real-time to produce more accurate forecasts and warnings. The data and products will first be available to users for evaluation in spring 2017.  The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will provide three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage than the current system with rapid scan imagery of severe storms potentially available as often as every thirty seconds in mesoscale mode. The new Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) provides continuous total lightning detection and mapping of in-cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes with only twenty second latency or less. The ABI and GLM will prove very useful for identifying developing hazardous and severe thunderstorms, monitoring storm intensification and tracking their evolution. Used in tandem with radar, other satellite, and surface observations, the GOES-R data offers great potential to increase lead time for severe storm warnings and improve public safety.  This presentation will highlight the GOES-R capabilities and recent demonstrations with forecasters at the GOES-R Proving Ground.