AWIPS II Client-Side RGB Product Generation in the GOES-R Era

AWIPS II Client-side RGB Product Generation in the GOES-R Era

¹Kevin M. McGrath, ²Emily Berndt, ³Chad Gravelle, ⁴Lee Byerle, ²Andrew Molthan, ⁵Matt Smith

¹Jacobs Technology, ESSSA Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

²NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

³NWS Operations Proving Ground/University of Wisconsin-CIMSS, Kansas City, MO

⁴Integrity Applications Incorporated, NWS Headquarters Office of Observations, Silver Spring, MD

⁵University of Alabama in Huntsville at NASA/SPoRT, Huntsville, AL

Forecaster preparations for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16 (GOES-16) and Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) satellites are supported by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center. SPoRT has played an active role within the GOES-R and JPSS Proving Grounds to prepare forecasters by transitioning and assessing proxy imagery from current polar-orbiting and geostationary instruments to the new capabilities available with the operationalization of next-generation satellites. SPoRT’s past and current activities include the delivery of pre-generated multispectral Red-Green-Blue (RGB) imagery to National Weather Service (NWS) local forecast offices and National Centers. However, this process is costly from processing and bandwidth perspectives and introduces product latency.

In the GOES-R era, the increased number of channels as well as increased spatial and temporal resolution suggest the generation of the RGB products be performed locally to reduce costly overhead processing and product latency. SPoRT, with collaborators from the Experimental Products Development Team, developed the capability for “client-side” production of RGB products within the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS II). These products are generated on-demand, which eliminates the computing overhead of pre-generating products, reduces latency for forecasters, and reduces the amount of data being disseminated to NWS offices. Client-side production of RGB products are made possible by the availability of all 16 bands of the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) within AWIPS II. Testing of client-side RGB product generation was conducted at the Huntsville, AL NWS forecast office, in the Alaska NWS Region, and at the Operations Proving Ground (OPG).

These capabilities have been integrated into the NWS Total Operational Weather Readiness-Satellites (TOWR-S) AWIPS II configuration suite made available to all NWS forecast offices for the display of ABI derived RGB products. This presentation highlights the activities leading up to and including the operationalization of GOES-16 ABI client-side RGB products within AWIPS II.