Cross Assessment of Radiosonde, NWP, and Satellite Profiles Using NPROVS

The NOAA (sounding) PROducts Validation System, NPROVS, was developed at NOAA NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) in support of the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) EDR calibration/validation (cal/val) program. NPROVS provides the capability of validating atmospheric profiles through inter-comparisons with other satellite products and numerical weather prediction (NWP) data respectively collocated to radiosondes. Radiosondes include conventional and special observations such as GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN), satellite synchronized (funded by JPSS) and the NWS Sterling (Va.) Field Support Center (SFSC).

This work focuses on the cross-assessment of various atmospheric profile suites from polar-orbiting, geostationary (GOES-R) and GNSS-RO satellites based on collocations with conventional and special radiosondes using NPROVS. Assessments include results from collocations which include dual radiosonde launches, for example, simultaneous Vaisala RS92 and RS41 observations, special cases of NOAA NWS sponsored radiosonde inter-comparisons in support of planned instrument migrations and estimation of respective profile uncertainty for collocations containing GRUAN observations. The product suites compared include the the NOAA Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) from S-NPP (J1 as available) and MetOp, EUMETSAT products form MetOp, GNSSRO from COSMIC and GRAS and NWP for NOAA-GFS and ECMWF. Results feature the long-term monitoring of atmospheric profile differences (2+years) using the newly developed NARCS Atmospheric graphical analysis tool.