GOES sounder single field of view products

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) sounders have provided quality hourly radiances and derived products over the continental U.S. and adjacent oceans for approximately 10 years. Specific sounder products generated include: clear-sky radiances, precipitable water (PW), vertical profiles of temperature and moisture, surface skin temperature, cloud-top properties, total column ozone, and atmospheric stability indices such as Lifted Index (LI) and Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE). The resolution of the current operational GOES sounder products is approximately 50km2, with the exception of the cloud-top products, which are generated at full resolution (approximately 10km2). The products are provided in a variety of formats including text, Binary Universal FoRm (BUFR), and Derived Product Image (DPI) format. The precipitable water and clear-sky radiance products are assimilated into the operational numerical weather prediction models (NWP) run by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC). In addition, a number of the derived products are routinely sent to the National Weather Service's (NWS) Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS).

Historically, many of these products have employed spatial averaging to reduce the instrument noise. For example, a 5x5 field-of-view (FOV) approach has traditionally been used for the operational generation of the GOES-Sounder retrievals and corresponding DPI. However, because of less noisy data with subsequent instruments as well as more powerful computers, all these products can now be generated on a Single field-of-view (SFOV) basis. In addition, the progression to higher resolution NWP models and the need for higher resolution satellite products on AWIPS have led to new requirements for higher spatial resolution GOES sounder products. This paper will highlight the work done in the Office of Research and Applications (ORA) and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) to provide GOES sounder retrieved products at the full SFOV resolution (nominally 10km2). These highest resolution GOES sounder products offer better coverage and improved depiction of gradient information when compared to the current lower spatial resolution operational products. Attention has been given not only to the quality of the products, but also to their timeliness, which operational users deem to be a critical requirement for these products.

A new GOES Merged Sounder Product System (MSPS) has been designed and developed to generate the entire suite of full resolution GOES sounder products in a consolidated, and scientifically consistent, manner. The GOES MSPS product system will replace three independent operational GOES sounder product systems. The GOES MSPS is more streamlined, leading to more timely products. Furthermore, it is more flexible in that new DPI products can easily be added and distributed to the user community. Finally, the system is easier to maintain given that it consolidates several operational GOES sounder product production systems into one. Plans call for the GOES MSPS to replace the existing operational GOES product systems in the fall of 2005.