Worldwide Navy satellite meteorology applications via the Internet

Satellite meteorological products potentially fulfill numerous requirements for operational Navy applications around the globe and at many spatial/time scales. The broad spectrum of needs dictates the use of both polar orbiter and geostationary satellite sensors, since both contain inherent advantages depending on the specific applications. The Naval Research Laboratory's Marine Meteorology Division in Monterey, CA (NRL-MRY) thus ingests and processes four geostationary satellites and two sets of global passive microwave data in order to create multi-sensor/channel/platform products tailored to specific focus areas.

The Satellite Meteorological Applications Section has created a wealth of R&D products now available to both Navy and academic users via the World Wide Web (WWW). The web page: http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/sat_products.html contains near real time examples for a variety of value- added products; a) imagery and animation over specific geographic domains, b) low cloud detection 24 hours/day, c) cloud classification, d) rainrates over synoptic regions using combined SSM/I-IR method, e) cloud top heights, f) tropical cyclone centered multi-sensor imagery that follows storms in real time, and g) geostationary cloud and water vapor-tracked winds.

Each R&D application module meets a specific Naval need and the real-time nature of the web page enables all users to relate the product to current conditions. The real-time nature and user friendly web distribution permits immediate feedback from the users and significantly shortens the lifecycle from first concept design to a robust operational algorithm or product.

A live Internet demonstration of the NRL-MRY satellite meteorology web page will be included, with specific emphasis on two or three topics of significant weather interest on the day of the presentation.