National Academies Press: OpenBook

Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations (2003)

Chapter: Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations

« Previous: Appendix A: Previous NRC Recommendations on Transitioning Research to Operations
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

B
Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations

INFRARED SOUNDERS

Infrared sounders provide information on the vertical structure of temperature and water vapor. These soundings have become a routine and essential part of day-to-day numerical atmospheric modeling around the world. This case study outlines the unplanned and long pathway of infrared sounders from research to operations.

Research Origin/Heritage

Temperature soundings have been obtained from weather satellites since the late 1960s when the NASA environmental research satellite Nimbus, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite, and the Improved TIROS Operational Satellite (ITOS) flew early research versions of infrared spectrometers and microwave radiometers. They were flown by NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and NOAA because the climate and weather research community wanted to find a way to observe temperature and humidity profiles over data-sparse regions. The missions were flown as research and development (R&D) efforts, but with the objective of having their data used in operational weather forecasting. In the case of the DMSP, the Air Force used operational systems to fly R&D sensors such as the sounder. In the case of the civil satellites, NASA flew the R&D sensors on its satellites (Nimbus) and made their research sensor data available to the ESSA (Environmental Science Services Administration)—the predecessor to NOAA—for operational use. The

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

TABLE B.1 Chronology of Early Satellite Sounders Flown on NASA and NOAA Satellites

Instrument

Satellite

Primary Period of Operation

SIRS-A

Nimbus-3

1969-1971

SIRS-B

Nimbus-4

1970-1972

ITPR, NEMS, SCR

Nimbus-5

1972-1975

VTPR

ITOS series

1972-1979

HIRS, SCAMS, PMR

Nimbus-6

1975-1979

HIRS-2, MSU, PMR

NOAA series

1978-1998

VAS

GOES series

1980-1996

HIRS-3, AMSU

NOAA series

1998-present

NOTE: The acronyms are spelled out in Appendix E.

SOURCE: Kalnay et al. (1996).

willingness to use the data in operational forecasts, however, involved negotiations between the data providers (NOAA) and the data users (the National Meteorological Center [NMC]). In 1969, the NMC director told a NOAA scientist, referring to satellite soundings, “If you can make them look like radiosonde data we can use them.”1 It would be many years involving much study before the satellite-derived soundings would be fully employed in operational numerical weather prediction. It is worth noting that NMC began to experiment with the operational sounding data from the very first sounder, the SIRS (Solar Infrared Radiation Station)-A, flown on the Nimbus-3 satellite, less than 2 months after its launch. Data used for the National Center for Atmospheric Research/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCAR/NCEP) Reanalysis Project reflect sensors flown on NASA and NOAA satellites as indicated in Table B.1 (Kalnay et al., 1996).

The first infrared High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS-2) and Pressure-Modulator Radiometer (PMR) and Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) sounding system flown together on an operational satellite was the Television Infrared Observational Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS), which began flying on TIROS-N in October 1978. TOVS data were made available to the global numerical modeling community in 1979, with the launch of NOAA-6. One of two different types of algorithms was used to transform the sounder radiance observations into temperature and moisture values at given levels. One of these algorithms was based on statistical regression relations between the temperature and moisture values at specific vertical levels of the atmosphere and the radiances observed within all the spectral channels of the sounding radiometers. This was the method used with SIRS-A, Nimbus-6, and the early NOAA TOVS data. Alternatively, a

1  

Personal communication from Ronald McPherson, Executive Director, American Meteorological Society, to committee member George L. Frederick.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

nonstatistical matrix inverse method (i.e., a one-dimensional variational analysis method), which used the forecast as a first guess in the retrieval, was used throughout various periods of the satellite data processing, beginning with SIRS-B in 1970. In either case, these “retrievals,” as they were called, of temperature and moisture values were used in numerical model runs without consistent positive impact, except in the data-sparse Southern Hemisphere, until the mid-1990s, at which time researchers discovered a better way to use the observations. Rather than trying to assimilate the temperature retrievals derived from the radiances, they assimilated the radiances themselves using a new three-dimensional variational analysis technique. The resulting improvement was dramatic, as reflected in Figures B.1 and B.2. Figure B.2 shows root-mean-square (RMS) observational increments (differences between

FIGURE B.1 Impact of the direct assimilation of radiances on the 5-day forecast 500-hPa anomaly correlations in the Northern Hemisphere, June through August. The improvement in 1995 was due to the assimilation of radiances from infrared sounders. SOURCES: Steve Lilly, National Centers for Environmental Prediction; Kalnay et al. (1998). Reprinted with permission.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

FIGURE B.2 RMS difference (M) between 6-hour forecasts of 500-hPa heights and radiosonde observations. SOURCES: Steve Lilly, National Centers for Environmental Prediction; Kalnay et al. (1998). Reprinted with permission.

6-hour forecasts and rawinsonde observations) for 500-hPa heights. The large improvements in 1995 are associated with the direct assimilation of radiances.

The reason why the satellite soundings had little impact on the forecast was that the satellite retrievals were treated as poor-quality radiosondes (i.e., point measurements) rather than as high-quality volume measurements (i.e., what the radiances represent). By assimilating the radiances rather than the retrievals, the proper spatial resolution of the data was necessarily represented in the model, thereby avoiding the prior aliasing of smaller-scale features with low spatial resolution data (i.e., the satellite soundings). It was not until the data user fully understood the characteristics of the satellite observations that a technique was devised for the proper assimilation of these data in their analysis/forecast operation.

Transition Process

There was no clear starting point for the transition from research on infrared sounders to their use in operational service and numerical weather prediction models. Early attempts by NMC to use the retrieved soundings occurred immedi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

ately after the first observations were made, and the impact on the forecasts was slight, or even negative, over data-rich regions. Eventually, by the mid-1990s, researchers found a much better way of using the observations—assimilating the radiances directly in the models—and for the first time the infrared sounding observations showed a consistent positive impact in the Northern Hemisphere (Kalnay et al., 1998).

Operational Status

Infrared sounders have become a valuable part of the global observing system, and the observations from the NOAA polar orbiters are now being used by all major weather-forecasting centers in the world. Using the radiances directly in models through three-dimensional and four-dimensional variational analyses has been so successful that the accuracy of forecasts in the Southern Hemisphere has approached that of forecasts in the Northern Hemisphere (Figure B.2). Plans are under way to incorporate data from infrared sounding sensors on geostationary satellites, thus increasing the temporal frequency of data over the region scanned. The assimilation of satellite soundings over Northern Hemisphere land areas, not done now so as to avoid a potential conflict with radiosonde information, should also improve forecasts as a result of enhanced spatial and temporal resolution of the analyses used to initialize the prediction process. Advanced infrared sounders to be placed on future geostationary satellites (e.g., Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer [GIFTS]) will be able to vertically resolve the wind field, as well as provide temperature and moisture profiles with high spatial and temporal resolution, thereby providing improved observations of atmospheric dynamics as needed in order to improve the forecast operation.

Lessons Learned

The extended period between the first flight of an infrared sounder and the full operational use of soundings in numerical models can be attributed to a number of factors:

  1. Inadequate scientific research to determine an appropriate way of using the observations. The discovery of how to use the radiance values rather than the retrieved profiles in numerical modeling took about 25 years.

  2. Resistance to change. A major potential user insisted that the data look like radiosonde data.

  3. Lack of a technology transition plan or process. The operational centers were not prepared to use the data when they first became available.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER/ ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER

Imaging radiometers used by NASA and NOAA are commonly designed to produce calibrated multichannel images of Earth and the atmosphere in the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. These radiometers measure reflected solar radiation in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths and emitted radiation in the shortwave and thermal wavelengths from Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Radiometer data have become a mainstay for remotely sensing sea surface temperature and atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles. This case study captures the successful transition of research data from the Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) into operational service. The early involvement of both research and operational managers at NOAA, as well as the development of a plan to “market” the benefits of the data to users, fostered the widespread use of the data.

Research Origin/Heritage

As part of the Operational Satellite Improvement Program, the Improved TIROS Operational Satellite (ITOS-1), the first three-axis stabilized polar-orbiting weather satellite, was launched on January 23, 1970. This satellite, developed and launched under NASA funding, carried both the older-generation vidicon instruments for real-time Automatic Picture Transmission and a new, two-channel scanning radiometer for both day and night imaging.

An upgraded version of the ITOS, ITOS-D (later renamed NOAA-2), was launched in October 1972. For this satellite, NASA replaced the vidicon cameras with the redundant SRs and added a new instrument, the two-channel VHRR, which was to provide high-resolution day and night imaging. There was close cooperation between NASA and NOAA. For example, because of budget difficulties at NASA, NOAA agreed to support some of the costs of developing these new instruments. Also, NASA developed the ground-based processing software for the VHRR data, and NOAA supplied the computers.

Transition Process

Although satellite data were becoming more widely accepted by users in the early 1970s, the ad hoc way during the early years of moving a new remote sensing capability into operations was recognized as inadequate. NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Service (NESS) created a project management arrangement within NESS, with the project manager selected from research and the project coordinator from the operations area. The project manager was to assure that the goals of ability

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

to calibrate, accuracy, and so on, were being met, while the project coordinator was to assure that VHRR data could be processed and delivered in a timely manner. Since the existing operational activities were saturated with meeting the needs of the operational weather community, NESS established an Environmental Products Branch to respond to the needs of users outside the operational weather community—primarily oceanographers, hydrologists, and others—for products not being developed by the operational community. This research community of users was small at the time, and focused on using the data from the recently launched Earth Resources Technology Satellite (later renamed Landsat 1). Since VHRR data were of significantly lower spatial and spectral quality than Landsat data, they did not compete well for the attention of these users. However, VHRR data had one attribute not offered by Landsat—near-real-time availability to users.

To remedy the fact that there were few nonoperational users of VHRR data, the Environmental Products Branch set about to develop products that would take advantage of the near-real-time availability of VHRR data and then went out to the user communities to “sell” this capability. Some products—such as Polar Ice Charts, which depict the coverage and estimate the age and thickness of the polar ice sheet—were quickly accepted by the Navy Ice Center (which was located in the same building as NESS). Other products—such as Gulf Stream Analysis, which offered information on the location of the Gulf Stream and its eddies; West Coast Upwelling Charts, which provided details on the position and extent of the upwelling cold water along the coast; and Snow Cover Charts, which were important for managing the water resources of the western United States—had to be brought to potential users and marketed as supporting their needs. Soon these nonoperational users became accustomed to the products, and an operation was born.

As part of the meteorological upgrade process, the two-channel VHRR became a four-channel advanced VHRR (AVHRR/1), with the addition of a near-infrared (IR) channel to separate clouds from snow and ice and another IR channel to aid in determining sea surface temperature. The splitting of the original IR channel into two nonoverlapping intervals for further improvement in determining sea surface temperatures was designated as AVHRR/2, a five-channel instrument.

Operational Status

Currently, the six-channel AVHRR/3 is the operational instrument on the NOAA-15 and the subsequent POES (Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite) series; it is providing real-time data for sea surface temperature, vegetation index, snow and ice cover, fire detection, aerosols, and volcanic ash detection and tracking.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Lessons Learned

The lessons learned on transitioning research to operations from this case study on VHRR/AVHRR are these:

  1. The operational agency (in this case NOAA) cared enough about the potential utility of the instruments to partially fund their development.

  2. It is important to involve the research and operations community early in a mission. The researchers communicated with potential users, educated them about the observations and their potential use, and “marketed” the mission.

  3. Near-real-time availability of research data to users is a valuable part of the transitioning process.

DEFENSE METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE PROGRAM

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)2 has served the meteorological needs of the armed services for some 40 years, enabling the military to receive timely weather data in support of planning for both routine and mission-critical operations such as the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam War. While not a typical research program but an operational development program, DMSP developed and flew research instruments that were intended to provide operational capabilities, and it did so in an efficient and cost-effective way. This case study illustrates the key role that people play in the successful management and development of a satellite program. The impressive results of DMSP and the satellites that it produced proved beneficial for a series of research satellites and further DMSP satellite developments that were continued as “heritage” throughout the history of the program.

Research Origin/Heritage

In the mid-1950s, the Rand Corporation warned the U.S. Air Force (USAF) that successful operation of overhead photoreconnaissance satellites depended upon accurate and timely meteorological forecasts of the Sino-Soviet landmass. An interdepartmental study in April 1961 revealed that NASA held the U.S. franchise to establish requirements and develop meteorological satellites for both the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense. A single National Operational Meteorological Satellite System (NOMSS) for both departments was intended to

2  

This section is based mostly on verbatim transcripts and summaries of the history of DMSP written by R. Cargill Hall. Those interested in more detail on the history of DMSP are referred to the original document, A History of the Military Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Program (Hall, 1985).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

avoid duplication, produce a less costly national capability, and meet all of the forecasting needs of the civil and military sectors.

The television camera of NASA’s first experimental “wheel-mode” TIROS weather satellite, spin stabilized to inertial space, was launched on April 1, 1960. It viewed an oblique swath of Earth’s surface occasionally in each orbit, instead of once each time it revolved. In 1962, NASA officials did not believe that a spin-stabilized satellite which would keep its spin axis perpendicular to its orbit plane could be developed in time to meet the need for strategic meteorological forecasts for reconnaissance operations over the Sino-Soviet block. The undersecretary of the Air Force therefore created an “interim” meteorological weather satellite program for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). On June 21, 1961, he asked the director of the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force Special Projects in El Segundo, California, for a minimum proposal for four Earth-referenced weather satellites to be launched on NASA Scout boosters. A proposal was provided for a small fixed budget and first launch in 10 months. The proposal was approved, and a program director for the new DMSP was appointed. The new program director, who was a meteorologist and an electrical engineer, accepted the assignment on condition that he would not have to use the resident Systems Engineering and Technical Direction (SE&TD) contractor, that he could select a small number of his own staff, and that he could use fixed-price, fixed-delivery contracts throughout the program. He believed that a SE&TD contractor could only justify its existence by introducing changes. Since changes involved time and money, SE&TD support was incompatible with fixed-price, fixed-delivery contracting.

Transition Process

DMSP incorporated two management approaches that proved decisive in the program’s success and that may provide a model approach for the transition from research to operations in other endeavors of similar size and complexity: (1) a slim management team and (2) the use of a firm fixed-price contract.

The fixed-price, fixed-delivery contract proved valuable in December 1961 when a major structural component of the weather satellite, the base plate, failed during tests, and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) officials requested a 3-month delay for redesign. RCA was advised that it had 10 days to produce a fix or the contract would be terminated, at no cost to the government. The RCA program manager appeared 3 days later with revised internal schedules that met the original launch date.

The Air Force “blue suit” program team met its 10-month schedule, although, as the high-risk aspects of the effort suggested, without immediate success. Two Scout vehicles, one with the first NRO weather satellite onboard, failed in rapid succession

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

in April and May 1962. However, on August 23, 1962, the first successful DMSP satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Although the ground control team had tracking problems early in the operational period of the satellite, each day at high noon the vehicle took pictures as it passed over the Soviet Union. Weather pictures of the Caribbean returned by this vehicle 2 months later, in October 1962, proved crucial during the Cuban missile crisis, permitting effective aerial reconnaissance missions over the region.

The nimble management structure and the fixed-price contract enabled flexibility and responsiveness from both the internal program team and the contractor. Although the team encountered significant challenges with the launch vehicle, DMSP’s success in achieving a rapid and clean program with few technical problems cemented the nation’s approach toward a two-pronged military and civil meteorological satellite system. The first DMSP satellite ceased operation on March 23, 1963, but by then the program had received a new life. NASA had delayed the planned Nimbus series of the NOMSS, and the NRO authorized the DMSP director to extend his interim program by at least a year. Flight number four was launched on February 19, 1963, with many more to follow.

In addition to the management and contract mechanisms used for the DMSP, the program benefited from the transition of research sensors into the DMSP program. The manager of the TIROS weather satellite program in NOAA’s Weather Bureau, who was one of the few persons in NOAA cleared to know about DMSP, referred various experiments to the NRO-Air Force program, including a novel one conceived at the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin instrument weighed about 6 ounces and produced useful data on the radiated heat of cloud cover, from which the heat balance of Earth could be determined. Many other research sensors were incorporated on DMSP satellites, leading to improved meteorological capability and forecasting in the defense community.

When the first DMSP director stepped down in April 1965, DMSP had eclipsed all other overhead meteorological endeavors. Initial NASA skepticism notwithstanding, DMSP had pioneered the space technology so well, so quickly, and so inexpensively that the space agency (prodded firmly by the Department of Commerce) now embraced a carbon copy of the DMSP wheel-mode Block 1 satellite, called the TIROS Operational System (TOS), as an interim, polar-orbiting weather satellite. The first TOS, renamed ESSA-1, was launched in February 1966—4 years after DMSP proved the concept. Nine TOS civil satellites were launched between 1966 and 1969. A Nimbus first launch scheduled for June 1962 slipped to 1964; the Nimbus satellites were eventually directed to research purposes, never to become part of the NOMSS.

DSMP sped through four blocks of satellite platforms in the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Block 5 was on the drawing boards. The USAF Air Weather Service (AWS)

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

was largely responsible for a payload design that made Block 5 especially user-friendly—for example, by formatting the imagery to standard AWS weather chart scales.

The decision to develop a user-friendly design for the Block 5 series of satellites was a strategy that contributed significantly to the transition from research to operations. The Block 5 spacecraft departed entirely from the TIROS technology and took the form of an integrated system in which the space and ground segments were designed together. The AWS representative and his engineering partner visited meteorologists at work and then examined what the industry could produce. Instead of starting with a sensor and determining what it might tell the user about the weather, these two individuals based the Block 5 design on the users’ wish to receive a product in a form that approached as closely as possible the weather charts and maps that they, the meteorologists, employed—an example of “pull” transitioning.

The DSMP case study also teaches some important lessons about the value of involving university researchers and students in satellite missions.3 During the mid-1960s, the university–USAF collaboration with DSMP was greatly aided by a team from the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, working with Professor Vern Suomi. Several of Suomi’s meteorology graduate students and some USAF officers spent considerable time on the project at the Air Force Global Weather Central (Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska) and probably as much time in the electrical engineering and space astronomy laboratories as they did in the meteorology department. Their experiments onboard the early DMSP satellites were (1) those of USAF (primary) and (2) joint USAF/UW and sole UW (secondary). The graduate students helped with all of the experiments (design, calibration, data processing, algorithms, and so on). One experiment on the Earth radiation budget flew on several of the satellites from 1964 to 1967. Using black and white flat-plate radiometers, the experiment resulted in the first global Earth radiation budget measurements. The experiment revealed a warmer and darker planet Earth with a lower albedo in tropical regions than had been estimated in pre-satellite papers. This discovery had major ramifications in future global energetics and circulation studies.

Operational Status

Over time, DMSP was declassified, and program management was moved into the mainstream like other Air Force programs. This change led to an increase in the

3  

Personal communications of Thomas Vonder Haar, Colorado State University, with committee member George L. Frederick, May-August 2002.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

number of staff and a lengthening of satellite development schedules and allowed other, attendant artifacts to creep into what had once been an efficient operation. Increasing complexity and a lack of strong systems engineering support and of independent verification and validation (IV&V) led to early failure of Block 5D satellites. In the early 1980s, a situation arose during which no DMSP spacecraft were fully operational. Military forecasters had to rely on NOAA satellites during this period. The adverse operational impacts of relying on civil satellites that DSMP supporters had been warning against over the years did not materialize. Subsequently, systems engineering and IV&V processes were strengthened, and the DMSP satellite constellation was healthy again by the mid-1980s. Ultimately, in the early 1990s, convergence of the military and civil weather satellite programs became a reality, and the integrated DMSP and NOAA program—the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program—was born. DMSP will continue to operate until 2008, with the launch of NPOESS.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from this case study are as follows:

  1. The novel management scheme was made possible by a small program office, consisting of a few key energetic people with strong ties to the user (USAF Air Weather Service) and the research community (University of Wisconsin, Madison, primarily), that exercised technical direction. It could make decisions and act quickly. The office achieved an excellent success record at low cost.

  2. Incorporating the needs of the user (the “pull” side of transitioning) into early instrument design and data-processing systems pays big dividends in transitioning systems from research to operational use.

  3. Joint teams of scientists and engineers within universities bring more strength to university–government collaborations. This lesson is still in practice today at the University of Wisconsin, Colorado State University, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, among others. Furthermore, military officers assigned to graduate studies at major research universities can further enhance collaborations in high-tech areas.

  4. Multiagency and university collaborations in new high-tech areas can lead to early science breakthroughs and can help infuse new ideas and concepts in our science.

  5. Government and university collaborations in space programs are important in educating and training the next generation of space scientists and engineers.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

LIGHTNING DETECTION FROM SPACE

Lightning is often the earliest indication of thunderstorm development and may precede the first radar echoes by as much as 15 minutes. Many studies have shown lightning to be associated with significant events such as heavy rainfall, severe weather, winter weather, and hurricanes. Observations of lightning are therefore clearly useful for operational forecasting (Orville, 1987).

Within the continental United States, there is a National Lightning Detection Network, operated by Global Atmospherics, Inc., which provides cloud-to-ground lightning data to the National Weather Service (NWS) in support of its forecasting activities in the United States. Space-based sensors can provide significantly more lightning data than ground-based sensors can, and they can provide these data on a global basis. For example, most ground-based sensors are only capable of detecting cloud-to-ground lightning over land, which makes up only about 25 percent of total lighting activity. Space-based sensors can detect all forms of lightning activity over land and sea, 24 hours a day.4 Thus, over land, the detection of cloud-to-cloud lightning as provided by a spaceborne sensor could provide earlier detection of the development of severe convective storms, and over the sea the space-based sensor could serve as a surrogate for radar and surface lightning detectors. However, the operational utility of the space-based data has not been demonstrated to the point at which it is viewed as a requirement for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program.

This case illustrates the lack of a successful pathway for transitioning proven space-based lightning detection sensors into operational use.

Research Origin/Heritage

The analysis of global lighting activity from space began in the late 1970s with the use of data products developed for the DMSP Operational Linescan System (OLS). The OLS is a DMSP instrument dedicated to monitoring the distribution of clouds and cloud-top temperatures on a global scale twice each day5 (Turman, 1978). Further research took place at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. An Optical Transient Detector (OTD), developed at Marshall and launched in 1995 on the Micro-Lab-1 satellite from a Pegasus rocket into a 70-degree inclination orbit, was able to survey virtually all areas of the globe where lightning normally occurs, for a period of several years (Christian et al., 1996).

4  

See the Web site <http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/research.html>. Accessed March 4, 2003.

5  

See the Web site <http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/descriptions/doc_ols.html>. Accessed March 4, 2003.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

Another instrument developed at Marshall, the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), is a staring imager that is optimized to locate and detect lightning with storm-scale resolution (4 to 7 km) and to detect the distribution and variability of total lightning (cloud-to-cloud, intracloud, and cloud-to-ground) during the day and night. The LIS was launched aboard the Japanese-U.S. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite in 1997 and is still in orbit (Christian et al., 1999). The Lightning Mapper Sensor (LMS) program, which is also under development at Marshall, will be capable of continuously mapping lightning during both day and night. The LMS has been proposed for launch into geostationary orbit as part of the GOES system.

Transition Process

Although lightning-detection technology had been successfully demonstrated by the DMSP OLS and the Marshall instruments (OLS, OTD, and LIS), there is so far no pathway for transitioning the technology into operational service. This gap separating the demonstration of sensor capability from the use of satellite lightning data in operational weather prediction has resulted, in large part, because there appears to be no stated requirement—or “pull”—other than for cloud-to-ground lightning, from the operational weather and climate organizations. With no operational requirement for either global or regional coverage of total lightning, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is not able to consider a lightning sensor as a high priority. In this “push-only” situation, there has not been a successful effort to develop a documented NWS and/or DOD requirement for the space-based lightning measurement. Either there is an insufficient demonstration of the cost-effective value of the space-based lightning observations by the research community or insufficient funding for applied research and operational demonstrations of the added value of the observations.

Operational Status

To date, satellite lightning-detection sensors have remained a research and experimental technology. The technology, with its potential benefits, has not been transitioned into operations.

Lessons Learned

The following are lessons learned from this case study:

  1. No transition pathway was established, in part because there was insufficient “push” from the research community and “pull” from the operational community.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
  1. As a technology advances past a proof-of-concept demonstration, there should be a parallel investment in the demonstration of an operational data product for use by either direct or intermediate operational users to push the development of an operational requirement for the proven technology. The result of the proof-of-concept demonstration must be a documented user requirement for the new observation capability in order to create the pull needed to transition the experimental capability into an operational measurement system.

OCEAN ALTIMETRY

Ocean altimetry provides measurements on sea surface height. These measurements are important data for understanding ocean circulation on a wide range of time and space scales. Ocean altimetry data are also valuable for operational missions, including naval applications such as ship routing, search and rescue, and antisubmarine warfare, and for civilian applications such as tidal information for navigation, pollutant spill dispersion, and fisheries forecasting. This case study describes a successful example of how NASA, NOAA, and international partners came together in the interest of planning for continuity in ocean altimetry data and to improve sampling capabilities in existing systems.

Research Origin/Heritage

Measurements of ocean topography from space using radar altimeters were conceived in the 1960s, with proof-of-concept missions in the 1970s, including one altimeter that was flown aboard Skylab in 1973. This stage culminated with the Seasat altimeter in 1978, followed by the first operational use of radar altimetry by the U.S. Navy that was launched aboard Geosat in 1985. The focus of the first 18 months of this mission was to develop a high-resolution map of the global marine geoid. These data were classified for many years but have now been released. After the completion of its 18-month primary operational mission, Geosat was maneuvered into the Seasat orbit, and the data were made available to the research community.

The operational Geosat mission and its orbit requirements were not compatible with many of the research community’s requirements for studies of ocean topography. Moreover, the altimeter system design lacked many key elements (e.g., a water vapor radiometer, a dual frequency altimeter for ionospheric corrections, and an active attitude control system), which further compromised data quality (Chelton et al., 2001). Nevertheless, Geosat provided valuable data for some research purposes (Fu et al., 1990).

Additional radar altimeters were flown onboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) series of research satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2. This program has continued

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

with a radar altimeter on the ESA Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) that was launched early in 2002. However, these missions accommodated other research sensors, and thus the orbits were constrained to be Sun-synchronous, which is not optimal for studies of ocean topography because of aliasing of solar ocean tides into the signals of interest. In addition, the atmospheric drag at the 800-km altitude of the ERS and ENVISAT satellites resulted in orbit errors that are too large for some research applications.

The first dedicated mission for ocean topography was TOPEX/Poseidon, a joint NASA-CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) program. Launched in 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon was designed for a 3-year mission, with sufficient contingency to be extended to 5 years. However, TOPEX/Poseidon continues to operate nearly flawlessly, and a new joint NASA/CNES mission, Jason-1, was launched in late 2001. Both of these missions were designed specifically to meet the science requirements for studies of ocean topography. A vigorous research program has improved the overall accuracy of the measurements to 4 cm (Chelton et al., 2001), significantly better than any previous altimeters. Moreover, the research community has expanded its observing requirements to resolve smaller time and space scales in order to study the mesoscale variability of ocean circulation. To meet these requirements, new approaches will be needed, such as constellations of altimeters and wide-swath altimeters (Chelton, 2001).

Transition Process

A radar altimeter will be flown as part of NPOESS, but given the operational constraints of the other sensors onboard, the NPOESS satellites will be in a Sun-synchronous orbit. Many of the continuing science requirements for studies of ocean circulation will thus not be met by the altimeter on the planned NPOESS platforms. However, NOAA/NESDIS has begun to explore other options with NASA to meet the requirements of the research community as well as the operational requirements of the NPOESS system. These needs have led NASA and NOAA to discuss a closer relationship between the two agencies regarding the Jason follow-on mission (sometimes referred to as Jason-2) as part of the overarching Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM).

In early 2001, NASA and NOAA reached a preliminary agreement on the distribution of responsibilities for the Jason follow-on, with NOAA taking the lead operational responsibility for the mission. NOAA would be responsible for ground systems, mission operations (after commissioning), and data archive and distribution, and it would participate in calibration/validation and scientific research. NASA would provide the launch vehicle and some of the supporting sensors, system

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

engineering, and project management, and would fully participate in calibration/ validation and lead the scientific research aspects of the mission. CNES would also do system engineering, and in addition would provide the primary altimeter and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) tracking, the satellite bus, integration, orbit determination, and data processing. The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) would acquire data through a purchase agreement.

By spring 2001, the NASA-NOAA understanding had expanded to become a quadrilateral program between CNES, EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA for the OSTM, with a defined set of responsibilities for each agency, a steering group, and a project plan. This new OSTM plan also includes the opportunity for NASA to explore the feasibility of a Wide Swath Ocean Altimeter (WSOA) as part of the Jason-2 package, a prospect made possible by cost savings generated by NOAA participation in Jason-2. By late 2001, letters had been exchanged by all parties, and OSTM was moving forward as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 federal budget request.

In late spring 2002, it had been determined by CNES that there were no “showstoppers” to including the WSOA on the Jason-2 satellite bus. The four partners are strongly supportive of the flight of the WSOA on Jason-2 and are proceeding through the formal approval process. They are also working out the details of the OSTM and the technical and programmatic structures necessary for its success. The OSTM partners planned to have a complete set of program baseline assumptions by the fall of 2002, with a program confirmation review in early 2003. This will be followed by the start of a phase C/D contract for the satellite.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from this case study are these:

  1. Conflicting science and operational requirements can be overcome through communication and leadership at all levels, including administration and the research community.

  2. Positive synergy can occur between the research and operational communities. For example, the dedication of the research community continued to show the value of ocean altimetry and how continuous improvement can lead to new insights. The highly visible success of TOPEX/Poseidon encouraged senior management to take risks and seek new initiatives for follow-on missions. The operational community recognized the value of these measurements and was willing to examine how the new technologies such as wide-swath altimetry could be used in their operations.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

SPACEBORNE SCATTEROMETRY: A NEARLY COMPLETE TRANSITION FROM RESEARCH TO OPERATIONS

Scatterometers are microwave radar instruments designed to measure global radar backscatter cross-section and wind velocity over the oceans under nearly all weather conditions. The data can be used in weather and ice-edge prediction, as well as for research in oceanography, meteorology, and large-scale air-sea interaction. Scatterometers have been flown on NASA and ESA research missions continuously since 1991. These missions have provided near-real-time data that have been used in operational numerical weather prediction and marine forecasting. The United States and Europe have taken different approaches to involving operational agencies in research scatterometry missions. However, notwithstanding the successful operational use of scatterometer data supplied by research missions, neither ESA/EUMETSAT (in Europe) nor NASA/NOAA/DOD (in the United States) have yet flown instruments to measure ocean vector winds as part of their operational observing systems.

Research Origin/Heritage

The recognition that the oceanic microwave backscatter cross section at moderate incidence angles contained information on near-surface wind speed and direction arose from radar research conducted after World War II in both the defense and civilian sectors (Moore and Fung, 1979; Barrick and Swift, 1980; Pierson, 1983). The first spaceborne instrument useful for demonstrating scatterometry was flown on the NASA Skylab missions in 1973 to 1974, but it was not until the NASA Seasat mission in 1978 that a microwave scatterometer instrument that focused specifically on wind observations (SASS, the Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer) was flown in space (Grantham et al., 1977; Freilich, 1985). The Seasat spacecraft suffered a catastrophic power failure in October 1978 (only 100 days after launch), and it was not until the early 1980s that credible geophysical processing algorithms were developed and comprehensive data validation was performed. Nonetheless, SASS demonstrated that accurate measurements of wind velocity could be obtained from spaceborne scatterometers and allowed construction of the first accurate, basin-scale, 100-km-resolution maps of synoptic surface winds over the ocean.

The SASS data were never used for operational numerical weather prediction or marine forecasting, since near-real-time telemetry was not available, and geophysical processing algorithms were not in place at launch. Investigations into the operational utility of future scatterometer data were initiated as soon as SASS wind velocity data became available. Atlas et al. (2001) reviewed studies assessing the impact of assimilating SASS data into operational numerical weather prediction systems.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

Several studies evaluated the use of spaceborne microwave scatterometer data for subjective tropical and extratropical marine forecasting and storm prediction (Black et al., 1985; Hawkins and Black, 1982; Stoffelen and Cats, 1991), capitalizing on the extensive coverage, high spatial resolution, and generally uniform accuracy of the measurements.

Following the demise of Seasat, NASA and the ESA pursued parallel initiatives to design and fly scatterometers. Each agency recognized the potential operational utility of the scatterometer wind measurements, yet neither agency committed to missions that fully addressed operational requirements. The programmatic approaches chosen by NASA and ESA differed substantially, and while both programs achieved comparable success, the foundations for operational transition were quite different.

ESA and the European Remote Sensing Satellite Program

ESA established its Optional Remote-Sensing Preparatory Programme in 1979 to develop technologies for future microwave remote sensing missions. The program had both scientific and economic objectives focusing on ocean and ice monitoring. Studies for the first of these missions, the ERS-1, were conducted from 1982 to 1983, and the mission, which included a scatterometer, moved into implementation in 1984. ERS-1 was designed to be an “experimental/pre-operational system” that would lead eventually to a fully operational microwave-based Earth observation capability. It was justified on grounds of producing services and products with direct economic benefit (ESA, 1995). Although the primary objectives of the missions focused on increasing scientific understanding (research) and developing commercial and economic applications of the measurements, it was recognized on the basis of the Seasat analyses that the scatterometer wind data could contribute to operational weather forecasting.

ESA contracted with a variety of European national and multinational operational meteorological agencies to perform pre-launch technical studies related to the processing and exploitation of the scatterometer wind data. These interactions established a technical dialogue between the space and operational agencies and fostered a detailed technical understanding of the data formats and their expected characteristics at the user agencies prior to launch. ESA set the overall ERS-1 wind data accuracy requirements to conform with World Meteorological Organization and user agency requirements (Offiler, 1994). The satellite telemetry and ground processing systems were designed to allow data to be processed and distributed to national operational meteorological agencies within 3 hours of receipt from the spacecraft (Burger, 1991; Fea, 1991). ESA supported a number of meteorological centers, including the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

(ECMWF), the U.K. Met Office, the Dutch meteorology office, and MeteoFrance, to characterize, validate, perform quality control, and refine aspects of the processing algorithms for the scatterometer data following launch (e.g., Stoffelen and Anderson, 1995, 1997; Stoffelen, 1998; Offiler, 1994).

The ERS-1 mission was launched on July 17, 1991, and operated until October 3, 2000. The essentially identical follow-on ERS-2 mission was launched April 21, 1995, and scatterometer operations continued until January 2001. Although initially the ERS-1 wind products did not meet the pre-launch specifications (Stoffelen and Anderson, 1995), algorithm and processing refinements led by investigators at ECMWF yielded accurate vector wind products within about 18 months after launch. ECMWF began routine assimilation of ERS wind products in May 1996.

Through international agreements and competitive proposals, U.S. operational meteorological agencies and NASA-sponsored researchers received ERS data beginning early in the ERS-1 mission. The operational agencies received the data in near real time from ECMWF, while the research scientists obtained science-quality data routinely from the ESA IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea)/CERSAT (French ERS Processing and Archiving Facility) and, using NASA algorithms and model functions, through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Assimilation of ERS scatterometer data into U.S. numerical weather prediction models was investigated both at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and in the research community (principally at Goddard Space Flight Center; Atlas et al., 2001). However, ERS scatterometer data were never operationally assimilated in the NCEP models. Graphical, Web-based imagery with ERS wind measurements were routinely produced in the NOAA/NESDIS Office of Research and Applications and used by NOAA marine forecasters.

The NASA NSCAT, QuikSCAT, and SeaWinds Projects

Seasat’s successful demonstration of the utility of scatterometer wind measurements led NASA to form a Satellite Surface Stress (S3) Working Group in September 1981, to “identify scientific problem areas in which significant science advances might be expected if a new scatterometer were to be flown” (O’Brien et al., 1982). The S3 panel was composed of 20 scientific and technical experts from academia, industry, NASA centers, and DOD, most of them researchers. Identification of operational and commercial uses for surface wind measurements was a distinctly secondary S3 objective; potential scatterometer contributions to operational weather forecasting were outlined only briefly in the report’s Chapter IV, “Other Applications for Satellite Wind Stress.”

On the basis of the SASS results and the S3 recommendations and science requirements, NASA initiated the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) project for design-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

ing and building a dual-swath, Ku-band scatterometer instrument and an associated NASA ground data processing and distribution system to service the research community.

In contrast with other efforts such as the TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter, NASA’s scatterometer plans did not include funding for a spacecraft and launch vehicle. Rather, NASA initially planned to provide the scatterometer instrument as part of the measurement suite on the proposed DOD Navy Remote Ocean Sensing System (NROSS). Navy requirements and objectives for NROSS were focused on acquiring measurements and generating and distributing near-real-time analyses and forecasts to the fleet, with particular emphasis on extreme weather conditions. Navy surface wind measurement requirements were identical to those established years earlier in the Operational Requirement for Satellite Measurement of Oceanographic Parameters (SMOP OR WO5270S, February 10, 1977). These wind accuracy requirements were comparable with, and in some areas more stringent than, the NASA (S3) research requirements. However, as the Navy retained the responsibility for developing the near-real-time processing algorithms and data-distribution system, NASA focused on designing a scatterometer flight instrument that could provide sufficiently accurate backscatter measurements and a ground processing system to provide geophysical products to the scientific research community.

The NROSS budget was cut and the schedule was delayed, eventually leading to cancellation of the program in 1988 (NRC, 1995, Figure 2.3, p. 42). By that time, NASA had built a significant fraction of the NSCAT flight hardware, invested substantial resources in development of the ground processing system, and selected and funded a broad-based scatterometer science team to conduct research using scatterometer data (NASA, 1985; Freilich, 1985).

Following the cancellation of NROSS, NASA searched extensively for a funded mission and spacecraft that could accommodate the NSCAT instrument. An international collaboration was eventually arranged to fly NSCAT as a U.S. contribution to the Japanese National Space Development Agency’s (NASDA’s) Advanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS-I) research mission (Naderi et al., 1991; Graf et al., 1998).

Although NASA’s primary responsibility was to provide wind data to the oceanographic and meteorological research communities, the operational potential for scatterometry was recognized. Since the Navy (which had responsibility for the operational aspects of NROSS) no longer participated in the NSCAT program, NASA and NOAA/NESDIS developed a substantive collaboration that, with NASDA help, allowed global NSCAT data to be downloaded and processed within 3 hours of acquisition. During the pre-launch period, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed and supported NSCAT algorithms and processing code to run on NESDIS operational computers, NESDIS provided ground tracking and telemetry capability to

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

allow downloading of ADEOS-I data on nearly an orbit-by-orbit basis, and NASDA modified its original spacecraft operation plans both to provide for early turn-on of the NSCAT instrument after launch and for routine downloading at the NOAA stations during the mission (Graf et al., 1998).

ADEOS-I was launched on August 17, 1996, and NSCAT measurements were available nearly continuously from mid-September 1996 until the abrupt failure of the spacecraft’s solar panel on June 30, 1997. Validated near-real-time data were made available by NOAA/NESDIS starting in February 1997. Assimilation of NSCAT vector wind data into the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-2) resulted in a 24-hour extension of useful forecast skill in the Southern Hemisphere extratropics, with more modest impacts in the Northern Hemisphere extratropics (Atlas et al., 2001).

While the increased coverage of NSCAT relative to ERS-1 yielded significantly larger forecast impacts in numerical weather prediction, its largest contribution came in operational subjective marine forecasting. Graphical depictions of NSCAT data were distributed rapidly by NOAA/NESDIS and were used extensively and routinely by marine forecasters at line stations and at the Marine Prediction Center.

Even before the launch of NSCAT, NASA began the development of a new generation of Ku-band scatterometer instruments using scanning pencil beams rather than fan beam antennas (Freilich et al., 1994; Spencer et al., 1997). This “SeaWinds” scatterometer could be accommodated far more easily that the fan-beam designs, and featured an 1,800-km-wide swath for exceptional coverage from polar orbit. Originally selected for flight on the AM NASA Earth Observing System spacecraft, the decision was made to continue collaboration with Japan and fly SeaWinds as a NASA contribution to the ADEOS-II mission.

Following the premature failure of ADEOS-I and the loss of NSCAT data, NASA initiated the rapid-development QuikSCAT mission to minimize the gap in broad-swath scatterometer data between NSCAT and SeaWinds/ADEOS-II. QuikSCAT utilized an off-the-shelf satellite bus and existing flight hardware and spares prepared for SeaWinds/ADEOS-II; the mission was ready to launch approximately 18 months after the demise of ADEOS-I, although the actual launch was delayed, owing to launch vehicle problems, until June 1999. Scatterometer data were obtained starting in July 1999, and validated near-real-time data were produced routinely by NOAA/NESDIS (using NASA-provided software) starting in early 2000. As with NSCAT, these data are provided to marine forecast offices in graphical form and to major national and international forecast centers for assimilation into numerical weather prediction systems (Box B.1).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

BOX B.1 National Weather Service Advisory, August 26, 2000, 2100 UTC REMARKS: 262100Z1 POSITION NEAR 21.4N7 130.6E0. TROPICAL STORM (TS) 20W (PRAPIROON), LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 375 NM SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF OKINAWA HAS TRACKED NORTH NORTHWESTWARD AT 20 KNOTS OVER THE PAST 6 HOURS. THE WARNING POSITION IS BASED ON 261730Z9 INFRARED SATELLITE IMAGERY. THE WARNING INTENSITY IS BASED ON SATELLITE CURRENT INTENSITY ESTIMATES OF 30 AND 35 KNOTS AND A SHIP REPORT OF 35 KNOTS. ANIMATED ENHANCED INFRARED SATELLITE IMAGERY DEPICTS CONVECTION IS SHEARED 15 NM TO THE NORTH AND EAST OF A PARTIALLY EXPOSED LOW LEVEL CIRCULATION CENTER (LLCC). IMAGERY ALSO INDICATES CONVECTION HAS INCREASED IN INTENSITY OVER THE PAST 06 HOURS. UW-CIMSS ANALYSIS AND THE 200 MB ANALYSIS INDICATE OUTFLOW ALOFT CONTINUES TO IMPROVE AS THE TROPICAL UPPER-TROPOSPHERIC TROUGH (TUTT) TO THE WEST CONTINUES TO FILL. A 260916Z4 QUIKSCAT PASS INDICATED A WELL DEFINED LLCC WITH LIGHTER WINDS AROUND THE CENTER AND STRONGER WINDS ON THE PERIPHERY. THE SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO TRACK NORTHWESTWARD THROUGH 24 HOURS, THEN INCREASINGLY WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AS THE SUB-TROPICAL RIDGE BUILDS IN NORTH OF THE SYSTEM. THE 35 KNOT WIND RADII HAVE BEEN INCREASED BASED ON THE 260916Z4 QUIKSCAT PASS.

Transition/Operational Status

The U.S. and European space agencies have each flown scatterometers on multiple research missions. Scatterometer data from many of these research missions have been made available in near real time and have been used operationally for subjective regional marine forecasting, global numerical weather prediction, and ice-edge tracking. Backscatter and ocean surface vector wind data from the NASA QuikSCAT mission are presently being used operationally by a number of operational agencies, including ECMWF, NCEP, the U.S. National Weather Service, and the U.S. Joint Ice Center at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. However, scatterometers have not yet been flown as part of either the U.S. or European operational observing systems.

A SeaWinds instrument is planned for launch in November 2002 onboard the Japanese NASDA ADEOS-II research mission. NESDIS will receive ADEOS-II scatterometer data in near real time and will use NASA-supplied software to process the measurements to geophysical units. The SeaWinds data will also be distributed in near real time by NESDIS to international meteorological agencies. Plans call for

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

overlap between the QuikSCAT/SeaWinds and SeaWinds/ADEOS-II missions to allow cross-calibration of the instruments and a seamless effective operational transition.

EUMETSAT and ESA will fly Advanced Scatterometers (ASCATs) on the Meteorological Operational Polar (METOP) satellite missions. The first METOP mission will launch in October 2005, with a 5-year lifetime. Two additional METOP missions are planned for launch at 4- to 5-year intervals, leading to a continuous 14-year time series. Consistent with the operational nature of METOP, the ASCAT data will be available to European and international meteorological agencies in near real time.

The baseline U.S. operational NPOESS constellation (to be launched starting in about 2008 to 2010) does not include scatterometer instruments, nor are there firm NPOESS requirements for all-weather surface wind velocity measurements. Surface wind velocity measurements in NPOESS will be acquired by the Conical Microwave Imager/Sounder (CMIS), a multifrequency polarimetric microwave radiometer. Although limited aircraft flights of polarimetric microwave radiometers have indicated the presence of a measurable wind directional signal (Yueh et al., 2002), the technique has not been demonstrated from space, nor have the error characteristics been quantified as has been the case for scatterometer data. The first spaceborne test of the technique is planned for early 2003 with the flight of the Naval Research Lab Windsat/Coriolis mission (Gaiser, 1999). Recently, NOAA management has made public statements of its willingness to examine the possibility of adding scatterometers to the operational observing system in the NPOESS time frame (Taverna, 2002).

Lessons Learned

Several conclusions regarding the transition from research to operations can be drawn from the similarities and differences between the U.S. and European scatterometer programs:

  1. Near-real-time data delivery from research missions is required in order to gain the interest of operational numerical weather prediction agencies.

  2. Although graphical products from research missions can be produced rapidly for subjective forecasting use, the assimilation of new observations into regional and global numerical weather prediction forecast/analysis systems requires detailed knowledge of the measurement error characteristics and extensive testing in the operational setting. This knowledge is generally not achieved for at least 1 or 2 years after calibrated geophysical data become available from new instruments.

  3. The NASA-NOAA Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation played a strong and positive role in transferring knowledge of the data and assimilation techniques

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

that had been developed in research mode for NSCAT and ERS-1/2 to NCEP. Thus, although NCEP had not assimilated ERS-1/2 or NSCAT data whereas ECMWF had several years of ERS assimilation experience, operational assimilation of QuikSCAT data at NCEP actually began about 10 days earlier than at ECMWF.

  1. Notwithstanding successful exploitation of scatterometer data by meteorological researchers and operational use of scatterometer measurements acquired by both U.S. and international missions, the incorporation of all-weather surface vector wind measurements into the operational observing constellations has taken 10 to 15 years and is not yet a reality.

SPECIAL SENSOR MICROWAVE/IMAGER

The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) is an instrument carried on the satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). SSM/I data are used to develop products on ocean surface wind speed, ice coverage and age, precipitation over water, soil moisture, land surface temperature, snow cover, and sea surface temperature. These products are useful in weather and ocean prediction as well as for climate monitoring and research, including studies of interannual and seasonal variations, regional climate variations, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation. The SSM/I case study illustrates the importance of funding data-processing and algorithm development as a critical component of the space sensor acquisition process in order to provide for a rapid transition from research to operations.

Research Origin/Heritage

The SSM/I drew significantly on the heritage of the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer, an imaging five-frequency radiometer launched in 1978 on the Seasat and Nimbus-7 satellites (the radiometer on the Seasat provided data for only a few months; that on Nimbus-7 provided 10 years of data). The Navy provided strong support for the development and launch of the seven-frequency SSM/I on the DMSP satellites.

Transition Process

The transition of the SSM/I data into operational service required extensive data-processing and algorithm development, specifically, the translation of sensor data records (SDRs) into environmental data records (EDRs). Without sufficient research and resources for this process, the SSM/I data would have been in a form that was useless to users (operational meteorologists). The slowness in using the data from the infrared sounders was well known (see the infrared sounder case study, above).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

Both the space- and ground-segment management organizations (DMSP System Program Office [SPO] and AWS/AFGWC) recognized this weakness and sought to improve the ground-support processing for SSM/I.6 What with the failure, due to inadequate research on how to use the data, of the past series of DMSP satellites to deliver operationally useful data, considerable emphasis was placed on ensuring the needed research prior to launch of the SSM/I.7

The method of converting SDRs to EDRs was by algorithms that average or difference channel brightness temperatures. Therefore, a series of retrieval algorithms would have to be developed before the launch, followed by a calibration/ validation process after launch, to determine the accuracy of the algorithms. As part of its effort to ensure that SSM/I data were used, the DMSP SPO took on the responsibility for developing and funding SSM/I sensor products and for funding an accompanying validation program for the EDR algorithms. The sensor contractor (Hughes) then developed about six algorithms prior to SSM/I’s launch. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory was supported for a 1-year validation program. This new process was successful; there was essentially immediate use of the SSM/I data by a number of users after launch, and a process was in place for developing improvements to the algorithms on the basis of the validation effort. An additional, unplanned benefit followed from the decision to release the SSM/I data stream and make it available to the wider, non-DOD research community. The result was a much broader validation process for the data and processing algorithms, which increased the usefulness of the data for the operational community significantly. This open availability of the data also led to the extensive use of the data by the international climate research community, most notably in the development of global water vapor and precipitation long-term analyses by the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment through such projects as the Global Precipitation Climatology Project.

6  

There had been previous examples of significant difficulties in providing the ground processing of raw data record data into SDR and EDR data owing to priorities and funding that pointed to a serious problem with respect to the assignment of responsibility and the scale of resources. Basically, the space segment of the program operated on a budget on the order of 20 times the size of the operational user who was responsible for converting the SDRs into EDRs. In the early days, the usefulness of the satellite IR sounder data was considered questionable by the operational community and, therefore, the priority for resources for the processing of these data was too low to assure operational processing into EDRs by the time of launch. This developed into a situation in which, for all practical purposes, a sensor was launched and never processed for use by the operational users.

7  

Personal communications from Walter Meyer, General Dynamics Advanced Information, and Richard Savage, Hughes Aircraft Company, for additional background to committee member Paul Try, May 2002.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Operational Status

The SSM/I and related follow-on sensors continue to be operational as part of the DMSP system, and similar sensors will be carried on the NPOESS spacecraft. These sensors will provide environmental data from advanced retrieval algorithms. However, assimilation of imaging microwave sensor data into Numerical Weather Prediction models is just beginning to be addressed.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from this case study include the following:

  1. It is important to consider how data will be used well in advance of a launch, and to develop algorithms that will process the raw data to generate useful products.

  2. The responsibility and funding for delivering sensor data in a form useful for direct and intermediate operational users should be borne by the space segment of the process. The space segment cannot be allowed to have the limited responsibility for only acquiring the hardware, but also must have an integrated responsibility that includes continuing calibration and validation of SDRs and a baseline of EDRs.

  3. The full and early release and open availability to the research community of new operational data in both SDR and EDR form provide significant benefit through the development and illustration of improved and new uses of the original data.

SOLAR X-RAY IMAGER

The Solar X-ray Imager (SXI)8 is an instrument designed to collect images of the Sun in the x-ray region of the spectrum. Such images have proven valuable for predicting solar activity and its impact on the near-Earth environment as well as on space-based and ground-based systems. SXI, now flying on the GOES satellites, provides an example of a transition that was slowly, but eventually successfully completed, despite a number of difficulties encountered in making it happen.

Research Origin/Heritage

Flares and other activity on the Sun have a considerable impact on the near-Earth space environment, with major consequences such as satellite failures, com

8  

This case study is condensed from materials provided through personal communication from Patricia L. Bornmann, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, to committee liaison William B. Gail, April9, 2002.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

munications blackouts, and power-grid failures. Observations of the solar disc in the x-ray portion of the spectrum provide critical information about solar activity, but they can only be made from space. In contrast to ground-based observations, x-ray images allow easy identification of solar regions called coronal holes, which are closely correlated with the sporadic production of high-energy particles. Full-disc x-ray observations thus provide an important tool for predicting the impact of solar activity on the near-Earth space environment.

The research value of regular x-ray solar observations was first demonstrated on Skylab in 1973. NOAA Space Environment Center (SEC) forecasters quickly recognized that an operational follow-on based on imaging the entire solar disc was a high priority. Over the next decade, additional x-ray instruments flew on research missions, but low data rates and the research focus on higher spatial resolution meant that full-disc images were rare. In 1991, the Japanese Yokhoh mission flew a full-disc x-ray imager, the Solar X-ray Telescope (SXT), which reconfirmed the value of daily full-disc images.

Transition Process

By the early 1980s, the NOAA/SEC interest in flying a full-disc operational x-ray monitor was becoming widely known. One impediment to transition was purely technical: a solar x-ray imager is best suited to a nonspinning platform, and the GOES spacecraft were spin-stabilized prior to the launch of GOES-8 in 1994. The largest impediment to transition, however, turned out to be an inadequate budget. Space weather instruments, such as particle detectors and magnetometers, had historically been small and relatively inexpensive. NOAA/NESDIS was willing to fly a solar x-ray imager on the GOES-NEXT satellites being designed at the time, but had no budget to do so. Because they were aware of similar solar-monitoring needs within the DOD, NOAA/SEC decided to seek the support of the Air Force. Personnel at NOAA/SEC and the Air Force’s ground-based solar observatory in New Mexico started working toward a solar x-ray instrument on GOES. This advocacy process proceeded slowly because of limited human resources throughout the late 1980s, and GOES-NEXT design decisions were made without consideration of the needs for a solar x-ray imager.

With a demonstrated need for full-disc solar x-ray imagery but having no operational sensor, NOAA/SEC turned to the Japanese in the early 1990s for access to SXT data. After considerable negotiation, the Japanese agreed to provide access to SXT data with two provisions: (1) images were not to be shared (particularly with military users), and (2) new ideas or discoveries made using the data could not be made public for 1 year.

In 1990, the Air Force identified $18 million to apply to the project, but schedule

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

constraints limited inclusion of the x-ray sensor to only the last of the five spacecraft within the original GOES-NEXT procurement. Because spacecraft design decisions had been frozen, it was discovered that about half of the Air Force budget of $18 million would be required for spacecraft modifications alone. To work within the available budget, it was decided that the instrument would be built by NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center, where some of the costs could be absorbed by nonproject funds. Although the design was to be made available to industry to build follow-on instruments, budget constraints resulted in performance limitations that reduced the value of this instrument for future designs. The instrument was finally launched on GOES-12 in 2001. Two follow-on instruments are being built by industry through a contract initiated in 1996.

Operational Status

The first operational NOAA Solar X-ray Imager, SXI, was launched on GOES-12 in 2001, nearly 30 years after the research justification for the operational need was identified on Skylab. Following successful checkout, the spacecraft was placed in on-orbit storage, ready to replace one of the currently operating GOES.

Lessons Learned

The main lesson learned in the SXI experience is that inadequate financial and human resources can prolong the transition from research to operations for many years after a technology has been demonstrated and a need established:

  1. Limited personnel left NOAA scientists overburdened during the development of SXI, requiring them to both do science and support the SXI development. These same human resource limitations resulted in use of NOAA personnel with primary expertise in data analysis as the technical advisers responsible for understanding and establishing the SXI instrument design and operational requirements.

  2. Difficulties with establishing funding for SXI prolonged the transition process to nearly 30 years (NRC, 2003).

VOLCANIC ASH MAPPER

The Volcanic Ash Mapper (VOLCAM)9 instrument was designed to conduct research on volcanic clouds and eruption precursors, providing measurements of

9  

This case study is condensed from materials provided through personal communications from Arlin J. Krueger, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to committee liaison William B. Gail, April 4, 2002.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

volcanic ash and sulfur dioxide (SO2) clouds, SO2, total ozone, smoke, and dust. The data to be collected by VOLCAM would assist in monitoring volcanic ash clouds and would provide valuable information for aviation safety.

VOLCAM is an example of a measurement that has demonstrated strong operational potential but, despite substantial effort and interest in both the research and operational communities, has not successfully been transitioned to operational status.

Research Origin/Heritage

In 1982, data from the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) showed a surprising anomaly in the vicinity of the El Chichon volcano in southern Mexico. Investigation of the anomaly led to the first demonstration that SO2 in volcanic eruption clouds can be detected with satellite sensors operating in the ultraviolet (UV) portion of the spectrum, and that the larger-than-expected quantity of SO2, rather than ash, clearly is the driver of volcano-climate effects. At about the same time, the first incidents were being reported of commercial aircraft becoming disabled after encountering volcanic ash clouds. A British Airways 747 lost all power after flying through the ash cloud from the Gallunggung volcano in Indonesia; its engines restarting only after heroic measures, the airliner was forced to land with a windshield that had been rendered nearly opaque by the ash. A KLM 747 also had all four engines flame out when flying through the ash cloud of the Mt. Redoubt eruption in the Aleutian Islands. Again, after heroic measures the crew managed to restart the engines, after losing 10,000 feet of altitude. The aircraft landed safely at Anchorage, Alaska, with damage to the engines, flight surfaces, and windscreen. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, 1997), at least 15 aircraft were damaged from 1980 to 1997 while flying through volcanic ash clouds along North Pacific air routes. In addition, at least 80 ash cloud encounters occurred worldwide in the same time period, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and lost revenue.

These incidents led to great interest in TOMS data by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and NOAA. A fast turn-around system was developed by the principal investigator of TOMS to respond to requests about reported volcanic eruptions. It soon became clear that SO2 was a unique discriminator between eruptions that produce large, dangerous clouds and smaller eruptions that represent little threat to aircraft. NASA continued to support this quasi-operational capability for a number of years on a best-efforts basis.

In the 1990s, theoretical developments indicated that the sensitivity of the TOMS UV technique could be greatly enhanced by a better selection of wavelengths. This meant that the scientific output could be extended to the monitoring of pre-eruptive gas emissions, which were predictive for eruptions. However, the value of this

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

technique from polar orbiting satellites was limited, because the probability of seeing these low-altitude emissions depends on catching cloudfree moments. Thus, it became clear that geostationary satellites provide ideal platforms for volcano monitoring as well as for observing the drift of volcanic clouds.

Transition Process

Recognizing the operational value of the TOMS data, the FAA, NOAA, and NASA established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to provide for the transfer of NASA technology to NOAA for processing TOMS data and for the provision of raw data to NOAA. The production software was incorporated into the NOAA/NESDIS near-real-time operational system. Special real-time processing codes were developed and delivered to the National Weather Service in Anchorage for immediate readout of the NASA Earth Probe TOMS instrument during satellite passes. The system was also planned for the QuikTOMS mission, but that satellite was destroyed in a launch failure in 2001.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) set up a working group to coordinate the activities of the operational agencies for dealing with volcanic ash clouds in aviation safety. Participants included the FAA, NOAA, USGS, DOD, the Smithsonian Institution, NASA, and the airline industry, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association and Air Transport Association. The primary satellite tools for the detection of volcanic clouds were the NASA/TOMS and the NOAA POES/AVHRR and GOES/sounder instruments. In addition, visible satellite imagery was used to detect plumes by their shapes. One of the immediate concerns of the OFCM Volcanic Ash Working Group was a NOAA plan to change the GOES sounder wavelengths, with the consequence that an important technique for retrievals of ash would no longer be possible. A second concern was the growing risk to aircraft from the increased number of flights, especially in the North Pacific, with its high density of active volcanoes.

With this history, NASA made several attempts to develop new capabilities to detect volcanic eruptions. Two pertinent missions were proposed in the first Earth System Science Pathfinder Announcement of Opportunity (AO) in 1996, one by NASA Langley Research Center and one by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The proposal from Langley Research Center was selected in Step 1, with the plan to fly as a payload-of-opportunity on a commercial communications satellite, but it had to be withdrawn when the commitment with the satellite provider could not be completed.

Goddard Space Flight Center, with the principal investigator (PI) of TOMS as VOLCAM PI, decided to propose the VOLCAM mission to the second ESSP AO in 1998 when OFCM indicated that substantial support would be available if the UV

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

sensor were augmented with an infrared (IR) sensor for nighttime detection. It was estimated at the time that this mission could be accomplished for a NASA cost of $45 million by flying on an existing spacecraft such as GOES. Part of the proposal strategy was to include other agencies as partners, contributing according to their means and capabilities. NASA would do mission development, flight hardware, software development, and scientific research; NOAA would do data ingest, processing, and analysis; FAA would do aviation control planning and education; and USGS would do eruption prediction and diagnosis. NESDIS agreed to contribute the processing costs, and the NWS endorsed the proposed concept, although reservations were expressed about the limited resolution of the IR camera. The FAA also endorsed the proposal, although attempts to elevate the level of commitment within the FAA failed. The FAA uses the NWS as its source of environmental data for air traffic control. The perceived lack of direct involvement in production of the data was a factor that limited the FAA’s contribution to the in-kind training costs following successful launch of the mission. The USGS administrator strongly supported the proposal, but warned that direct funding and substantial commitments could not be provided owing to the Office of Management and Budget’s concerns over “mission creep.” However, the USGS offered in-kind support during the operational test phase of the mission.

NASA selected the VOLCAM proposal on the basis of its scientific merits, and asked for a full Step 2 proposal. During the Step 2 study, agreements were reached with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) project for flight service on either TDRS I or J and with NOAA/NESDIS to carry VOLCAM on either GOES N or O. Two commercial satellite owners also indicated interest in working with NASA. At the end of the Step 2 studies, VOLCAM was one of two candidate missions selected to conduct extended assessment studies, with one of the two to be selected for flight based on the extended study. The strong science, low risk, and flight heritage were cited as the major strengths of VOLCAM. Weaknesses were cited in the data flow plan in the partner agencies, uncertainty in spacecraft integration costs, and lack of maturity in the IR camera design. The weaknesses were addressed in the extended study report. During the oral phase of the report, the question of the commitment of other agencies was raised, and it became apparent that in-kind contributions did not meet the expectations of the associate administrator of NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). However, none of the attendees from other agencies was able to commit resources to the instrument and mission development. The prime issue was a commitment for continued operational funding support beyond the scientific demonstration mission rather than support for the proposed ESSP mission.

VOLCAM was not selected for flight, but the ESE associate administrator expressed an intention to explore a cooperative program with NOAA for flight of the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

UV sensor on a future GOES satellite. The cooperative program was later defined as a joint mission with a proposed NOAA instrument, the Special Events Imager (SEI), which had partial funding in the FY 2000 NOAA budget. Owing to the limited funding, both teams were asked to determine whether the functions of SEI and VOLCAM could be combined in a single instrument. Technical issues ended up eliminating this possibility, but a compromise plan was submitted to merge the electronics portions of the instruments. The joint project ultimately failed when Congress eliminated the SEI item from the NOAA budget. Without a NOAA contribution to the hardware costs, the joint mission was abandoned.

Operational Status

The VOLCAM instrument has not been successfully transitioned to operational status, although some of the VOLCAM eruption-monitoring algorithms developed for use with the TOMS sensor have been transitioned to NWS.

Lessons Learned

Lessons learned from the VOLCAM case study are largely related to a lack of sufficient agency commitment. In spite of relatively strong interest by a number of agencies, no one agency was sufficiently supportive to lead the transition.

  1. VOLCAM was developed out of a long-standing interagency collaboration at the working level, a result of the NASA-led geophysical science and natural hazards program’s having produced information of value to the operational agencies. An MOU was established between NASA and the operational agencies to cooperate in the area of volcanic hazard data. Nevertheless, neither the MOU nor the collaboration between agencies at the working level was sufficient to establish agency commitment for the VOLCAM transition.

  2. NOAA has a very limited capacity or budget to evaluate new sensing concepts internally, so advancements in observational measurements are difficult to make unless they involve extending the capabilities of NOAA’s few core instruments.

  3. Other than the GIFTS mission, NASA has not funded any geostationary sensor proposals in recent years. Opportunities to evaluate new research sensors or measurements for geostationary operational use have thus been extremely limited.

  4. The lack of an organizational transition mechanism between NASA and NOAA makes direct transfer of technologies between the agencies difficult.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

TROPICAL RAINFALL MEASURING MISSION

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a low-Earth-orbiting satellite with an orbit that oscillates about the equator between roughly 35°N and 35°S. A joint mission between the United States and Japan, TRMM’s primary stated goals were (1) to improve the understanding of crucial links in climate variability that are due to the hydrological cycle, (2) to improve the large-scale numerical models of weather and climate through assimilation of TRMM data, and (3) to advance our understanding of cloud ensembles and their impacts on larger-scale circulations. Shortly after launch, scientists recognized that TRMM would also provide valuable new information on hurricanes in all stages of development.

Research Origin/Heritage

In 1987, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) became the first to fly a passive multifrequency microwave imager on a meteorological satellite. The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) channels penetrate to Earth’s surface unless the signal is attenuated by precipitation or large aerosols. One of the SSM/I channels senses at a frequency of 85 GHz, with a spatial resolution of 13 to 15 km. This channel is able to penetrate nonraining clouds. However, larger, frozen hydrometeors (e.g., hail, graupel) and raindrops associated with vigorous convection dramatically scatter radiation at this frequency. Thus, the sensor can detect intense rain associated with hurricane rainbands and the eyewall, owing to the lowered brightness temperatures created by the intense scattering. A time series of 85-GHz data can reveal a storm’s internal convective structure and evolution by mapping the organization and vigor of the convection around the storm center.

Building on the success of the DOD program, NASA launched a special satellite for measuring meteorological quantities over the tropics using passive and active microwave sensors. The TRMM satellite completed 4 years of successful data collection in November 2001. The primary TRMM sensors include a precipitation radar, TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), and Visible/Infrared Scanner. TRMM’s precipitation radar is an active sensor and the first successfully deployed civilian rainfall-rate-monitoring radar to operate from space. The precipitation radar can provide three-dimensional profiles of precipitation through storm cloud patterns. (Kummerow et al. [2000] provide more detail on the TRMM instruments, algorithms, and a wide range of early results.) The TMI is a multichannel, dual-polarized, conically scanning passive microwave instrument similar to the SSM/I. The purpose of the visible/infrared instrument is to enable TRMM to be a “flying rain gauge.” The TRMM satellite radar and radiometer combination is intended to obtain high-quality vertical profiles of precipitation as well as surface rainfall estimates. TRMM’s rainfall-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

rate observations from the combined radar and passive microwave instruments allow the calibration of empirical rain estimates from the IR sensors. As a result, uncertainty in tropical rainfall has been greatly reduced from earlier space-based estimates. Currently, these techniques are being applied to estimate hurricane rainfall.

Transition Process

TRMM observations are also being used to provide better initial conditions for numerical models. Krishnamurti et al. (2000) have developed a complex modeling approach using TRMM data that is showing promise for improving 3-day hurricane forecasts of both track and intensity. The approach uses multiple analyses and multiple models to create a “super-ensemble” forecast.

TRMM data are being provided in near real time to hurricane forecasters. The high-resolution imagery is being used to help locate the centers of hurricanes and to assess convective organization trends. The value of TRMM to the forecast and research communities is evidenced by its wide usage in operational tracking and forecasting of tropical systems, along with its contribution to the increased understanding of the global water cycle. Figure B.3 shows TRMM-derived rainfall rates and surface winds obtained from QuikSCAT for Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Operational Status

TRMM is not considered an operational satellite; however, TRMM observations are being used by operational forecast centers as noted above. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission, a joint Japan-U.S. mission scheduled for launch in 2007, is a follow-on to TRMM.10

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from this case study are these:

  1. The involvement of the operational community in preparing for TRMM observations before launch allowed for the rapid testing of TRMM data in operational models.

  2. Satellites designed primarily for research or for proof of concepts can provide data that are useful for operations if the operational centers are prepared for the data and if the data are provided in real time.

10  

Additional information is available online at <http://gpm.gsfc.nasa.gov>. Accessed January 22, 2003.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

FIGURE B.3 Example of QuikSCAT surface wind data overlain on TRMM rainfall signatures during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. SOURCES: Liu et al., 2000 (Plate 12 in Simpson et al., 2003). Reprinted with permission.

REFERENCES

Atlas, R., R.N. Hoffman, S.M. Leidner, J. Sienkewicz, T.-W. Yu, S.C. Bloom, E. Brin, J. Ardizzone, J. Terry, D. Bungato, and J.C. Jusem. 2001. The effects of marine winds from scatterometer data on weather analysis and forecasting. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 82:1965-1990.


Barrick, D.E., and C.T. Swift. 1980. The Seasat microwave instruments in historical perspective. IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. OE-5:74-79.

Black, P.G., R.C. Gentry, V.J. Cardone, and J. Hawkins. 1985. Seasat microwave wind and rain observations in severe tropical and midlatitude marine systems. Adv. Geophys. 27:197-277.

Burger, J.J. 1991. ERS-1 ready for launch. ESA Bull. No. 65:13-15.


Chelton, D.B. 2001. Report of the High-Resolution Ocean Topography Working Group. Ref. 2001-4. College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis.

Chelton, D.B., J.C.Rèis, B.J. Haynes, L.-L. Fu, and P.S. Callahan. 2001. Satellite altimetry. Satellite Altimetry and Earth Sciences, L.-L. Fu and A. Cazenave, eds. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

Christian, H.J., K.T. Driscoll, S.J. Goodman, R.J. Blakeslee, D.A. Mach, and D.E. Buechler. 1996. The Optical Transient Detector (OTD). Pp. 368-371 in Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, Osaka, Japan, June 10-14, 1996.

Christian, H.J., R.J. Blakeslee, S.J. Goodman, D.A. Mach, M.F. Stewart, D.E. Buechler, W.J. Koshak, J.M. Hall, W.L. Boeck, K.T. Driscoll, and D.J. Bocippio. 1999. The Lightning Imaging Sensor. Pp. 746-749 in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, Guntersville, Ala., June 7-11, 1999.

ESA (European Space Agency). 1995. New Views of the Earth—Scientific Achievements of ERS-1. ESA SP-1176/1. ESA, Paris, France.


Fea, M. 1991. The ERS ground segment. ESA Bull. No. 65:49-61.

Freilich, M.H. 1985. Science Opportunities Using the NASA Scatterometer on N-ROSS. JPL Publication 84-57. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif..

Freilich, M.H., D.G. Long, and M.W. Spencer. 1994. SeaWinds: A scanning scatterometer for ADEOS-II— Science overview. Pp. 960-963 in Proc. Int. Geosci. Rem. Sens. Symp., Pasadena, Calif., August 8-12, 1994.

Fu, L.-L., W.T. Liu, and M.R. Abbott. 1990. Satellite remote sensing of the ocean. The Sea: Ocean Engineering Science, Vol. 9, Pt. B, B. Le Méhauté and D.M. Hanes, eds. John Wiley & Sons, New York.


Gaiser, P.W. 1999. Windsat—Satellite-based polarimetric microwave radiometer. 1999 IEEE MTTS-Dig. 1:403-406.

Graf, J., C. Sasaki, C. Winn, T. Liu, W. Tsai, M. Freilich, and D. Long. 1998. NASA scatterometer experiment. Acta Astronautica 43:397-407.

Grantham, W.L., E.M. Bracalante, W.L. Jones, and J.W. Johnson. 1977. The SeaSat—A satellite scatterometer. IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. OE-2:200-206.


Hall, R. Cargill. 1985. A History of the Military Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Program. National Reconnaissance Office History Program. Originally classified 1985 (declassified 2000). National Reconnaissance Office, Washington, D.C..

Hawkins, J.D., and P.G. Black. 1982. Seasat scatterometer detection of gale force winds near tropical cyclones. J. Geophys. Res. 88:1674-1682.


Kalnay, E., M. Kanamitsu, R. Kistler, W. Collins, D. Deaven, L. Gandin, M. Iredell, S. Saha, G. White, J. Woollen, Y. Zhu, M. Chelliah, W. Ebisuzaki, W. Higgins, J. Janowiak, K.C. Mo, C. Ropelewski, J. Wang, A. Leetmaa, R. Reynolds, R. Jenne, and D. Joseph. 1996. The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 77(3):437-431.

Kalnay, E., S.J. Lord, and R.D. McPherson. 1998. Maturity of operational numerical weather prediction: Medium range. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 79(12):2753-2769.

Krishnamurti, T.N., C.M. Kishtawal, Z. Zhang, T. LaRow, D. Bachiochi, E. Williford, S. Gadgil, and S.Surendran. 2000. Multimodel ensemble forecasts for weather and seasonal climate. Journal of Climate 13(23):4196-4216.

Kummerow, C., et al. 2000. The status of the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) after two years in orbit. J. Appl. Meteorol. 39(12):1965-1982.


Liu, W.T., H. Hu, and S. Yueh. 2000. Interplay between wind and rain observed in Hurricane Floyd. EOS Trans. 81:253-257.


Moore, R.K., and A.D. Fung. 1979. Radar determination of winds at sea. Proc. IEEE 67:1504-1521.


Naderi, F.M., M.H. Freilich, and D.G. Long. 1991. Spaceborne radar measurement of wind velocity over the ocean—An overview of the NSCAT scatterometer system. Proc. IEEE 79:850-866.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). 1985. Scatterometer Research in Oceanography and Meteorology Announcement of Opportunity. A.O. OSSA-1-85, January 31, 1985. NASA, Washington, D.C.

NRC (National Research Council). 1995. Earth Observations from Space—History, Promise, and Reality. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

NRC. 2003. The Sun to the Earth—and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., in press.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×

O’Brien, J.J., and members of NASA Satellite Surface Stress Working Group. 1982. Scientific Opportunities Using Satellite Surface Stress Measurements Over the Ocean—Report of the Satellite Surface Stress Working Group. Nova University/N.Y.I.T. Press, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Offiler, D. 1994. The calibration of ERS-1 satellite scatterometer winds. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. 11:1002-1017.

Orville, R.E. 1987. Meteorological applications of lightning data. Rev. Geophys. 25:411-414.


Pierson, W.J. 1983. Highlights of the Seasat-SASS Program: A review. Pp. 69-86 in Satellite Microwave Remote Sensing (T.D. Allen, ed.). Halstead Press, New York.


Simpson, R.H., R.A. Anthes, M. Garstang, and J.M. Simpson, eds. 2003. Hurricane! Coping with Disaster: Progress and Challenges Since Galveston, 1900. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C..

Spencer, M.W., C. Wu, and D.G. Long. 1997. Tradeoffs in the design of a spaceborne scanning pencil beam scatterometer: Application to SeaWinds. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens. 35:115-126.

Stoffelen, A. 1998. Toward the true near-surface wind speed: Error modeling and calibration using triple collocation. J. Geophys. Res. 103:7755-7766.

Stoffelen, A., and D.L.T. Anderson. 1995. The ECMWF Contribution to the Characterization, Interpretation, Calibration and Validation of ERS-1 Backscatter Measurements and Winds, and Their Use in Numerical Weather Prediction Models. ESA Contractor Report. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, U.K.

Stoffelen, A., and D. Anderson. 1997. Ambiguity removal and assimilation of scatterometer data. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 123:491-518.

Stoffelen, A., and G.J. Cats. 1991. The impact of Seasat-A scatterometer data on high-resolution analysis and forecasts: The development of the QE-II storm. Mon. Wea. Rev. 119:2794-2802.


Taverna, M.A. 2002. U.S. seeks to regain edge in climate issue. Aviation Week 157(2):62-63.

Turman, B.N. 1978. Analysis of lightning data from the DMSP satellite. J. Geophys. Res. 83:5019.


USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). 1997. Volcanic Ash—Danger to Aircraft in the North Pacific. USGS Fact Sheet 030-97. USGS, Reston, Va.


Yueh, S.H., W.J. Wilson, and S. Dinardo. 2002. Polarimetric radar remote sensing of ocean surface wind. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens. 40:793-800.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 101
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 102
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 103
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 104
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 105
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 106
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 107
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 108
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 109
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 110
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 112
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 117
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 118
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 119
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 121
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 122
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 123
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 124
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 126
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 127
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 128
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 129
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 130
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 131
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 132
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 133
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 134
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 135
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 136
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 137
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations." National Research Council. 2003. Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10658.
×
Page 138
Next: Appendix C: Future Missions »
Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment: Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $49.00 Buy Ebook | $39.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

This report addresses the transition of research satellites, instruments, and calculations into operational service for accurately observing and predicting the Earth’s environment. These transitions, which take place in large part between NASA and NOAA, are important for maintaining the health, safety, and prosperity of the nation, and for achieving the vision of an Earth Information System in which quantitative information about the complete Earth system is readily available to myriad users. Many transitions have been ad hoc, sometimes taking several years or even decades to occur, and others have encountered roadblocks—lack of long-range planning, resources, institutional or cultural differences, for instance—and never reached fruition. Satellite Observations of Earth’s Environment recommends new structures and methods that will allow seamless transitions from research to practice.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!