Satellite Observations of the Earth's Environment Accelerating the Transition of Research to Operations (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations
Appendix B: Case Studies of Transitions from Research to Operations
Pages 101-138
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From page 101... ...
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)
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From page 102... ...
~. 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."4 It wou Id be many years i nvolvi ng much study before the satel I ite-derived soundings would be fully employed in operational numerical weather prediction.
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From page 103... ...
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.
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From page 104... ...
Transition Process There was no clear start) ng point for the transition from research on i nfrared sounders to their use in operational service and numerical weather prediction models.
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From page 105... ...
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]
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From page 106... ...
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.
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From page 107... ...
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)
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From page 108... ...
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 missioncritical operations such as the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam War.
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From page 109... ...
The undersecretary of the Air Force therefore created an "interim" meteorological weather satellite program forthe National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
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From page 110... ...
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.
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From page 111... ...
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 )
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From page 112... ...
Subsequently, systems engineering and IV&V processes were strengthened, and the DMSP satellite constellation was healthy again by the mid-1 980s. Ultimately, in the early 1 990s, convergence of the mi I itary and civi I weather satel I ite programs became a reality, and the integrated DMSP and NOAA program the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
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From page 113... ...
Observations of lightning are therefore clearly useful for operational forecasting (Orville, 19871. 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)
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From page 114... ...
This gap separati ng the demonstration of sensor capabi I ity from the use of satel I ite I ightn i ng 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)
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From page 115... ...
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.
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From page 116... ...
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.
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From page 117... ...
tracking, the satellite bus, integration, orbit determination, and data processing. The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
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From page 118... ...
Scatterometers have been flown on NASA and ESA research missions conti nuously si nce 1 991 . These missions have provided near-real-time data that have been used in operational numerical weather prediction and marine forecasting.
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From page 119... ...
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.
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From page 120... ...
Assimilation of ERS scatterometer data into U.S. numerical weather prediction models was investigated both at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
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From page 121... ...
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.
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From page 122... ...
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., 20011. Wh i le the i ncreased coverage of NSCAT relative to ERS-1 yielded sign if icantly larger forecast impacts in numerical weather prediction, its largest contribution came in operational subjective marine forecasting.
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From page 123... ...
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.
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From page 124... ...
Near-real-time data delivery from research missions is required in order to gain the interest of operational numerical weather prediction agencies.
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From page 125... ...
. 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.
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From page 126... ...
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.
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From page 127... ...
However, assimilation of imaging microwave sensor data into Numerical Weather Prediction models is just beginning to be addressed. Lessons Learned The lessons learned from th is case study i ncl ude the fol lowi ng: 1.
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From page 128... ...
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.
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From page 129... ...
VOLCANIC ASH MAPPER The Volcanic Ash Mapper (VOLCAM) 9 instrument was designed to conduct research on volcanic clouds and eruption precursors, providing measurements of 9This case study is condensed from materials provided through personal communications from Arlin J
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From page 130... ...
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 transitionedto operational status.
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From page 131... ...
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 Al r Li ne Pi lots Association and Al r Transport Association.
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From page 132... ...
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.
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From page 133... ...
ng i nteragency col laboration 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.
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From page 134... ...
Department of Defense (DOD) became the first to fly a passive multifrequency microwave imager on a meteorological satellite.
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From page 135... ...
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.
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From page 136... ...
2001. Report of the High-Resolution Ocean Topography Working Group.
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From page 137... ...
1998. Maturity of operational numerical weather prediction: Medium range.
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From page 138... ...
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.
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