Scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Nov. 19, the nation’s newest weather satellite, GOES-R, promises to revolutionize how researchers and forecasters see the Earth from space. Scientists at Colorado State University are at the forefront of developing new tools and products in support of the upcoming mission.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program, a joint venture of NASA and NOAA, constitutes the most commonly used, and arguably most important instruments for observing and forecasting weather. Currently, two GOES spacecraft are orbiting the planet from about 22,000 miles away, a carefully selected distance at which the spacecraft’s orbital velocity matches the rotation of the Earth. From the perspective of a viewer on Earth, the satellite appears to hover, giving it a stationary (hence “geostationary”) view of our ever-changing weather.
The next-generation GOES-R satellite will include several new science instruments for Earth observation from the geostationary orbit, including the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM).
当前的一系列卫星在五个不同的光谱带中观察到地球，称为“通道”，一个通道覆盖了阳光反射，四个通道探测了地球表面和大气发出的不同水平的热辐射。GON-R上的新ABI仪器将提供16个渠道，从而为科学家提供有关地球及其天气的更多信息。这是50多年来首次与当前Goes系列的黑白图像相比，这是该星球的真实图片。
此外，新的ABI仪器在更高的定义上感觉到地球 - 某些频道的空间分辨率是四倍 - 并将以比旧系列的15分钟分辨率更快地收集行星的图片。ABI还可以以1分钟甚至30秒的间隔扫描感兴趣的特征，例如飓风或雷暴。这个高刷新率将允许forecastersto observe storm structures that evolve too rapidly for legacy sensors to capture, but hold key information related to severe weather onset.
All of these features mean forecasters will have more accurate information to use when making time-critical forecasts of weather events year-round. This will include severe storms and squall lines in the spring and summer months, tropical cyclones in the late summer and early fall, and powerful winter weather systems.
Development of satellite-based products and forecaster-friendly tools has been at the core of research at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University since its inception in 1980.
One of only 16 cooperative partnerships with NOAA nationwide, CIRA harnesses the research excellence of CSU, particularly the Department of Atmospheric Science, to bridge the gap that often exists between basic research and operation applications. CIRA’s expertise in satellite remote sensing and computer modeling of the Earth’s atmosphere plays an important role in advancing NOAA’s operational capabilities, for the benefit of all.
作为由NOAA赞助的全国性GON-R-R-R-READ基础计划的一部分，CIRA的研究人员开发了几种新的预测产品来使用GON-R的新功能。他们正在将这些产品部署到全国NOAA区域中心和国家气象局预测办公室。
CIRA研究科学家史蒂夫·米勒（Steve Miller）带领一个团队利用Goes-R Advanced基线成像仪的实用性。他们开发了一套算法，该算法将最大程度地发挥ABI数据的潜力，以产生地球的超高定义，真实的图像。他们使用日本气象局发射的姐妹地静止卫星的数据来完成此操作，该卫星卫星具有与ABI相似的工具。米勒的团队的工作将有助于表征诸如野火，雪场，沙尘暴，茂密的雾层以及其他难以识别的现象之类的表面特征。
“通过其很大改善空间的组合,time, and multi-channel coverage, the ABI will give us an unprecedented ability to identify the unique ‘fingerprints’ of various surface and atmospheric features, allowing us to distinguish between them in what tend to be very complex scenes,” Miller said. “One new capability we are all very excited about is true color imagery, which is perhaps the most visually intuitive form of satellite imagery and one that we can all relate to. It captures the wonder and beauty of our Blue Marble planet while at the same time giving forecasters a practical, at-a-glance tool for rapidly assessing the current weather situation.”
The lightning mapper instrument, called the GLM, will provide better forecast capabilities for both severe storms over land and tropical weather at sea, including enhanced identification of tropical storms as they rapidly intensify into powerful systems. The recent devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew as it roared through the Caribbean before hitting the U.S. eastern seaboard demonstrates the need for the best possible information for these storms.
NOAA scientist John Knaff, one of the NOAA researchers embedded at CIRA, is developing tools to look at lightning frequency and intensity inside these storms using the GLM as a metric for storm strength. The more lightning that is occurring in these storms, the stronger the updrafts that feed the storm, and the more likely it will be that the storm strengthens.
在美国大陆上改善天气预报是另一个领域，NOAA研究人员与CSU和CIRA合作，正在进步。通过利用ABI提供的每个频道，NOAA研究员Dan Lindsey带领CIRA的一个团队无缝将GONE-R的观测值从ROGH-R进行了图形表示，该图形表示与我们最复杂的天气预测模型所创造的可视化效果完全匹配。然后，天气预报员会随着时间的流逝而看到天气，并能够与预测的变化相匹配。weather。如果预测模型中有错误，则观察和预测之间的过渡将更加明显，并且可以对预测指导进行适当调整。
CIRA researchers led by Bernie Connell are also putting together training programs for meteorologists nationwide to learn how best to use these products. Connell’s work will help forecasters take full advantage of GOES-R capabilities starting on day one. Additionally, Andrea Schumacher of CIRA serves as a liaison between the GOES-R program and the National Hurricane Center, where she helps evaluate GOES-R products to optimize their use in improving hurricane forecasting.
舒马赫说：“飓风一生的大部分时间都花在了公海上，这使得静止的卫星数据成为预报员的关键数据来源。”“ GONE-R提供的改进和增强功能将使预测者对热带海洋的前所未有的观点，这有望提高其监视和预测这些强大风暴的能力。”
As the future of satellite technology becomes today’s reality, researchers at CSU, in partnership with NOAA and NASA, will continue to lead the way in developing better and more accurate forecast products.
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