Major Milestone - Five Years of Research to NWS Operations
On 07 July 2011, CIMSS reached a major milestone: five years of a successful research-to-operations exercise with National Weather Service (NWS) field offices across the country.
CIMSS started providing MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery displayable in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) to the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) forecast office near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 07 July 2006.
This sample of the type of MODIS products supplied illustrates that on 06 July 2011 generally cloud-free conditions over the western Great Lakes allowed a nice view of the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) across that region. Note that SST values were still as cold as 40.3º F over parts of Lake Superior. The corresponding MODIS 0.65 µm visible image showed a few well-defined lake breeze boundaries, as well as a thin northwest-to-southeast oriented plume of smoke from wildfires burning in Canada.
Since then, the real-time distribution of CIMSS and STAR Advanced Satellite Products Branch (ASPB) experimental satellite imagery and products has grown to 70 NWS WFOs, Headquarters, and Centers nationwide. The imagery and products, based on unique Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) references, have contributed to more than 440 forecast decisions.
This activity has been furthered in recent years as a result of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) Proving Ground program, which closely pairs the research and operational communities to demonstrate the capabilities of our nation's next-generation geostationary satellites.
CIMSS has distributed model output from the CIMSS Regional Assimilation System (CRAS), imagery and products from polar-orbiting instruments, such as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and simulated imagery from the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. It continues this activity under a proving ground readiness exercise for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R).Back to Front Page
