December 2011

best

Director's Note

Tom Achtor

NPP Launch

This is an exciting time for those who build, deploy, operate and provide scientific support for our environmental satellites. After 33 years with pretty much the same instrument suite on our operational polar orbiting satellites, great advances in observing capability will be achieved with the launch and deployment of NPP. The successful launch occurred on 28 October 2011. The microwave ATMS was the first instrument to transmit data, and on 21 November the VIIRS Imager transmitted its first image. Liam Gumley created a true color image from VIIRS and that image was publically released as the first image from VIIRS by NASA (see figure below).

viirs first image

SSEC/CIMSS scientists are involved in numerous NPP/JPSS related projects. These are the titles of proposals submitted in the last year:

  1. Research Tasks in Support of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Program

    Task 1: A Broad Scope of Calibration/Validation and Independent Verification and Validation Activities in Support of JPSS, with Emphasis on CrIS SDRs
    Task 2: VIIRS SDR Calibration/Validation
    Task 3: CrIMSS EDR Cal/Val: ARM Site Support
    Task 4: CrIMSS Post Launch EDR Assessment
    Task 5: NPP-VIIRS Cloud and Aerosol Evaluation

    These tasks cover a range from instrument performance evaluation to evaluation of scientific products that come from the data (EDRs)

  2. Participation on the JPSS Algorithm Development Library Team: This project takes the operational scientific data processing algorithms and make them available to international users through direct broadcast.

  3. Support for the NOAA JPSS Cloud Remote Sensing: This project involves the development and/or improvement of cloud products from NPP.

  4. Science and Management Support for NPP VIIRS Snow and Ice EDRs: This project involves development and/or improvement of snow and ice products from NPP.

  5. Assessment and Optimization of IR Radiance Measurement and Products for Climate, Assimilation, and Remote Sensing Applications: Based on CrIS.

  6. Research Tasks in Support of a NPP/JPSS Aircraft Field Campaign: NASA and NOAA plan to conduct a field program in spring 2012 to conduct evaluation of instrument performance and subsequent data products. SSEC/CIMSS will participate with Scanning HIS and HSRL Lidar participation and data analysis.

  7. Integration of NPP Algorithms into the JPSS Proving Ground: NOAA has started a program to inform users of NPP data and products and train users of the products. This program has goals similar to the GOES-R Proving Ground, but is expanded to the international community.

With improved funding for the NPP/JPSS program coming this year and next, there are excellent opportunities for our Center to expand our involvement in support of this exciting program.

AGU and AMS

December and January bring two of the largest conferences that our scientists attend during the year. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting is held every year in San Francisco in early December and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting is held somewhere in the USA, usually in mid to late January.

15,000 scientists attended the AGU fall meeting in 2010 which includes Earth science topics from Atmospheric Science to Volcanology. The meeting offers keynote addresses by several well known scientific leaders, including an address this year by Dr. Jane Lubchenko, the administrator (head) of NOAA. We will have 34 oral and poster presentations at AGU this year.

The AMS annual meeting contains several conferences, several symposiums, workshops and special events that cover many sub disciplines of the field. This year the Satellite Meteorology conference will also occur during the annual meeting, which means even more SSEC/CIMSS scientists will be attending and presenting results of their research.

The Sunday before the annual meeting begins, the AMS sponsors a “WeatherFest” for local pre-college students. This is a great venue to tell parents and their kids about the weather and let them experiment and learn. SSEC has participated with a booth in WeatherFest for several years, with computers that allow the kids to play with the weather apps that Tom Whittaker and others have created.

SSEC also has a booth in the commercial exhibitor area where we show people what we are doing with science data visualization (McIDAS, the globe, mobile devices) and also share our research ideas. The SSEC booth is one of the hot spots in the exhibitor area and a meeting place for UW alumni.

Holiday Party

I imagine that everyone in SSEC is aware of Hank’s “State of the Center” presentation at 1 pm on Thursday 15 December in the Educational Science lecture hall, and the Center Holiday Party that will start after Hank’s presentation, around 3pm, back at SSEC. Hope to see you there and have a great holiday season!

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