Presenter:
Michael J. Folmer, PhD, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, NOAA National Weather Service, Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (NCWCP), Ocean Prediction Center
Description:
The National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center has been participating in the GOES-R and JPSS Proving Ground activities since 2011 and has benefited greatly from the improved satellite products and techniques that were introduced into forecast operations. As the forecasters were trained on the next generation of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite products and capabilities, it was gradually realized that key features in the imagery that might have been missed with the legacy satellites were now more prominent in the newer, higher resolution imagery. Forecasters are very sensitive to the lack of observational data available in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, and this has led to poor model initializations and performance when dealing with challenging atmospheric patterns. Occasionally, there are mid-latitude storm systems that overperform (based on the available guidance) and the satellite products indicate subtle features that a forecaster can use to confidently increase the winds and waves with a system, even without the luxury of verifiable observations. The most used satellite products are the multispectral imagery or RGBs (Red Green Blue), scatterometer data from ASCAT-B/C, occasional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, and altimeters. This presentation will highlight a few of these nowcasting events where guidance under-performed, but the imagery gave forecasters more confidence that the system was stronger than otherwise indicated.
Access:
Meeting ID
meet.google.com/wix-ezgs-wss
Phone Numbers
413-273-7091
PIN: 709 204 190#