•NOAA’s Center for Satellite Applications and
Research (STAR) has teamed with academic partners across the country via four
Cooperative Institutes and one Cooperative
Center.
•CIRA @ Colorado State University
•CIMSS @ University of Wisconsin
•CIOSS @ Oregon State University
•CICS @ University of Maryland
•CREST – consortium of universities managed by CUNY
•Three branches of STAR are in the
Cooperative Research Program and collocated with a Cooperative Institute
•
The Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology
Branch at CIRA/CSU
• The Advanced Satellite Products Branch at
CIMSS/UW
• The Satellite Climate Studies Branch at
CICS/UM

Dramatic
Improvements in
Forecasting
Extreme Events
Highly Skillful
Seasonal to
Decadal
Climate
Predictions
National Suite of
Air Quality Services
Improved
Understanding of
Physical, Chemical,
Biological, and
Societal
Interactions
Ocean Exploration for Humankind

NCEP began using the MODIS polar winds product in the
Global Forecast System (GFS) on November 29, 2005. Six other numerical weather prediction centers currently use the MODIS winds in operational forecast system: the ECMWF,
NASA GMAO, the Japan
Meteorological Agency (JMA), the Canadian Meteorological
Centre (CMC), U.S. Navy
FNMOC, and the UK Met
Office.

IR image
Ash product
From the 1544 UTC VAAC message:
“REMARKS: WE HAVE RECEIVED A REPORT
FROM NAVY AVIATION IN THE AREA
INDICATING AN ERUPTION OF SANTA ANA
TO FL460. THE ERUPTION CANNOT BE
SEEN IN THE 1515Z IMAGE POSSBILY
BECAUSE OF WEATHER CLOUDS IN THE
AREA. MODEL DATA SUGGESTS ANY ASH
NEAR FL460 WILL MOVE TOWARD THE
WEST ”
From the 1601 UTC VAAC message:
“REMARKS: THE ERUPTION IS NOW
BELIEVED TO HAVE STARTED AT ABOUT
1400Z AND AN AREA PREVIOUSLY
THOUGHT TO BE THUNDERSTORMS IS
NOW IDENTIFIED AS THICK ASH. A
FORECAST WILL BE ISSUED AS SOON AS
The automated Pavolonis et al. technique (JTECH) would have identified the Santa
Ana ash cloud in the 1445 UTC image (one of the first images capturing the eruption).
This product would have likely helped the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center
(VAAC) issue a more timely warning statement.

• Monthly mean products derived from SSM/I since
July 1987:
– Precipitation rate and frequency
– Snow cover frequency
– Sea-ice concentration
– Oceanic total precipitable water
– Oceanic cloud liquid water and frequency
– Ocean surface wind speed
• Products are archived at
NCDC
• Used by NCEP/CPC, JMA,
GEWEX/GPCP
Warm Phase
Cold Phase
Neutral
Phase

• Initiate development of fully integrated ecosystem model of
Chesapeake Bay
– Implement Regional
Ocean Modeling System for bay
– Implement NCEP
Weather Research &
Forecast (wRF)
Modeling System for Bay
• Chair IOCCG Working
Group to finalize “Why
Ocean Color?” Report
• Upcoming Events
– AGU Ocean Sciences
Meeting, Honolulu, HI
February 20 – 24, 2006
SeaWiFS true-color image of Mid-Atlantic Region from April 12, 1998.
Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE

• GPCP is a project that is part of the WCRP/GEWEX program
– Comprises of various “centers”, several of which are
NOAA/Climate Program supported
• Current product suite (1979 – present)
– Monthly mean 2.5°x2.5° latitude/longitude
– Merged satellite and gauge, error estimates
– Satellite components: microwave and infrared estimates, error estimates
– Gauge analysis, error estimates
– Intermediate analysis products, e.g., merged satellite estimates
– Daily 1 x 1 degree, Pentad

RAMM / CIRA TROPICAL CYCLONE IR ARCHIVE
--
IR images, 640 x 480 with 4 km resolution in
Mercator projection
-- began in 1998 with goal of documenting entire hurricane life cycles at 30-min interval
-- all Atlantic hurricanes since 1995, all named storms since 1996
-- all eastern Pacific named storms since 1997
-- automated, global coverage since late 2004, with
2 complete SH seasons
-- as of 15 March 2006:
464 tropical cyclones
125,000+ images
APPLICATIONS:
- improvements to the Statistical Hurricane Intensity
Prediction Scheme (SHIPS)
inner core wind algorithm for the CIRA/RAMM tropical cyclone satellite surface wind analysis
objective wind radii estimates
- long period animations and TC comparison studies
- center relative average images
- development on improved Objective Dvorak Technique intensity estimates
< Atlantic hurricanes 4-km X 2 zoom
4-km: NWPac, EPac, >
SPac, NIO, SIO

• New product development for GOES-R
Risk Reduction
• Initial focus on fog/stratus and dust detection products
• Thee-color techniques
• Utilizing MODIS and MSG data
• Web-based demonstration planned
• Quasi-operational forum
Thee-Color
Product Name
MSG “natural” color product
MSG “day snowfog” product
Red component
1.6 µm
Green component
0.86 µm
Blue component
0.6 µm
Modified theecolor fog/stratus product
0.8 µm* 1.6 µm*
0.6 µm albedo 1.6 µm albedo
3.9 µm
(solar/reflected part only)*
Shortwave (3.9
µm) albedo

Operational and near-operational satellites sensors supported
Assume 1 Primary POES AM, 1 Backup POES AM, 1 Primary POES PM, 1 Backup POES PM, 1 GOES East, 1
GOES West
30
25
20
40
35
50
45
15
10
5
0
1990-1994 1995-1999 2000-2004 2005-2009 2010-2014 2015-2020
GOES-R
GOES N/P
GOES I/M
GOES-H
NPOESS
NPP
METOP
NOAA N/N'
NOAA KLM
NOAA-G/H/I/J

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2
3
5
1990-1994
Earth Observing Satellites Launched/Planned as of July 2006
5
8
5
3
9
22
1995-1999 2000-2004
International NASA NOAA USGS
8
7
64
2005-2009