1. NWS / SPoRT Coordination Call October 2010 NWA posters/presentations Scott Overpeck, Chris McKinney, and Kent Prochazka, WFO Houston/Galveston. The Coastal Gravity Wave Event of 24 April 2010. Deirdre Kann and Brian Guyer, WFO Albuquerque. The Operational Use of NASA SPoRT Imagery at NWS Albuquerque. CIRA TPW - Newest Version We will discuss the recent change to the CIRA TPW data set being provided through SPoRT which is using the MIRS data vs the current operational NESDIS version without MIRS. 8/3/2009

2. What Instruments were blended in the initial product by CIRA? — Up to 8 may be used — 5 AMSU (NOAA/POES & MetOp), 1 SSM/I (DMSP) — Passive micro. over water — Micro. over land still being researched — GPS (only over land) — Interim use overland — 300-400 stations — Caribbean, CA, Oil rigs — Highly accurate — GOES Sounder DPI GOES Sounder fills individually AMSU & SSM/I over water areas GPS-MET smoothed over land GOES Sounder fills individually AMSU & SSM/I over water areas

3. 8/3/2009 Things to Watch Out for….. — GPS bias for rough terrain GOES DPI Blended TPW MIRS Time ~ 00 UTC Drier Sierras, Wetter Valley

4. The new CIRA TPW product Based on use of MIRS Microwave Integrated Retrieval System http://mirs.nesdis.noaa.gov/ http://mirs.nesdis.noaa.gov/ Presently from subset of satellites and has slower refresh rate vs old product Overland priority: 1) GPS-met, 2) GOES Sounder, 3) MIRS “Overlay” vs “Averaged” Product The overlay advantage is a more realistic movement of moisture surges; but the final TPW product appears patchy with discontinuities at swath edges Binomial smoother is used to lessen discontinuities from “overlay” method. GPS-met and GOES Sounder used only over land GPS for isolated locations use smaller circle of influence 8/3/2009

5. Coverage of CIRA TPW from SPoRT CIRA version, MIRS-basedNESDIS version, no MIRS 8/3/2009

6. Max. TPW Value Differences CIRA TPW (w/ MIRS)NESDIS TPW (no MIRS) 8/3/2009 Areas of maximum TPW in CIRA version are lower, due to binomial smoother, differences in data used and timing of data processing.

7. CIRA TPW Anomaly Differences CIRA TPW (w/ MIRS)NESDIS TPW (no MIRS) 8/3/2009 Smaller area of 200% of normal. Noticeable couplet of max/min in NESDIS version compared to CIRA over Nevada.

8. Next Generation CIRA TPW This is the future type of the product that is likely to be supplied by NESDIS to the WFOs. Anticipating more details from CIRA on the new product validation and caveats Evaluation feedback needed from end users due to noted differences in final product. 8/3/2009

9. Next Call – November 18, 2010 Main topic: GOES-R Proving Ground products to be evaluated by SPoRT partners Lightning: A Pseudo-GLM product has been developed by SPoRT. Evaluation of this product is needed using WES cases. Imagery: Several groups are creating ABI proxy products. SPoRT is focusing on near-realtime products to simulate ABI. This will combine GOES and MODIS (possibly VIIRS in future) at the resolution of ABI in order to prep users for the coming GOES-R era. Evaluation in a concentrated time period is needed for those willing. 8/3/2009

10. GPS CIRA blended TPW fills GOES Sounder gap over Tropical Storm Fay and Mid-Lat Cyclone, both over land GOES Water Vapor Mid to upper level moisture No low level detection Lots of moisture, but how much?

11. 8/3/2009 How is it Derived? — The weekly climatology of TPW is based on the NASA Water Vapor Project, or NVAP — “normal” TPW could be monthly or seasonal — Method could switch to window average or standard deviations — Anomaly product continues in research & development mode Mean TPW (mm) for August 20-26 during 1988-1999 from NVAP (mm)

12. 8/3/2009 TPW Anomaly 6 Apr, 0500Z How do I use it? 200% of normal indicates strong rain and flooding potential Location and other factors could lower threshold TPW in summer varies less in subtropics Low values indicate stronger potential for fire danger

13. 8/3/2009 Lessons Learned - Strengths — Tracks mid-lat. Systems well — Areas of 200% of normal always cloudy and precipitating — Does well at depicting moisture return from Gulf of Mexico — Future: — Longer NVAP climatology will lead to new “normals” for use during interannual variability (e.g. ENSO) 12Z Feb 1500Z Feb 16 L GOES Water Vapor 00Z Feb 16 Precipitation from 12Z Feb 16 to 12Z Feb 17

14. 8/3/2009 Lessons Learned - Weaknesses — False bias in mountain areas (same as blended TPW) — Winter airmasses give misleading extremes (very small number divided by another small number) — Tropics rarely over 200% of normal: >75mm precipitating — NVAP only from 1988-1999 (CIRA to reprocess 20 yrs) Mean TPW (mm) for August 20-26 during 1988-1999 from NVAP (mm) TPW & Anomaly Tropical Storm Fay August 21, 2008 John Forsythe (CIRA) – “My own personal record for greatest TPW seen was 91 mm at Slidell, LA from a GPS measurement as Hurricane Katrina came ashore. So even 91 mm (an extreme case) is barely 200% of the normal in many of these tropical regions.”

15. 8/3/2009 Future Work (2009/2010) — Use of microwave over land — NOAA MIRS TPW to be added by CIRA in 2009 over land and ocean — GPS — New sites in Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean — Blended TPW to be updated more frequently b/c GPS arrives every 20 minutes — TPW in mountainous topography — CIRA to research improvements in the handling of GPS — Microwave Sensors — Updates to current sensors are in progress, in particular DMSP F16 with the SSMIS instrument in 2009

16. 8/3/2009 References & Resources Kidder, S.Q. and A.S. Jones, 2007: A blended satellite Total Precipitable Water product for operational forecasting. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Tech., 20 pages. html version at: http://amsu.cira.colostate.edu/kidder/Blended_TPW.pdf http://amsu.cira.colostate.edu/kidder/Blended_TPW.pdf Kusselson S., S. Kidder, J. Forsythe, A. Jones, L. Zhao, 2009: An Update on the Operational Implementation of Blended Total Precipitable Water (TPW) Products. 23 rd Conference on Hydrology, Phoenix, AZ Junker N.W., Richard H. Grumm, Robert Hart, Lance F. Bosart, Katherine M. Bell, and Frank J. Pereira 2008: Use of Normalized Anomaly Fields to Anticipate Extreme Rainfall in the Mountains of Northern California. Weather and Forecasting, 23, 336–356 Please visit the NASA/SPoRT website to view product information see other case examples, and links to real-time data. SPoRT partners can submit user feedback via online surveys (3 minutes to complete)NASA/SPoRT Geoffrey Stano geoffrey.stano@nasa.gov Kevin Fuell kevin.fuell@nasa.gov kevin.fuell@nasa.gov