1. NOAA Report on the Status and Future Plans for GEONETCast Americas Presented to CGMS-43 Working Group IV session, agenda item 3

2. Status of the GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) System and Broadcast
GNC-A is a regional GEONETCast broadcast which serves much of North America, the Caribbean Basin and all of Central and South America
Complementary to NOAA’s direct readout and online dissemination services
2 Megabits per Second, C-Band, DVB-S commercial satellite broadcast on Intelsat-21
Receive stations utilize a 2.4 or 1.8 meter antenna depending on location
Designed to use COTS hardware components which can often be sourced locally
NOAA working closely with GNC-A Coordination Group and regional partners to support and address:
GEO-GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas
Requirements for WMO RA III/IV within the limitation of the available bandwidth

3. Status of the GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) System and Broadcast
NOAA plans to continue support for GNC-A at its current level
Internet connections, processing system, satellite up-link system, and satellite transponder are all monitored on a continuous basis by contract personnel
Historical availability of the broadcast is nearly 100%
The operation of individual content channels, configuration settings within the accounts and incoming products are administered on an 8 X 5 or Monday through Friday basis remotely by NOAA personnel and are therefore considered “best effort”
GNC-A Coordination Group has been re-vitalized to serve as a forum for regional partners, data providers and users to provide advice and coordinated input on the GNC-A data and products, priorities, system operation, capacity building
Membership open to all countries in the Americas
Volunteers from 5 countries and 5 US Partner organizations

4. GEONETCast Americas Accomplishments
Expanded the GNC-A product suite to include spatial data image files
GOES-East Full Disk imagery every 3 hours
GOES-East Northern & Southern Hemisphere sector imagery every 30 minutes
Full resolution GEOTIFF format in three channels; visible, infrared & water vapor
Decision made to include EUMETSAT Seviri data every three hours in April-May 2015
Full resolution of all channels in native format
Capacity building initiatives including training sessions and on-line events
Training sessions by INPE in Brazil and Mexico and online via Webex in Dec 2014
WMO/CGMS Vlab Train the Trainer event April prior to NSC-2015
Project to provide tutorials on using various product formats on GNC-A
Guides on sourcing and installation of ground receive systems developed

5. GEONETCast Americas Short Term Projects – ISCS Backup Broadcast
NOAA National Weather Service International Services and Communication Systems (ISCS) backup satellite dissemination utilizing GNC-A
Replicate GTS Internet File Service (GIFS) content and directory structure on GNC-A
Content includes watches, warnings, forecasts, tropical storm info, aviation model fields, graphics, etc
NWS has been providing products over the Alert and WMO-WMC Washington sub-channels for several years
Existing products and remainder of GIFS products will be subsumed into 12 channels corresponding to the GIFS channels
Product dissemination has been successfully tested
Plan is to have all or part of the service flowing over GNC-A in April-May 2015

6. GEONETCast Americas Short Term Projects – Disaster Charter
GNC-A is an alternative dissemination method for the Disaster Charter
GNC-A is uniquely situated to support the delivery of Charter information
To areas affected by natural disasters in certain situations where there is a GNC-A Station in the affected country
Especially if the internet infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed
GNC-A has begun an effort to increase our visibility with the Charter and to encourage increased use of GNC-A where there is a presence in the HydroMet or Disaster Response agency
Successful tests of using GNC-A have been accomplished

7. GEONETCast Americas Short Term Projects – GNC-A Networks
GNC-A continues to work to support the small but growing group of networks of GNC-A stations within the countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil
Costa Rican HydroMet Service has 4 stations
NMN Offices in San Juan, San Juan Airport, Limon Airport, Liberia Airport
Provides image and model products
El Salvador HydroMet has 5 stations
Became a provider of image and model products in 2015
Deployed with an innovated method of viewing products
Colombia HydroMet has 5 stations
Plans to expand their network to 11 stations and become a provider
Brazil SigmaCast project to expand network to 23 stations and will include:
Software development, visualization tools for GNC-A products and training
Mexico has one station in Mexico City;
Plan to install up to 6 or 7 more stations

8. GEONETCast Americas Long Term Projects
GOES-R Series Imagery
NOAA will work with its technical personnel and the user community to replace GOES-13 imagery with roughly equivalent amounts GOES-R imagery if it becomes the operational East satellite
Training Channel Usage
GNC-A will continue to work with the WMO/CGMS Vlab and other Partners to expand the use of the training channel as part of the capacity building effort
One high priority is the inclusion of training materials on specific products and formats to increase the usefulness of the broadcast content
Conversion of Stations
GNC-A plans to work with former users of the NWS ISCS to convert their stations to receive GNC-A if they choose to do so
Possibly EUMETSAT Americas users if that service is discontinued in the future