1. Paul Seymour NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO GEONETCast Americas Program Manager

2. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Agenda Global GEONETCast GEONETCast Americas Program Mission and Objectives System Description Recent Accomplishments – Products Recent Accomplishments – Capacity Building & Training Short and Long Term Goals

3. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Global GEONETCast Distribution using commun- ication satellites and low cost, self-contained, stand alone, off- the-shelf reception stations. Provides near-global coverage with established data exchange between regional broadcasts. –CMA (CMACast, over Asia and parts of the Pacific) –EUMETSAT (EUMETCast, over Europe, Africa, and Americas) –NOAA (GEONETCast Americas, over the Americas and Caribbean ) EUMETSAT Product Navigator

4. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Mission and Objectives GEONECast’s Mission: “Provide data distribution system within GEOSS by which environmental data and products will be transmitted to users through regional networks over communications satellites.” Objective: “Provide global information as a basis for sound decision making in critical areas”. –“Focus on areas of the world where high speed land lines and/or internet are not available or in regions where terrestrial communication lines have been disrupted by disasters.” Support GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas and WMO Region III/IV Satellite Data Requirements

5. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Broadcast Information Coverage Area: Purple Isolines Commercial satellite service on Intelsat-21 at 58 degrees longitude 2 megabits per second data rate C-Band Broadcast utilizing DVB-S Coverage of most of North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean Transponder & server level admin & monitoring by vendor 24 X 7 X 365

6. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Governance - Coordination Group GNC-A Coordination Group open to all Partners, Providers, Users Meetings via Webex with VOIP approximately quarterly Standing committees with chairs and membership from Brazil, Argentina, Barbados, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. –Broadcast Management, Content, Users, Receive Stations –Committees meet on their own schedule

7. GEONETCast Americas GNC-A Re-focus of GNC-A Since NSC – 2013 Users, Providers and Partners all have expressed a desire to have a EUMETCast-like service for the Americas (NSC-2013) GNC-A moved to add value to the product suite –Decision made to add GOES-East sector imagery in GEOTIFF; an open standard widely used in the region –NWS ISCS Channels added to provide back-up to GIFS Provide tutorials and visualization tools to add value Revitalized GNC-A Coordination Group to increase participation by users and partners

8. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) GOES-East Full Disk in GEOTIFF GOES-East Full Disk Imagery added in 2014 North & South Hemisphere Sectors added in 2015 –Visible, Water Vapor (6.5 µm), Infrared (10.7 µm) –Full resolution –GEOTIFF format –Full Disk Every 3 hours –Sectors every 30 minutes

9. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) NWS / ISCS Satellite Broadcast U.S. National Weather Service "International Services and Communication Systems" (ISCS) added to GNC-A April 20 Timely collection and delivery of both time-critical and routine watches, warnings, observations and forecasts. Primary delivery by FTP - GTS Internet File Service (GIFS) Added to GNC-A as a satellite backup for their users Possible conversion of some ISCS stations

10. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) El Salvador HydroMet Network El Salvador began providing graphic GOES imagery and WRF model fields in 2014 Deployed with an innovated method of viewing the products that GNC-A will explore as a tool Products cover Central America; part of West Caribbean Investigating the use of GOES GEOTIFFs replacing jpegs 5 Stations installed

11. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Colombia HydroMet Network Installed 5 GNC-A stations with approx. 6 more to go Will use as a national network Plans to use as a disaster response tool Organizing training with NESDIS, USGEO and INPE Assisting Chile with acquiring a station

12. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) INPE / Brazil SigmaCast Project Develop an operational software based on JAVA and GIS Allows the user to visualize, analyze and combine layers Geographical information system, desktop based, developed specifically for the GEONETCast users. Training on receive stations and data content Includes installation of 23 stations in Brazil in the regional centres (agreement already signed with the centers). –Installations and training already begun

13. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Capacity Building and Training On line Argentina (1) Belize (1) Brazil (6) Colombia (5) Costa Rica (4) El Salvador (5) Panama (1) Venezuela (1) Under Construction Barbados (1) Guyana (1) Haiti (1) Mexico (1) Funded or Planned Mexico (6) Colombia (6) Brazil (23) Chile (1) 28 GNC stations online or under construction 99 EUMETCast and ~ 30 ISCS Stations Could Be Converted

14. GEONECast Americas (GNC-A) Capacity Building and Training Small but growing list of “National Networks” Mentioned El Salvador and Colombia Costa Rica with 4 stations at HydroMet and Airports –Operational Backup for Terrestrial telecommunications Mexico with 1 station expanding to 6 or 7 stations Brazil with 6 stations expanding to 29 stations –With one in each regional center Data From The Region For the Region

15. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Capacity Building and Training Vlab Train the Trainer at NSC 2013 Followed by two Webex sessions Virtual GEONETCast Event, Dec. 2013, English and Spanish NESDIS IIA and INPE Outreach and Training –Latin American Geospatial Forum, Mexico City, September 2014 –GEO Joint Africa-Asia Water Cycle Symposium, Tokyo, March 2014 INPE GEONETClass on GEOTIFF with research experts Train the Trainer session last weekend

16. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Short Term Initiatives Priority - Develop a user-friendly interface to facilitate the visualization of products –Continue Collaboration with WMO Virtual Laboratory for Training and Education in Satellite Meteorology (VLab), INPE and other partners and providers to develop tutorial and tools Increase outreach to better determine user needs Outreach to Partners and Users to participate as providers and in governance –GNC-A Coordination Group

17. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Short Term Initiatives Increase ability to use GNC-A in disaster response including carrying relevant Disaster Charter products Work to add WMO Region III/IV Requirements while leaving room to support other societal benefit areas –Plan imagery product offering if GOES-R becomes GOES-East Work toward at least one installation in each country (e.g. Hydro/Met, Disaster Response, Universities, Utilities –Other agencies serving Societal Benefit Areas –Demand should be accelerated by a coordinated improvement in the content and visualization tools

18. GEONETCast Americas (GNC-A) Long-Term Goals Facilitate interoperability of data resources to facilitate re-use at global or regional scales Engage stakeholders to address global & regional challenges Foster regional cooperation to build capacity Develop cooperation with Academic Institutions to foster product development and training expertise. Deliver regional data and information Strengthen relationship btwn GEO & member countries through building & reinforcement of regional GEO networks.