GOES Microwave Sensor (GOES – MWS)
The
National Weather Association (NWA) is a member-led, non-profit, professional
organization supporting and promoting excellence in operational meteorology and
related activities. Excellence in daily weather observing and forecasting
for the public good can best be achieved by continual modernization of
observing equipment and taking advantage of new technologies as soon as
possible. Therefore, on behalf of the over 3,000 NWA members from all sectors
of the meteorological community, the NWA President with the advice and consent
of the NWA Council requests the support of all concerned for the inclusion of a
Microwave Sensor (MWS) on one of the satellites during the GOES-R series and/or, and if possible, an
earlier demonstration stand-alone geostationary platform. The highly
unique MWS sensor would allow for near-continuous monitoring and
observation of precipitation (rate, phase), water vapor, and profiles of
temperature and moisture (in both clear and cloudy environments) over the
Continental United States (CONUS) and southern Canada, portions of the Atlantic
and Pacific Ocean basins including Puerto Rico and other islands in the field
of view, and Central and South America.
The MWS observations of temperature,
moisture and precipitation from GOES would provide a continuous
“snapshot” of many key meteorological ingredients conducive to the
formation of and the sustaining of precipitation. In addition, such retrievals in cloudy
atmospheres, currently unavailable from GOES IR measurements, will allow for
important information to be made available to both field forecasters as well as
input into NWP models (e.g., continuously derived stability indices, continuous
three-dimensional temperature retrievals revealing warm-core structure in
tropical cyclones, etc.). In addition,
the MWS based precipitation observations will complement the current U.S. radar
and gauge network, in particular, over complex terrain and over adjacent coastal
waters where ground based observations are lacking. Such observations are crucial in flash flood
forecasting.
Research continues to
indicate that such MWS measurements would provide vital information that could
help the operational weather, aviation, and disaster preparedness communities
in their support of commerce, transportation, security and public safety:
o
Passive microwave
retrievals of precipitation rate are typically more accurate than those from
visible and IR measurements due to their more direct connection to the
precipitation process (Ebert et al, 1996).
o
Improved
precipitation retrievals can be obtained by merging radiances and physically
derived cloud microphysical parameters from visible, IR and MW measurements (Kuligowski 2002; Joyce et al, 2004).
o
Large voids in
the NEXRAD and gauge networks over mountainous terrain and U.S. coastal waters (Hunter
1996; Westrick et al. 1999) can be improved by
accurate rain rate retrievals from satellites (Gourley
et al. 2002).
o
Passive microwave
vertical temperature profiles retrieved in tropical cyclones indicate rapid
warm core intensification 6-12 hours prior to surface pressure deepening (Brueske and Velden, 2003).
o
Improvements in
the initialization of numerical weather prediction models by providing data in
cloudy regions (JCSDA Workshop on Clouds and Precipitation, May 2005).
o
Improved routing
of commercial, military, and private aircraft over the Continental United
States (Seliga et al. 2002) and oceanic
regions (Weber et al. 1998) where observations of thunderstorm intensity
are currently scarce.
o
Greater ability
to monitor intensification or weakening of
storms during radar outages, or where radar coverage is poor, such as in
mountainous areas (Weber et al. 1998).
Whereas previous
technological hindrances existed for the development and deployment of such a
sensor on a geostationary satellite, recent advances indicate that these can be
overcome through innovative engineering advances (to overcome hardware issues
such as antenna size, instrument weight, etc.) and alternative microwave
channel selection (to achieve the scientific objectives and yet, have useful spatial
resolutions on the order of 10 – 30 km).
For example:
o
The GOMAS
(Geostationary Observatory for Microwave Atmospheric Sounding) (Bizzarri and Gasiewski, 2004) is
being proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA).
o
The GEM
(Geostationary Microwave Observatory) (Staelin et
al., 1998) is being considered by NOAA as a possible solution for GOES-R.
Finally, several national and international organizations have strongly
recommended that the MWS be pursued by satellite agencies. In particular:
o
“NOAA should
encourage the development of passive microwave instruments for geostationary
satellites in order to provide the kind of high-temporal-resolution precipitation
measurements that are required for short-term storm forecasting. NOAA
should consider establishing a program office or a sub-program within its
current GOES program office to facilitate the development of such an
instrument.” (NOAA, May 2002).
o “The session strongly supported the International Geostationary Laboratory (IGeoLaB) concept and in particular agreed that IGeoLab: (1) represented an expansion of the existing agreement for open sharing of remote sensing data to include sharing development of new remote sensing capabilities; (2) would speed up the realization of and familiarization with new measurements, (3) would offer resource savings through partnering and thus open opportunities for demonstrations in several areas simultaneously, (4) would not constrain industrial developments for operational systems in any Space Agency procurements, and (5) most importantly would assure successful transfer from research to operations in the most cost effective and timely fashion.” (WMO, January 2005). Additionally, the IGeoLab focus group has met as recent as June 2005 and continues to pursue the development of this concept.
We recommend that NOAA,
NASA, Department of Defense, private industry, and international partners
continue to work together and accelerate the development and deployment of this
new sensor as soon as possible, either as a sensor of opportunity within the
GOES-R era or as a stand alone mission through international collaboration such
as the IGeoLab.
Even prior to a GOES-R era deployment, a
demonstration geostationary MWS would result in valuable risk-reduction
activities, including the assessment of data delivery, product development, and
decision-making capabilities.
References:
“NOAA
Workshop on Requirements for Global Precipitation Data”,
“Proceedings
of the 2nd International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG)”,
“Proceedings
of the
“World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Consultative
Meetings on High-Level Policy on Satellite Matters – Fifth Session”,
Bizzarri B. et al. (40 partners of
GOMAS), 2002: “Requirements and perspectives
for MW/Sub-mm sounding from geostationary satellite”. Proceedings of “The 2002 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference”,
Brueske, K.F. and
C.S. Velden, 2003: Satellite-Based Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimation Using the NOAA-KLM
Series Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), Monthly Weather Review, 131, 687–697.
Ebert, E. E., M.J. Manton, P.A. Arkin, R.J. Allam,
G.E. Holpin and A. Gruber, 1996: Results from the GPCP Algorithm
Intercomparison Programme. Bulletin
of the American Meteorological Society, 77, 2875–2887.
Gourley, J. J., R. A. Maddox, K. W. Howard, and D. W.
Burgess, 2002: An exploratory multisensor technique
for quantitative estimation of stratiform rainfall. J. Hydrometeor., 3, 166-180.
Hunter, S. M., 1996: WSR-88D radar rainfall
estimation: capabilities, limitations and potential improvements. Natl. Wea. Dig.,
20, 26-38.
Joyce, R.J., J.E. Janowiak,
P.A. Arkin and P. Xie,
2004: CMORPH: A method that produces global precipitation estimates from
passive microwave and infrared data at high spatial and temporal
resolution. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 5,
487-503.
Kuligowski, R. J., 2002: A self-calibrating real-time GOES
rainfall algorithm for short-term rainfall estimates. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 3,
112-130.
Staelin D.H., A.J. Gasiewski,
J.P. Kerekes, M.W. Shields and F.J. Solman III, 1998: "Concept proposal for a Geostationary
Microwave (GEM) Observatory". Prepared for the NASA/NOAA Advanced
Geostationary Sensor (AGS) Program, MIT,
Weber, M. E., E. R. Williams, M. M. Wolfson
and S. J. Goodman, 1998: An Assessment of the Operational Utility of a GOES
Lightning Mapping Sensor. Project Report NOAA-18, Lincoln
Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Westrick,
K. J., C. F. Mass, and B. A. Colle, 1999: The
limitations of the WSR-88D radar network for quantitative precipitation
measurement over the coastal