Operational Considerations and Uses for Geostationary Satellite Derived Wind Vectors

Type: PDF

Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth International Winds Workshop

Citation:

C. D. Schuett, T. D. Johnson, M.D. Conner, and C. E. Skupniewicz, Operational Considerations and Uses for Geostationary Satellite Derived Wind Vectors. Proceedings of the Sixth International Winds Workshop, 63-70, May 2002.

Resource Link: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:r4ux56QLJCkJ:cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/iwwg/iww6/session1/connor1.pdf+Operational+Considerations+and+Uses+for+Geostationary+Satellite+Derived+Wind+Vectors&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShzupDXmOTdsTMq_iEgFI6-6Iz8_eOyO4ONXahpmCsWZbQaPb7zEsT2sm0MoHXwTFkfovMNKmCasKLkxQPbVc_lCYfOqMXAL9dAAEqtecR03qu4C7TijkwUXhdP6dmw4FuxqScC&sig=AHIEtbSjY87aFxjGoGKA-QFI0fSY4NlDzw

Since 1999 the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) have cooperated with the University of Wisconsin-Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (UW-CIMSS) in an effort to use geostationary satellite derived winds in an operational environment for forecasting and flight planning operations. We summarize the operational considerations relevant to other organizations using geostationary satellite derived winds in their operations, hardware needed to run effectively in a time critical environment, and software used to manage the data automatically. We discuss hardware and software issues that arose during implementation as well as errors, along with their solutions. We present statistics showing how much geostationary satellite data we are able to utilize in the production of wind vectors as well as the spatial and temporal coverage we are able to achieve. We conclude with operational uses for the data, and new capabilities it introduces.