Data Product Overview
Information provided for each data product includes:
- Background introduces the data product and how it will be used for readers unfamiliar with the data product
- Product Description provides more formal and technical details about the product
- Improvements and Benefits highlights the data enhancements from GOES-R and how they will improve NOAA's ability fulfil its mission
- How does it done? - Algorithms Explains how the algorithms process the satellite data to produce the data product
- How are the results compared to existing data? - Calibration and Validation describes in some detail how the results from the algorithms are evaluated to ensure they are consistent with existing, correct data. This includes comparision with valid data from other satellites and from ground-based and aerial observations.
- Product Preview includes interesting examples of the data, near-real-time proxy data results, and validation
Data Product Types
Clouds and Precipitation
Example of Cloud Phase/Type data product
Clouds are essential for weather forecasting. Clouds contain different amounts of moisture than can possibly fall as precipitation. Various physical properties of the clouds such as their temperature, height, atmospheric pressure and if they are composed of water droplets or ice crystals are important factors in predicting the weather. These cloud properties contribute to determining the rainfall amount and hurricane intensity. Lightening detection combined with other cloud information provides information about the strength of thunderstorms, providing more timely warnings of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Land and Ocean
Fire mask showing southern California. Red, orange, cyan indicate fire (with decreasing certainty). Yellow is a pixel hotter than can be accurately measured in the proxy data. Green is a biome not likely to burn.
The Land and Ocean data products provide information about the surface of the Earth that is not obscured by clouds. The temperature data is for a very thin surface, not the air above the surface or the temperature below the surface. These data are important for forecasting and analytical models. Information about wild fires and other hot spots is valuable for their control and management. The snow cover data is essential for water management and flood/drought forecasting.
Winds
Cloud-drift winds derived from simulated ABI 11um data at 00 UTC on 05 June 2005. The time interval of the image sequence is 5 minutes. High-level (100-400 hPa) winds are shown in violet; mid-level (400-700 hPa) winds are shown in cyan; low-level (> 700 hPa) winds are shown in yellow.
The wind product tracks the water vapor and clouds visible from the satellite (in other words the highest clouds/vapor) to determine the speed and direction at which they are moving. Since the winds move the clouds and water vapor, the invisible wind is measured by its affect on these visible features.
Aerosols
Aerosol Optical Depth using proxy data
Aerosols are small particles or drops of moisture suspended in the atmosphere. These materials scatter and absorb sunlight. This affect is often seen by people on the ground as smoke, haze, dust or fog. From the perspective of the satellite, some of the observations are being made through the aerosols. In addition to the need to include aerosols in models used for forecasting, it is important to determine the amount and properties of aerosols to adjust other products for the scattering and absorption. Airborne volcanic ash can be more intense and be a threat to aviation and human health and safety on the ground.
Atmospheric Profiles
Total Precipitable Water from proxy data
Atmospheric profiles can provide information about moisture and temperature from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. In addition to being inherently valuable data about conditions at various altitudes, the total amount of moisture at a particular location (the Total Precipitable Water data product) is also of value in forecasting. The Derived Stability Indices are various measures of the tendency for air to be rising or falling. Rising moist air will eventually condense contributing to cloud formation or precipitation. Strong upward convection is found in thunderstorms and hurricanes.
Radiation Budget
Downward shortwave radiation at the surface. The proxy data from the Terra satellite contains gaps that will not be present in the GOES-R product.
The radiation is "light", more formally "radiant energy," that has wavelengths close to those of visible light. Shortwave radiation includes both shorter (near ultraviolet) and longer (near infrared) wavelengths. Shortwave radiation is distinguished from thermal infrared and other longer wavelengths.
