VAWS: How NUCAPS and gridded NUCAPS can help you

Speaker: Scott Lindstrom, University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)

NUCAPS (NOAA-Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System) profiles of Temperature and Moisture are created from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) onboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20. In Alaska, Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 data downlinked at the Direct Broadcast antenna in Fairbanks are processed at GINA and made available to forecast offices via LDM. Data that are available includes individual profiles that are color-coded in AWIPS by what data are included within the sounding and also horizontal fields (for example, 300-mb Temperature) of data derived from the vertical profiles. This seminar will discuss the data and how it can be used to provide useful information over Alaska, and offer suggestions of when it’s likely to be most useful.

Links shared during presentation

• Polar Orbit Tracks
  • NOAA-20
  • Suomi-NPP
• NUCAPS Sounding Information
• NUCAPS Global Map
• Rebecca Esmaili’s website
• Displaying NUCAPS at one horizontal level using Polar2Grid blog post
• Useful emails
  • Scott Lindstrom
  • Rebekah Esmaili
  • Emily Berndt
  • Jack Dostalek
  • Carl Dierking
• Gridded NUCAPS Vlab page
• NUCAPS Landing Page for information
• List of Links, including to Blog Posts that show how NUCAPS can be used
• Polar2Grid software package
• OSPO website
• Gridded NUCAPS Site (from Rebekah)