STAR Participates in the 5th Annual GOES-R Algorithm Working Group Meeting
CIMSS Director Steve Ackerman
addresses the AWG
23 June 2010 - Over
30 STAR scientists attended the Fifth Annual GOES-R Algorithm Working
Group (AWG) Meeting was held from June 7-11 at the Concourse Hotel in
Madison, WI. This year's theme was responding to the GOES-R Algorithm
Development Executive Board (ADEB)'s recommendations from its August
2009 report. The annual meeting included reviewing the progress of the
AWG's development of its 80% and 100% Algorithm Theoretical Basis
Document (ATBD) delivery packages, science developments and GOES-R Risk
Reduction activities. It also included two poster sessions, application
team meetings with the Algorithm Integration Team (AIT) and three
technical interchange meetings with the Harris contractor.
STAR receives about $15 million a year for GOES-R related work and
this meeting showcased their substantial efforts in fiscal 2010, as well as
including the cooperative institutes' contribution. STAR is providing
54 product algorithms for the next series of Geostationary weather
satellites (GOES-R).
Attendees
There were approximately 175 attendees, including the following
people affiliated with GOES-R:
- GOES-R System Program Director (SPD)
- GOES-R Program and Project Scientists
- GOES-R Ground Segment (GS) Project Management and staff
- GOES-R Ground Segment Core Contractor staff
- Algorithm Working Group (AWG) Management and staff
- STAR Cooperative Institutes (CIMSS and CIRA)
- JPSS Program members
- Academic, Government and Industry representatives
- ADEB and IVV reviewers
Conference Goals and Objectives
Conference Goal:
Present the accomplishments of
the AWG and GOES-RRR over the past year
Conference Objectives:
- Review the progress of the Algorithm Working Group (AWG) over the
past year and review objectives of the coming year;
- Present results/issues/science from the product application
teams;
- Provide feedback on Algorithm Development Executive Board's (ADEB)
independent peer review report;
- Hold individual meetings with the product application teams and
the Algorithm Integration Team (AIT) to review algorithm code
development;
- Inform the GOES-R Program Office and the AWG Technical Advisory
Committee (TAC) on the status of the AWG.
- GOES-RRR annual review
Meeting Agenda
Algorithm Working Group Annual Meeting Final Agenda, (PDF, 127 KB)
GOES-R Annual Meeting Activities
Welcome and Introductions
The GOES-R AWG meeting started with introductory remarks from the GOES-
R AWG Program Manager, Mitch Goldberg, discussing the objectives and
agenda of the meeting. Mitch highlighted the ADEB's review report and
emphasized their feedback being reflected in the 100% ATBD documents to be
delivered in September 2010. Mitch also provided the Technical Advisory
Committee with its objectives and reviewed the 2009 recommendations.
Mike Pavolonis from CIMSS gave the keynote talk:
Using the GOES-R AWG Volcanic Ash Algorithm to Track Eyjafjallajökull Volcanic Ash: Impacts on Operations and Research, (PDF, 6.26 MB).
This was an up to date talk detailing the quick turnaround of
modifying a GOES-R AWG algorithm for use in the operational GOES systems. The
product was generated within a week and supplied critical information on the
volcanic ash cloud primarily used by the aviation industry to make flight
decisions.
Greg Mandt, the Program System Director, provided an overview of GOES-R
activities and schedules. He also announced that the Program would be
executing Options 1 and 2 of the contract, resulting in the AWG receiving
the go-ahead for the delivery of the Option 2 products to the Harris GS
contractor.
Application Team Presentations, Poster Session and AIT Break-outs
The AWG application team presented updates on all baseline ATBDs, improvements
since 80%, integration of ADEB comments, schedule updates, validation test run
results and issues.
The AIT met with application teams to go over code development issues,
schedules, EVM and Harris comments/questions.
A poster session was conduct that featured AWG product science background and
process overviews.
Application Team Presentations, Poster Session and AIT Break-outs
The AWG application team continued with presenting updates on all Opton
2 ATBDs at the 80% maturity, schedule updates, validation test run results
and risks/issues. The AIT met with application teams to go over code
development issues, schedules, EVM and Harris comments/questions. A second
poster session was conduct that featured AWG product science background
and process overviews.
AWG Wrap-up, TAC Briefing and Risk Reduction
The AWG closed its portion of the meeting with a presentation of the TAC's 2009
recommendations and the AWG's response to those recommendations. The TAC also
presented its 2010 recommendations and spent time reviewing and taking questions
from the audience.
The Risk Reduction program began its meeting after lunch. Ingrid Guch, the Risk
Reduction Program Manager, went over the agenda and goals for its meeting. Talks
were given by the different cooperative institute's research scientists on GOES-
R risk reduction work. This work detailed ongoing activities to improve GOES-R
algorithm products, produce training materials and prepare users for GOES-R data.
Risk Reduction Talks, Meeting Wrap-up
Talks continued from the scientists presenting work over the past year on the
GOES-R risk reduction activities.
Special thanks to Kenny Lowe from the GOES-R Ground Segment team for
compiling this report and photos.