CGMS Ocean Vector Winds Task Team
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) gap analysis and the Coordination Group of Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) risk analysis capture the current status of CGMS scatterometer contributions towards the WIGOS Vision 2040. There are options to coordinate and optimise these missions, which could be addressed by a task team. Important is also to make the best use of the existing constellation, including e.g. cross-calibration, this could equally be addressed by the same task team. The proposal would be to involve the CGMS International Winds Working Group (IWWG), establish Terms of Reference, and to develop a roadmap for the work, for CGMS-49 endorsement in May 2021. The IOVWST 2021 is a unique opportunity to present an overview of the tasks foreseen by the task team and to invite views from the IOVWST.
The team addresses the need to optimise and plan for a constellation that meets the objective of frequency and timelines. As for intercalibration, it is noted that the Center of Earth-Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) may be followed. It is noted that all CGMS members are CEOS members and the aspects covered by CEOS may be easily reviewed and extended by the task team. It appears therefore natural that the task team reports to both CEOS and CGMS. There is in particular a need for stronger user agency views, since CEOS is more research driven and operational matters, like timeliness, data formats, delivery, and product monitoring services fit better with CGMS. The task team will be composed of both CEOS and CGMS representatives and will focus on the user aspects and any reports will also be made available to the virtual constellation.
EUMETSAT has proposed, and CGMS-48 plenary concurred, that Ad Stoffelen from KNMI, The Netherlands, (and strongly involved in the EUMETSAT OSI SAF) will lead this activity. CGMS members will provide point(s) of contact to be part of the SCAT task team, together with Ad Stoffelen, CEOS OSVW-VC (Co-chairs Paul Chang/NOAA, Raj Kumar/ISRO, Stefanie Linow/EUM), and IWWG (Co-chairs Regis Bordes/Steve Wanzong), and the SCAT task team will present the Terms of Reference, and roadmap for the work to CGMS-49 plenary for endorsement 16-21 May 2021, Xi’an, China.
The following SCAT team targets are envisaged and will be further elaborated:
– Work towards optimising the distribution of planned scatterometer missions across different polar and inclined non-synchronous orbits to achieve the temporal sampling requirement of the WIGOS and resolve diurnal variations measurements meeting the WIGOS requirements, resolving the better the diurnal cycle and with coordinated calibration and processing;
– Improve acquisition, access to and exchange of near-real-time scatterometer data, share access to calibration and validation information across CGMS agencies, and make available results of NWP impact assessment studies; and
– Establish mechanisms for cross-calibrating scatterometers across the vector products and across the constellation scatterometers.
