Testing of GOES-18 Atmospheric Motion Vectors in NAVGEM
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series launched and positioned its newest satellite, GOES18, during 2022, and began providing test Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) to a limited set of users in September 2022. The AMVs test data were produced using two different systems—the algorithms and systems currently in place at NESDIS (Operational algorithm), and the next system intended for operational implementation at NESDIS (Enterprise algorithm)—resulting in two different test data sets. Each of the data sets was tested in NAVGEM, the U.S. Navy’s global numerical weather prediction system. Each NAVGEM test run which assimilated GOES18 AMVs is compared to the control run, which assimilated GOES17 Operational algorithm AMVs; the two GOES18 AMV test runs are also compared with each other.
Results from two experiments will be presented in terms of mean vector differences, forecast system observation impacts (FSOI), and anomaly correlations (AC). Both test runs and the control used the same conventional data, radiances, and satellite-derived winds from other satellites, including GOES17 winds from CIMMS; they also used the same quality control checks and superobbing procedures. Two time periods for statistical comparison of GOES18 with GOES17 were chosen: September 16 – October 14, 2022, before the implementation of GOES17 warm‐period mitigations, and October 15 – November 6, 2022, during the GOES17 warm-period mitigations. The primary comparison in the earlier period is between operational algorithm AMVs from the two satellites, GOES18 and GOES17, without warm period mitigations. The primary comparison in the later time period is between operational algorithm AMVs from the two satellites during warm-period mitigations. Comparisons between operational algorithm GOES18 AMVs and enterprise algorithm GOES18 AMVs are also presented.
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