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Recent Events

S-NPP Recovery in Progress

The Suomi-NPP satellite of JPSS entered a non-nominal state on July 26. ATMS had been restored and operational, but reentered safe mode on August 28. ATMS is expected to be reapproved for operations this week. All other instruments are approved for operations. The image to the right is the first operational image from VIIRS since entering safe mode, dated 1847Z August 18, 2022. The cause of the outages have yet to be described. More information can be found in the OSPO Operations Messages. Contact the ESPC Help Desk with questions.

GOES-18 in Interleave

Until September 8, the GOES-18 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will provide operational L1b radiances and imagery in place of the GOES-17 ABI. All other GOES-West products - including L2+ - continue to come from GOES-17. GOES-18 ABI data obtained through the SBN or GRB will be treated as nominal GOES-West operational data. Whether the data is sourced from GOES-18 or -17, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) headers and SBN channel remain the same. The satellite source can be confirmed in the product metadata. For AWIPS users, “GOES-18” should appear in the legend of imagery bands selected in CAVE. More information can be found in the Service Change Notice (SCN), the notice from NESDIS, and the GOES-18 T2O page.

GOES-18 Barcode Artifact

GOES-18 ABI Channel 7 (3.9μm / IR Shortwave Window) is experiencing a “barcode artifact”: this manifests in slight ripples and vertical striping in Channel 7 and in certain composite views, such as the Nighttime Microphysics RGB (as shown in the image to the right) and the Night Fog Channel Difference. The GOES-R Program is exploring mitigations. Further details will be provided as they become available. The Satellite Book Club Session 108 on July 28 discussed this and other Interleave topics. More information can be found on the GOES-R website.

GOES Mesoscale Fire Hotspots Promoted on SBN

The Mesoscale Fire Hotspots from the GOES-East and GOES-West satellites were recently promoted to the GOES-East (GRE) and GOES-West (GRW) channels, respectively, of the NWS Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN). This is an improvement from the lower-priority EXP channel, as users will experience fewer delays in receiving data. Sites do not need to do anything to continue receiving these products. More information can be found in the SCN from August 23.

Operational Sentinel-1A SAR Winds Products Now Available on PDA

As of August 30, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Winds products from Sentinel-1A are available on PDA from NESDIS Common Cloud Framework (NCCF). Some NWS National Centers have direct access to them; dissemination to NWS field sites remains to be determined. OSPO has completed the Operational Readiness Review (ORR) for the Legacy Migration Sentinel-1A SAR Winds Products. SAR Automated Ocean Products System (SAROPS) Winds (previously referred to as the APL/NOAA SAR Wind Retrieval System or ANSWRS) is a set of software programs that are designed to generate a variety of products from SAR imagery such as ocean surface wind speed, ice extent determination, ocean wave spectra, and oil spill detection and classification. SAR Winds is the first product within the SAROPS system and produces images of wind speed over the ocean surface from the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. More information can be found in the ARR-ORR Report.

Sentinel-1B Mission Officially Over

The Copernicus Sentinel-1B satellite from ESA experienced an anomaly on December 23, 2021 that unfortunately could not be rectified. Sentinel-1A remains fully operational, and Sentinel-1C is to launch in Q2 2023. Once 1C is online, 1B will deorbit. More information can be found on the ESA website.

Looking Ahead

New Global Coverage for ASCAT Winds

Beginning on September 7, 2022, all 10 areas of the ocean surface winds data from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) aboard the Metop-B satellite will become available via the NWS Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN). Areas 1-9 have been available since 2008, with the 10th area being added to provide global coverage. This 10th area includes the North and South Atlantic Oceans east of 35W; the Indian Ocean, the North and South Pacific Oceans west of 130E, the polar region north of 75N, and all points south of 35S. This encompasses all area outside of Areas 1-9. These ASCAT Winds are identified by the WMO headers JSYY[0|1][0-9] KNES. More information can be found in the SCN from August 2.

VIIRS Flood Mapping Coming Soon

NESDIS released an operational VIIRS Flood Map product in July. After confirming its configuration and performance with a few AWIPS test sites over the coming weeks, this product may be disseminated to additional AWIPS sites via LDM.

JPSS-2/NOAA-21 Preparations

JPSS-2 is set to launch on November 1, 2022. Upon reaching orbit, it will become NOAA-21. Operational science data product validation for its 6 instruments will begin in early CY23. More information can be found on the NESDIS website, and in the Product Operations Plan.

GOES-18 L2+ Products To Be Disseminated Jan 2023

The L2+ science products for GOES-18 will become Provisional in 4 groups throughout Autumn 2022. However, these products are not expected to be sent over SBN until GOES-18 becomes GOES-West in early January 2023. In the meantime, all GOES-West ABI L2+ products available operationally will be from the GOES-17 satellite -- even when GOES-18 is providing GOES-West imagery and L1b products. Updates and more information can be found on the GOES-18 Operational Readiness Timeline, and the GOES-18 T2O page.

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