TOWR-S RPM v21 & Earlier

GOES-16 AWIPS RPM May 2017 Release Newsletter

By: the NWS Office of Observations' Total Operational Weather Readiness - Satellites (TOWR-S) Team

 

 

The May 2017 release of the GOES-16 AWIPS RPM has finally arrived!  You should have received the following admin message from the NCF on Friday, May 19th on your AWIPS terminals:

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NOUS72 KNCF 191546
ADMNCF
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PLEASE PASS TO THE ESA, SOO, ITO, AFP, AND LEAD FORECASTER:
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SUBJECT:  GOES-16/POLAR SATELLITE RPM AVAILABILITY
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The latest version of the GOES-16 rpms will be pushed out by the NCF for each region using the schedule shown below:
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Monday, May 22nd--------- Eastern Region and Western Region
Tuesday, May 23rd--------- Southern Region and Pacific Region
Wednesday, May 24th------ Central Region and National Centers
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A notification message will be sent as soon as the updated rpms are available for installation at the sites included in each of the above groups.
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Once notified, each site should use the following URL to access the Installation Guide from VLAB for implementing the updated rpms:
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The web page also provides guidance for updating and/or correcting any existing local perspective displays or procedures which may include GOES-16 imagery.
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The rpms will not be pushed during a Critical Weather Day.
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Please contact the NCF with any questions, concerns, or installation issues.

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RPM Highlights

 

It's been over two months since the last RPM was installed at your site, so you might be wondering what new features have been added this go-around.  The TOWR-S team has been working with the NWS/NESDIS Satellite Enhancement Team (SET) on a weekly basis to bring these new AWIPS satellite improvements to you.  Three SOOs, Frank Alsheimer (CAE), Mike Stavish (MFR) and Brian Carcione (HUN) participate regularly with the SET.  Their leadership guides the team to make changes to AWIPS configurations files that allow NWS forecasters to best utilize GOES-16 data.  Thanks to their insight, we offer to you the following AWIPS enhancements in the May 2017 version of the RPM:

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1) A new map view has been added to AWIPS, displaying the full disk of Earth from the current position of GOES-16 at 89.5 degrees W.  This map is called "Geostationary GOES-Center" and can be used by clicking on the map pull down menu in the top-left of CAVE.

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2) The "Satellite" menu has been slightly modified.  Instead of pulling up data by clicking on "GOES-R," the button has been renamed to say "GOES-16."

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3) There is a new GOES-16 color table, called "enhanced-rainbow-11."  This color table is the new default color table for the 3.9 um channel.

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4) The GOES-16 menu has been slightly modified.  Instead of pulling up data by clicking on "Test Full Disk, Test CONUS, " etc., the "Test" has been replaced with the word "Center."

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5) GOES-16 RGBs have been completely overhauled.  A new menu structure under the "RGB Composites" menu has been created to accommodate over 15 new RGB channel combinations.  These images are created locally on your AWIPS system using the individual GOES-16 satellite channels coming over the SBN.  RGBs that only utilize one channel in each of the RGB "guns" are listed under the "Simple" subheading.  RGBs that utilize channel differences are listed under the "Advanced" subheading.  The RGBs that were released previously are labeled under the "Old RGBs" subheading.  An example of an Air Mass RGB display in CAVE is below.  This CONUS image was taken on May 23 2017 at 14:52z.

 

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6) The "Sat Fog" channel difference image has been modified to now be 10.3 um channel minus the 3.9 um channel.  This was changed from using the 11.2 channel because the 10.3 channel is "cleaner" than the 11.2 channel, which is attenuated by some water vapor.

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7) You may notice that a few channel differences and RGBs exist in the "Full Disk" menus, but do not exist in the "CONUS" and "Meso" menus.  This was done on purpose due to an ongoing display issue that is currently in-work.

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8) If you have made procedures using GOES-16 data, some of your loops may no longer work!  This is because the file paths of the color tables have changed to make them easier to find.  ITO Paul Jendrowski (RNK) has created a script to convert existing procedures and has posted it on the awips2dev mailing list.  Please email any questions about this script to awips2dev@infolist.nws.noaa.gov .

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For the sake of continuity, it is not recommended that sites skip these RPM updates.

 

 

That's all for this month! 

If you have issues installing the RPM, please contact the NCF.

If you have any questions or feedback about the RPM contents, please contact Eric Guillot at NWS HQ at eric.guillot@noaa.gov or 301-427-9250. 

 

See you in June!