**FSL Third Quarter FY 2002 GIMPAP Progress Report**

June 30, 2002

I.  **Introduction**

This past quarter has been primarily spent gearing up for and operating
LAPS analyses that include GOES data for IHOP. We successfully acquired
the NESDIS generated product data for cloud top pressure and
precipitable water and assimilated these into LAPS. GOES 11 data became
available for a portion of the exercise. We acquired these data and
saved the GVAR data stream, hence, our database can most likely be used
as a back-up archive set. In addition to IHOP opportunities, Colorado
experienced its largest wildfire to date. The Hayman fire started on
June 9, and was a day that IHOP flights were occurring. The fact that
this occurred (along with the other numerous fires that were burning on
that date) when IHOP missions were flown will greatly enhance the
utility of these saved data for later research.

II. **Near Term Objectives**

-   Interface the LAPS system to new single field of view satellite data
    products in time for IHOP.

This has been accomplished.

III. **Task Progress**

     *NESDIS Products in LAPS*

     NESDIS products are now routinely assimilated in the LAPS system.
     The special IHOP domain data were used in the IHOP 4km LAPS runs
     and MM5 forecasts in support of the exercise. These products are
     being evaluated for their latency and improved resolution and their
     impact on a high-resolution analysis and model forecasting.

     *Product Implementation Plan*

This past quarter assistance was provided to Southern Region forecasters
for tuning LAPS analysis and cloud data for their forecast area. In
addition, Pablo Santos, a COMAP participant from the Southern Region,
has been working with us this summer in an attempt to improve his LAPS
system for inclusion of water vapor data. We plan to supply satellite
data to him and other LAPS users via the FSL Meteorological Assimilation
Data Ingest System (MADIS) project. This is an effort with a direct
avenue toward AWIAP/LAPS data support and an opportunity that should be
exploited for GIMPAP goals. More will happen with this effort in the
coming months.

*GOES 11 Rapid Scan for IHOP*

We now have expanded our acquisition system to enable full archive of
the GVAR data stream. All GOES 11 data collected at FSL will likely
interface well with the satellite community for their research needs. We
acquired GOES 11 in lieu of GOES 10 for the short duration of operation
approved for IHOP. Data were archived to FSL's mass store system and
some of that data has already been read from the archive and used for a
closer look at some case days, therefore the data archive has proved
viable.

*GOES Product Latency*

GOES special product latency was seen to be a nominal 20 to 25 minutes
past the scanning of the IHOP domain. Coordination with Jaime Daniels
and Bob Kuligowski prior to and during IHOP have enabled the acquisition
of these perishable data in time for LAPS utilization. This demonstrated
that the tested concept offers more timely data to local data
applications and is viable. NESDIS should be recognized for their part
in producing and delivering data in a timely manner to FSL. Large
domains can be served by assembling the small domains for that large
region. This technique would therefore satisfy both the large-scale and
local-scale processing needs. During IHOP, special products of TPW and
CTP were made available to FSL in real-time from both GOES 8 and GOES
11. When GOES 11 came on-line it was then possible to acquire two scans
per hour to support the LAPS cloud and moisture analyses.

*GOES Data and its Impact on LAPS Moisture Analysis Quality*

At the annual GIMPAP review last October, preliminary statistics showing
the impact of GOES data on the LAPS analysis were presented. This
summary was inadequate and not representative of the data sample; also
there was no rigorous measurement of bias or RMS error significance.
Since last October, data have been continuously compiled and analyzed
that indicate a definite positive GOES data impact on LAPS. The latest
real-time comparison plots are now available on line. These figures are
fairly self-explanatory and are updated periodically.

<http://laps.fsl.noaa.gov/birk/vapor_stats/index.htm>

IV. **Anticipated Activities in the Next Quarter**

    -   Continue to configure the Fortran 90 version of OPTRAN for LAPS.

    -   Work on parallelizing the code utilizing satellite data in the
        LAPS moisture anlaysis.

    -   Review data from IHOP time frame and examine it for impact of
        derived products in the analyses.

V.  **Problems and Corrective Actions**

None this quarter.

# Publications or Presentations

None this quarter. Publications are being planned for the AMS satellite
conference and the water vapor symposium planned for the Annual Meeting.