Operational Use and Impact of Satellite Remotely Sensed Ocean Surface Vector Winds in the Marine Warning and Forecasting Environment

Abstract

In 2002, a National Oceanographic Partnership Program project was initiated with the ambitious objective of maximizing the use of currently and soon-to-be-available satellite ocean surface vector wind (OSVW) data, such as NASA's QuikSCAT scatterometer, in the operational weather forecasting and warning environment. This effort brought together people from the operational forecasting and satellite remote-sensing communities, academia, and the private sector. This diverse gathering of skill and experience yielded documentation of the impacts of these data in the operational short-term warning and forecasting environment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Weather Service, improvement in the use of these data in the public and private sectors, and the transition of promising research results into the operational environment. This project helped create momentum that has continued to grow long after the formal effort ended; today, NOAA uses QuikSCAT operationally and is investigating how to best establish a sustained satellite OSVW observing capability.

Keywords

• NOPP
• satellite ocean surface vector wind
• operational weather forecasting
• satellite remote sensing