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Oh boy, what a flurry of buzzwords. Game changer, Breakthrough, revolutionize... All I got from the actual information is a better resolution and faster analys

Oh boy, what a flurry of buzzwords. Game changer, Breakthrough, revolutionize... All I got from the actual information is a better resolution and faster analysis, nothing that would support the hyping.

lllr_finger 10y ago
Capital Weather Gang usually does a better job explaining things to the masses, so that's a little disappointing. Having a similar conversation with family and friends, it's challenging to explain the hype. Weather is incredibly complex and difficult to model and predict. We have multiple sources of truth to provide the input to our models: radar sites spaced hundreds of miles apart, balloons that are launched twice a day and hundreds of miles apart, METAR stations that record ground observations, satellite, etc. Satellite data is the closest you can get to seeing the entire atmosphere as an interconnected system with no gaps in data, but is limited by being a top-down view (better spectral information will help), somewhat low resolution, and 5-15 minute update intervals (storms can go from nothing to tornadic in 45 minutes). CIMSS and other groups of researchers are doing great work with our current satellite data like identifying when supercells are likely to produce tornadoes and estimating instability in a column of the atmosphere. Increasing spectral information, resolution, and frequency will enable products to be refined and new products to come out - such as lightning detection, which currently relies on private networks. Severe weather nowcasting is only one of the areas that will benefit from this, but the one that I'm familiar with as an amateur meteorologist. GOES-R has the potential to cut false alarm rate and increase warning times for severe weather. Weather nerds are rather excited, as this stands to be a powerful new tool.
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
So tired of "game changer". If you have to declare it, it usually isn't.
InclinedPlane 10y ago
Maybe this is your speed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQAwQ0SGkc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQAwQ0SGkc GOES-R represents a nearly 2 orders of magnitude improvement over previous generations. Imagery will have higher spectral and spatial resolution, by significant margins, and provide coverage in new areas. Consider just one aspect: lightning observation, GOES-R will vastly increase the amount of data available. This is a huge amount of data that wasn't previously available and will no doubt be able to be used in improving weather modelling. However, lightning intensity has been recently discovered to be a key predictor in thunderstorm intensity and tornado formation so having that data available in real time will likely end up leading to better tornado predictions and many lives saved. And that's just one element, every aspect of the satellite is a huge leap over previous generations and will have a tremendous impact on weather forecasting and climate research for years to come.
losteverything 10y ago
I was hoping to read the breakthru was 100 day forecasting.

lllr_finger 10y ago

Capital Weather Gang usually does a better job explaining things to the masses, so that's a little disappointing. Having a similar conversation with family and friends, it's challenging to explain the hype. Weather is incredibly complex and difficult to model and predict. We have multiple sources of truth to provide the input to our models: radar sites spaced hundreds of miles apart, balloons that are launched twice a day and hundreds of miles apart, METAR stations that record ground observations, satellite, etc. Satellite data is the closest you can get to seeing the entire atmosphere as an interconnected system with no gaps in data, but is limited by being a top-down view (better spectral information will help), somewhat low resolution, and 5-15 minute update intervals (storms can go from nothing to tornadic in 45 minutes). CIMSS and other groups of researchers are doing great work with our current satellite data like identifying when supercells are likely to produce tornadoes and estimating instability in a column of the atmosphere. Increasing spectral information, resolution, and frequency will enable products to be refined and new products to come out - such as lightning detection, which currently relies on private networks. Severe weather nowcasting is only one of the areas that will benefit from this, but the one that I'm familiar with as an amateur meteorologist. GOES-R has the potential to cut false alarm rate and increase warning times for severe weather. Weather nerds are rather excited, as this stands to be a powerful new tool.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago

So tired of "game changer". If you have to declare it, it usually isn't.

InclinedPlane 10y ago

Maybe this is your speed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQAwQ0SGkc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQAwQ0SGkc GOES-R represents a nearly 2 orders of magnitude improvement over previous generations. Imagery will have higher spectral and spatial resolution, by significant margins, and provide coverage in new areas. Consider just one aspect: lightning observation, GOES-R will vastly increase the amount of data available. This is a huge amount of data that wasn't previously available and will no doubt be able to be used in improving weather modelling. However, lightning intensity has been recently discovered to be a key predictor in thunderstorm intensity and tornado formation so having that data available in real time will likely end up leading to better tornado predictions and many lives saved. And that's just one element, every aspect of the satellite is a huge leap over previous generations and will have a tremendous impact on weather forecasting and climate research for years to come.

losteverything 10y ago

I was hoping to read the breakthru was 100 day forecasting.