Science MissionDirectorate

Meeting of the Working Group on Space-Based Lidar Winds: View from NASA HeadquartersRamesh KakarWeather Focus Area LeaderJanuary 27, 2009

2

Recent Developments

“Tropospheric winds are the number one unmet measurement for improving weather forecasts”

In the last 2-3 years the mission design studies at GSFC have shown viability of the 400 km and 828 km orbit 3-D winds mission concepts with only very reasonable advances in Doppler lidar technology. Also the studies have shown coherent Doppler only needs 0.25 J pulse energy while the technology has (separately) demonstrated 1.2 J, fully conductive cooling, and compact packaging.

The NRC Decadal Survey specifically calls out for space-borne demonstration of 3-D winds but puts this in the third tier of its recommendation

NASA/ESD has spent considerable effort in developing the needed technology, specifications and the theoretical framework

3

Recent Developments

NASA has selected seven proposals for funding as a result of the ROSES07 Wind Lidar Science Announcement

Two additional proposals were selected by the Airborne Instrument Technology Transfer ROSES07 element

The IIP selected two new Wind Lidar proposals in April 2008

ACT and AIST ROSES08 elements also selected one and two proposals respectively that are related to the 3D Wind measurements

NASA plans to support a “hurricane genesis” field experiment during the 2010 hurricane season and expects a hybrid wind lidar system to be the primary instrument for this experiment

ROSES Wind Lidar Science Selections

PI First name

PI Last name Institution Title

Lars Peter

Riishojgaard UMBC Observing System Simulation Experiments for the Global Winds Observing Sounder

Bruce Gentry GSFCA multi-year direct detection Doppler lidar tropospheric wind measurement program to assess

instrument performance in various atmospheric conditions

Robert Hardesty NOAADoppler lidar characterization of horizontal and vertical wind and aerosol profiles over ice-free

regions of the Arctic: Impacts on satellite wind measurements

Upendra

Singh LaRC Intercomparison of Multiple Doppler Lidars for Wind Measurements

Matthew

McGill GSFCUsing satellite-based lidar measurements to simulate Doppler lidar performance and improve

simulation models

Zhaoxia

Pu U of UtahTargeted Doppler wind lidar observations for seasonal climate studies and high-impact weather

forecasting

George EmmittSimpson

Weather

CALIPSO and LITE data for space-based DWL design and data utility studies

Moving Objects Database Technology for Weather Event Analysis and Tracking

Key Milestones

Application/User requirement study 1st QuarterData Migration 3rd QuarterComponent development Year 1Integration Year 2Performance evaluation Year 3

Co-I’s/PartnersAshit Talukder/JPL, Tim Liu/JPL, Shen-Shyang Ho/JPL

PI: Markus Schneider / University of Florida

TRLcurrent = 2TRLin = 2

ApproachDesign & implement a Moving Objects Software Library (MOSL), which provides a representation of moving objects, enables the execution of operations on them, and can be integrated into databases.

Design & implement a spatial-temporal query language (STQL) which enables users to

– Comfortably pose ad-hoc queries on weather data like tropical cyclone data

– Obtain an immediate response

– Retrieve satellite data based on user queries

ObjectiveProvide earth scientists with previously unavailable database management, analysis, & query capabilities that will integrate 1) raw satellite data,2) analysis, forecasts & model information, and 3) decision processes to support both the research & understanding of dynamic weather events, & the decision processes related to them.Proposed technology components will be applied to tropical cyclone weather events and observations from QuikSCAT and TRMM to ensure data continuity to the wind and precipitation data from GPM, and the XOVWM, 3D Wind and PATH decadal survey missions. Resulting system will be reusable: mission-independent, weather event-type independent and system-independent

(Assuming April 2009 start)

Technology components integrated into currently available database systems.

Draft 21 January 2009

End-to-End Design and Objective Evaluation of Sensor Web Modeling and Data Assimilation System Architectures: Phase II

Key Milestones

Co-I’s/PartnersSteve Talabac/GSFC, Robert Atlas NOAA, Robert Burns/Northrop Grumman, George Emmitt/Simpson Weather Associates

PI: Mike Seablom / GSFC

TRLcurrent = 4TRLin = 4

ApproachBuild on previous work on Sensor Web Simulator (SWS). Focus on meteorological applications where information derived from a numerical model is used to intelligently drive data collection for operational weather forecasting. Simulation is essential—the development costs & deployment risk of an operational sensor web system are very high. This lets us:

– identify types and quantities of sensor assets and their interactions;

– evaluate alternative observing system implementations; – quantify potential development costs; – reduce operational deployment risk.

ObjectiveDeliver an end-to-end simulator that will quantitatively assess the scientific value of a fully functional, model-driven sensor web to provide an objective analysis tool for Decadal Survey mission planning. The tool would enable systems engineers and Earth scientists to define and model candidate mission designs and operations concepts and accurately assess their impacts.Tool capabilities will be derived from detailed case studies for a hurricane prediction scenario using simulated data from three of the Decadal Survey missions: - Global Wind Observing Sounder (GWOS “3D Winds”) - Extended Ocean Vector Winds Mission (XOVWM), and - Precipitation and All-weather Temperature & Humidity (PATH)

(Assuming March 2009 start)

Screenshot of SWS Scenario Design tool

Establish working relationship with new partners, execute use case from Phase I using latest nature run & new data assimilation system, extend capabilities of prototype simulator

Year 1

Generate simulated Decadal Survey mission data & conduct OSSEs

Year 2

Prepare for and deliver sensor web simulator to GSFC Integrated Design Center (IDC)

Year 3

Draft 21 January 2009

Summary

Considerable activity related to the measurement of vector wind profiles is ongoing at NASA

The NRC Decadal Survey specifically calls out for space-borne demonstration of 3-D winds but puts this in the third tier of its recommendation

The NASA management is committed to implement the NRC advice strictly along the suggested sequence