CIMSS-NOAA Weekly Report
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ASPB AND CIMSS WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 4, 2003

IN THE PRESS:

ITEMS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR:

ITEMS FOR THE OFFICE DIRECTOR, ORA:

SSEC and MUG Support McIDAS in Mexico: The Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) User's Group (MUG) are supporting Mexico's Comisión Nacional del Agua (CNA) in the installation of McIDAS software until CNA becomes an official MUG member in 2004.  Robert Masters of the National Weather Service (NWS) requested the assistance in support of NWS's agreement with CNA to transfer meteorological and hydrological software to Mexico.  CNA will run the Hydro-Estimator, which requires the McIDAS environment.  (D. Wade, CIMSS, 608-263-0527, T. Achtor, CIMSS, 608-263-4206)

ITEMS FOR THE DIVISION CHIEF, ARAD:

Request for Geostationary Fire Products in Southwestern Brazil: The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) biomass burning monitoring team at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) recently responded to a request by D. Selhorst (Universidade Federal do Acre - Parque Zoobotânico) for satellite observations of fires in Rondonia, Brazil and Bolivia for the dates of August 31 -  September 5, 2003.  Heavy smoke affected the Rio Branco region of Brazil as shown in the picture provided by D. Selhorst.  The GOES Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) alpha-blended composites verified burning in the Rondonia and Bolivia regions and also smoke over the Rio Branco region.  Since the appearance of thin to moderate smoke is often masked in the current alpha-blending technique, the appearance of smoke in the WF_ABBA alpha-blended imagery is significant. (J. Feltz, CIMSS, 608-263-3434, E. Prins, E/RA2, 530-271-2256)

(Click image to enlarge)

Figure Caption:  This alpha-blended composite GOES image shows fires detected with the GOES-12 WF_ABBA on September 3, 2003 at 15:15 UTC. The insert is a photo taken in Rio Branco, Brazil showing the heavy smoke coverage in the region.

Real-time Polar Winds User Update: The real-time polar winds data product generated at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) has been available on-line for over a year.  Early users of the data included the NASA Data Assimilation Office (DAO) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).  The data is currently accessed by the DAO, ECMWF, the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), the Canadian Meteorological Centre, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Germany's National Meteorological Service.  (D. Santek, CIMSS, 608-263-7410, J. Key, E/RA2, 608-263-2605, C. Velden, CIMSS, 608-262-9168)

VISITORS:

UK MetOffice Visitor: Howard Berger, a Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) scientist working as a visiting scientist at the UK MetOffice, returned to CIMSS and gave a seminar titled "Satellite Winds Work at the Met Office."  Dr. Berger is working with the MetOffice on the assimilation of satellite derived winds from both geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites. 

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