ASPB and CIMSS Weekly Report [ Archive ]

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50th Anniversary of Explorer-7 Celebrated: On the evening of November 2, 2009, the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) celebrated, with 300 guests, the successful launch of Explorer-7 (on October 13, 1959) and the subsequent successful operation of the first thermal radiation balance experiment of the earth-atmosphere system. The revolutionary instrument was designed by UW Professors Verner E. Suomi and Robert Parent, and marked beginnings of an exciting 50 year period of development of satellite remote sensing at SSEC, which was founded by Suomi. In addition to a large display of photographs, artifacts, documents, a full size Explorer-7 model, and other exhibits (such as a 2-foot weather display globe), several excellent entertaining and informative talks were presented by scientists who knew Professor Suomi, such as G. Davis (NOAA/NESDIS Office of Systems Development), Dr. J. M. Lewis (NOAA/OAR National Severe Storms Laboratory), Dr. F. House (Drexel University), and Dr. T. Vonder Haar (Colorado State University), among others. More information is available at: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/media/spotlight/explorer7.html. (P. Menzel, SSEC, 608-263-4930, paul.menzel@ssec.wisc.edu; J. Phillips, SSEC, 608-262-8164, jean.phillips@ssec.wisc.edu; G. S. Wade, E/RA2, 608-263-4743, gary.s.wade@noaa.gov)

  (Click image to enlarge)

Figure caption: This full-scale recreation of the Explorer-7 satellite was on display at the 2009 UW-SSEC celebration of the 50th anniversary of the satellite's successful launch and operation.

Significance: Suomi and Parent, professors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had conceived, designed, and built the innovative radiometer on the Explorer-7 satellite. Their instrument made it into orbit and operated properly, opening the world to satellite meteorology. It was the first successful satellite measure of the Earth’s climate.

The 6th GOES Users' Conference: The 6th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Users' Conference was held in Madison, Wisconsin, November 3-5, 2009, at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. The focus was the current, near-term, and future geostationary systems. There were over 260 participants from government, private industry, academia, and the international community, including representatives from EUropean organization for the exploitation of METeorological SATellites (EUMETSAT), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), China, Japan, Korea, India, Brazil, and Canada. The conference consisted of oral presentations, poster sessions, panel discussions, and a town hall meeting. The town hall meeting addressed the issue of high spectral resolution sounding in a geostationary orbit. The breakout sessions provided an opportunity for the user communities to give their input on ensuring user readiness for the GOES-R series. More details about the conference can be found at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes_r/meetings/guc2009/. (T. Schmit, E/RA2, 608-263-0291, tim.j.schmit@noaa.gov; James Gurka, NOAA, 301-286-1364)

Significance: The GOES Users' Conferences provide a forum for the exchange of information and ideas between satellite operators, data producers, and data users. The conferences bring together government, academia, and private industry, both nationally and internationally, to discuss NOAA's current and future geostationary satellite systems.

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GOES User Conference Poster on GOES-R visibility retrieval: A poster entitled "Development of a visibility retrieval for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager" was presented at the 6th Annual GOES User Conference in Madison, WI. The poster summarizes a comparison between GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) visibility retrievals, model based estimates from the NCEP North American Model (NAM), and Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) visibility reports for July, 2008. The results of this analysis show that the GOES-R visibility retrieval provides useful information during periods of moderate clear-sky visibility. However, systematic biases in classification of Low and Moderate visibility events point to the need to perform seasonal and/or regionally dependent bias corrections to meet ABI design specifications of 80% correct classification. (R.B. Pierce, E/RA2, 608-890-1892, brad.pierce@noaa.gov, A. Lenzen, SSEC, 608-263-3897, M. Pavolonis, E/RA2, 608-263-9597, mpav@ssec.wisc.edu,,A. Heidinger, E/RA2, 608-263-6757, andrew.heidinger@noaa.gov, S. Kondragunta, 301-763-8136 x 151)

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