Geostationary Hyperspectral Imaging from 0.4 to 1 Microns a Potent Tool for Analysis and Nowcasting

The United States of America’s future geostationary satellite series, beginning with GOES-R in a 2012 timeframe, will be a major advancement in geostationary observing capability. GOES-R’s major meteorological observing instruments are an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) with up to 16 channels, a lightning mapper, and a Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) that is comprised of a hyperspectral imager operating in the 0.4 to 1 micron range (HES-VNIR) and an atmospheric sounder operating across the 4-15 micron portion of the spectrum (HES-IR). This paper will address using GOES-R data and its hyperspectral capability in the 0.4 to 1 micron range for nowcasting convection and severe weather. The use of multi-channel imagers and sounding interferometers are well recognized for value to analyze a variety of atmospheric and surface phenomena. Based on experience from current previous generations of geostationary satellites, rapid interval imagery updates have proven valuable for nowcasting, cloud motion vector determination and providing opportunities for cloud free fields of view for a variety of surface and atmospheric product generation. Yet, as valuable as information from those instruments are, there lies on the horizon the promise of a new geostationary companion instrument that will revolutionize geostationary satellite applications: that instrument is the high spatial and temporal resolution hyperspectral imager. That instrument is the GOES-R HES-VNIR with a spatial resolution on the order of 150 to 300 meters operating at 10 nanometer spectral resolution across the 0.4 to 1.0 micron range. From that instrument, when used in synergy with other GOES-R capabilities, we should be able to monitor the evolution of water vapor and instability at very high resolutions, while at the same time deriving high resolution wind field and cloud information.