Real-time SPoRT/LIS upgraded on September 10th

Effective 10 September, the real-time SPoRT-LIS running over much of the southern and eastern U.S. was upgraded with several improvements.

The upgrade is transparent to Environmental Modeling System (EMS) end-users, since file and data formats are the same and the EMS processing with the “lis” land surface model (LSM) option operates the same as before.  However, it is highly recommended that EMS end-users currently running the “lis” option consider changing to the land-use database described in the 2nd bullet below.

The most noteworthy modifications and improvements are:

• Updated LIS software to support an upgrade from Noah LSM version 2.7.1 to version 3.2.  This upgrade includes an improved look-up table methodology for some static fields and improved handling of heat fluxes over snow-covered regions.
• Changed land-use classification (vegetation type) from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 24-class database to the newer International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP)/MODIS 20-class database.  The IGBP/MODIS database is more up-to-date than the USGS database, especially with urban classifications.
• Switched from a coarse-resolution surface albedo climatology to a look-up table methodology for surface albedo based on (a) input Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) data from the high-resolution SPoRT-MODIS real-time product and (b) the newer IGBP/MODIS land-use database.  A sample real-time SPoRT-MODIS GVF map projected onto the 3-km LIS domain is given in Figure 1, showing a comparison between the monthly climatological GVF and the real-time MODIS GVF data from 30 August.  An example comparison between the original climatological specification of surface albedo and the newer look-up table methodology using real-time SPoRT-MODIS vegetation data is given in Figure 2 from the same day.  Both of these upgrades will improve the surface energy budget in the real-time LIS.
• Modified the long-term atmospheric forcing (excluding precipitation) that drives the LIS-Noah LSM integration from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) to NLDAS phase 2 (NLDAS-2).

Contact SPoRT for the official upgrade documentation for further details.

Figure 1. Comparison between the default monthly climatological Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF, in percent) time-interpolated to 30 August (left), and real-time SPoRT-MODIS GVF on 30 August 2012 (right). Note the much lower GVF over the Midwest in the SPoRT-MODIS dataset corresponding to the substantial drought. (Click image twice for full size)

Figure 2. Comparison between climatological surface albedo (%) time-interpolated to 30 August in the former LIS configuration (left), and surface albedo as a function of the real-time SPoRT-MODIS GVF in the upgraded LIS configuration (right). Note the higher surface albedo corresponding to lower SPoRT-MODIS GVF in the Plains and Midwest regions. (Click image twice for full size)

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Hello From NOAA Satellite Science Week!

Many from the NASA SPoRT group will be participating in NOAA Satellite Science Week this week in Kansas City, MO.  Below is a picture of Principal Investigator, Gary Jedlovec, of the NASA SPoRT program giving his first of several talks during this week.  On Tuesday afternoon, Geoffrey Stano will be participating in a panel discussion on lightning, which will include training and future development activities and direction.  On Thursday morning, Jason Burks of NWS Huntsville, AL and Gary Jedlovec will give a talk on SPoRT involvement in AWIPS II applications.  Talks Friday morning will be dominated by RGB products and applications.  Gary will give a talk at 8 am about the “RGB joint project motivation and status”, followed by Kevin Fuell of SPoRT, with a talk about RGB computation and transition to the NWS.  Finally, Gary will join others for an open discussion period about the new and exciting RGB products.  I’ll have more pictures and notes to share as we progress through the week.

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An Update on SPoRT’s Status

We wanted to update our partners on SPoRT’s situation as of Wednesday, May 4.

First and foremost, everyone associated with NASA SPoRT team–along with their families–is safe and sound after last Wednesday’s tornado outbreak in northern Alabama.  The long-track violent tornado that moved through the northern part of the Huntsville metro area came very close to some team members’ houses, but the damage has been relatively minor.

Huntsville, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the Marshall Space Flight Center all avoided a direct hit.  However, the tornadoes devastated the Tennessee Valley Authority’s high-voltage power transmission network, so the entire region lost power last Wednesday evening.  This impacted SPoRT and all of our servers.

As of Wednesday, May 4, power has been restored to our facility.  We will be slowly and carefully restarting our computer systems today and through the rest of the week.  Depending on how the data are produced, you may start to see SPoRT data return to your systems very soon.

Thanks for your patience during this very difficult and unprecedented time.  As power returns and things slowly return to normal, we will have some more insight on how NASA data helped predict, monitor, and recover from this incredible outbreak.

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