GSICS Data Working Group kick-off Meeting 2020

By Chair Kamalji Ray, IMD

Minutes of GSICS Data Working Group Meeting

Participants

CMA: Xu Zhe

KMA: Jin Woo, Tae-Hyeong Oh, Jiyoung Kim

JMA: Masaya Takahashi, Arata Okuyama, Kazuki Kodera, Hideaki Tanaka, Kazutaka Yamada

EUMETSAT: Tim Hewison , Rob Robelling, Sebastien Wagner

IMD: Kamaljit Ray, Ashim Mitra, R.K Giri

NOAA: Manik Bali, Larry Flynn, Fred Wu, Likun Wang, Anthony Reale

ESA: Paolo Castracane

WMO: Heikki Pohjola

Opening Address ( Kamaljit Ray, Chair GDWG)

Kamaljit Ray started the meeting by thanking Masaya Takahashi (Former GDWG Chair) for his leadership of the GDWG in the past years She went over the Actions generated in the past year and requested members to update the status of the actions. Following this she reported the main activities of the GDWG in the past year. This included the Collaboration server, Conventions for GSICS Products, Event Logging, and Annual Calibration reports. She then opened the floor for agencies to present their agency GDWG reports which was followed by discussions on topics vital to the Data Working Group in the coming year.

Agency Reports

KMA- Jin Woo

Jin reported the crucial role KMA is playing in GDWG activities. These include the establishment of the GitHub, Review of GPRC websites and building a plotting tool environment for internal system. In addition KMA is preparing new KOMSAT products for GPPA

Jin encouraged GDWG members to create accounts in github.

Jin:Plotting tool code can be shared

Tim: Do GDWG plan to consolidate different plotting tools into one common version?

Jin: First step would be to share

Proposed Action:

A.GDWG.20202010.1: KMA to provide the members the process to get account and use the KMA GSICS github.

ESA Paolo Castracane

Paolo updated the status of the ESA actions. Following A.GEP.20190517.3 .ESA has prepared a landing page website https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/instruments-calibration .

Paolo mentioned two brief papers have been submitted to the GSICS Newsletter. They concern the launch of two updated portals for Cal/Val data: the EVDC (the ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Center https://evdc.esa.int/) and the CEOS Cal/Val Portal http://calvalportal.ceos.org/.

IMD- R. K. Giri

IMD Presented information on the INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR. He showed mission objectives and described the satellites. Geophysical parameters derived from the satellites are available in HDF format.

Dual visualization tool. Showed MMDPRS for receiving data. Map of GNSS network Total 25 stations. Can be converted to different data formats Have a data supply portal

Timeline of upcoming satellites Landing pages with support of ISRO are being prepared

Kamaljit

What is the progress of Landing pages. Are you coordinating with ISRO ?

Giri: Developed with collaboration with ISRO.

Kamaljit: Would you be able to update in a few months.

Giri:Will provide update

A.GDWG.20201020.2: R.K Giri (IMD) to provide updates on landing page to GDWG

Ashim:Discussed with ISRO regarding landing page OSCAR . They would confirm and I would report in a week.

Manik: Which satellites would IMD monitor and which ones would ISRO monitor

Giri: IMD would monitor INSAT-3D and INSTAR-3DR only

Ashim: The upgradation of Direct Broadcast receiving stations in IMD is in progress. After upgrading, these data would be utilized for weather analysis and validation purposes for GSICS. Once we receive JPSS data we can use it for GSICS style comparisons like ISRO already do with IASI.

A.GDWG.20201020.3: IMD to update to update GSICS on receiving of JPSS data at IMD

JMA Arata

Arata Okuyama from JMA provided an overview of GDWG activities at JMA. He mentioned that the current JMA GDWG activities include support to event logging, and creation of GSICS products via the collaboration server.

Landing pages are available. JMA products are on GSICS Collaboration server in EUMETSAT.

Updates on actions (A.GWDG.2018.5a.2 and A.GDWG.2016.5b.1)

Arata mentioned that that for JMA would include invalid hours in their products. While this was relevant for MTSAT because it showed diurnal variations however AHI and future satellites do not show much diurgan variation

Manik: Can you please clarify as to why we need to convert SRF into Netcdf format?

Tim: There are two different use cases of SRF so we have two formats. One that is directly distributed by the agency via their landing pages, linked to WMO OSCAR - and linked to the GCC website, and another needed by tools, such as GIRO, that are to be converted to netCdF following the GSICS SRF convention.

NOAA- Manik Bali

Manik provided the overview of NOAA GDWG activities and updated on the actions assigned to NOAA GDWG. He mentioned that NOAA -GDWG is unique because NOAA also hosts the Coordination Center so GDWG tasks also support GCC activities in addition to wider GSICS activities.

He then gave an overview of a tool recently developed by NOAA GDWG namely the GSICS Product Alert System. He showed members how to use the tool in order to receive information on GSICS products

He then went on to showcase the GSICS Action Tracker and how to use the action tracker. New features on the tracker were shown.

Going into the future the NOAA GDWG would focus on applying Machine Learning to extract satellite information, Building scripts to produce State of Observation Report and building pages and tools for connecting with the ISCCP and other user groups.

Tim Hewison

How to roll out changes to GSICS conventions

We are free to add new attributes.

How do we roll out changes

1. Backward compatibility

2. Grandfather Clause- all continued use of depreciation conventions

Kamaljit : Is the data standardized

Larry: This proposal is to add content to the product. My view is this it could be accommodated by adding an optional field for the algorithm version. Older products could choose to add this information or not..

Larry: I agree. Changes in the product content from simple slope and bias formulations to more complex forms are needed. The GRWG should drive these requests.

A.GDWG.20201020.4: GRWG to provide inputs to GDWG as to what convention changes needed for new/revised products

A.GDWG.202010.20.5: GDWG to review GRWG proposed product convention changes and revise convention accordingly

Landing Pages

Rob Roebeling from EUMETSAT led the discussion on modifying and adding Landing Pages following the CGMS agreed format (see CGMS White Paper at: https://www.cgms-info.org/Agendas/GetWpFile.ashx?wid=4dbc1757-2442-47c9-8689-6020926a8ad9&aid=a98d26c2-0664-4a2e-bc11-10a6923d340b).

Rob shared the landing page spreadsheet. He indicated that the WMO OSCAR webpage has been updated. This update has consequences for all space-agency landing pages that contain links to WMO OSCAR, such as the commonly used link for Instrument Specifications that points to the WMO OSCAR page.

NOAA’s take: From NOAA the issue of landing pages has been escalated to the CGMS level and not at the GSICS level. In order to give NOAA an impression of setting up the landing pages for many instruments, Rob sent round the link to the ESA landing pages that was setup in 2019 (see: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/instruments-calibration).

Following a discussion between Ashim for IMD and ISRO, Ashim asked if the OSCAR GSICS or WMO page have similar format? Rob answered that the landing pages at the agency are complementary to the WMO OSCAR. The WMO OSCAR provides high level information on the specifications of the instruments and satellites, whereas the landing pages at the space agencies provide low level details on calibration methods, event logging, instrument monitoring, data availability, background documentation. Examples of the ESA landing pages are at (see: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/instruments-calibration.

GSICS - ISCCP

In the light of the recent GSICS -ISCCP meeting which came about after the action from GSICS EP, both GSICS and ISCCP had expressed that both need each other and are moving towards a strong GSICS product producer-Product user relationship.

The idea to discuss this in the GDWG was to learn what GDWG can do for this.

It was generally agreed that GRWG is leading this effort. However from time to time GDWG has to step in with establishing pipelines of data and knowledge sharing with the ISCCP. Further clarification regarding the ISCCP were asked as follows

Ashim: Do you have different plans for IOGEO and ISSCP

Tim: You are right IOGEO and ISCCP

Rob Robelling: IOGEO is a scope CM project. IOGEO is now a part of ISCCP.

Tim: As far as GSICS is concerned they represent the same

R.GDWG.20201020.1: WMO (Heikki) to nominate contact points to ensure that overlapping groups ( e.g IOGEO and ISCCP) can work in harmony with GSICS and strengthen Producer-User relationship.