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  • Description

    This free introduction to the new capabilities offered by the latest-generation GOES-R series weather satellite was opened to university faculty in fall 2017. Seven live webinars by top experts in the field were developed to:

    • Provide an accessible level of information on GOES-16 data products
    • Foster a live interactive virtual workshop format – ability to ask questions!
    • Build on existing online resources from MetEd and elsewhere
    • Support GOES–16 data use in coursework and student research projects


    • Note: The webinar recordings are now available on the MetEd website, with accompanying quizzes. The MetEd recordings as well as the instructors' powerpoint slides, are linked from the expanded Topics sections below.


    For more information on GOES-R see: www.goes-r.gov  

    Resource links below provide information about accessing and viewing the GOES-16 imagery and data.


    The information presented in the webinars builds on existing online resources (available on the MetEd website www.meted.ucar.edu and elsewhere) and supports you in incorporating GOES-16 data in coursework and student research projects. The new GOES-16 tools and data are applicable to:

    • Physical, mesoscale, and synoptic meteorology
    • Atmospheric radiation, remote sensing, and optics
    • Lightning and atmospheric physics

    This course is offered by COMET® Program in partnership with NOAA NESDIS and the GOES-R Satellite Program Office. 

    See below for topic descriptions and links.

  • Resources

    Highlighted

    This section includes important links for accessing and viewing GOES-16 imagery and data. It also includes background information on the GOES-R series and GOES-16, as well as links to additional GOES-R/16 training resources.

  • Link to full course on MetEd

    • URL icon
      MetEd Link for Full Course Access URL

      The seven sessions below were recorded and published as a distance learning course on MetEd.
      To complete the full course, including all webinar sessions and quizzes, please access the MetEd course link.

  • Advanced Baseline Imager

    Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) (Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS)
    Learn about the improved temporal, spatial, spectral and calibration attributes of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the GOES-R series. The main use for each of the 16-spectral bands will be covered, using examples from the recently launched GOES-16 ABI. Will consist of both a lecture and hands-on component.

  • Tropical Cyclones

    Tropical Cyclones (Andrea Schumacher, CIRA NHC liaison)

    Learn about GOES-16’s new capabilities for real-time tropical cyclone analysis and monitoring, which will contribute significantly to improved hurricane track and intensity forecasts. The GOES-16 imager will provide whole new views of tropical cyclone phenomena, offering vastly improved time and spatial resolution as well as color composite images to enhance cloud bands and other features. In this course segment, we’ll also explore the role of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) in helping identify areas of strong thunderstorms associated with  tropical cyclone intensification.

  • Severe Storms

    Severe Storms (Michael Bowlan, SPC Satellite Liaison, OU CIMMS)

    GOES-16 can help improve forecasts of severe storms and provide forecasters with real-time information about lightning, flooding potential and other hazards. The high-resolution Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data can indicate whether thunderstorm updrafts are gathering strength or weakening, helping aid forecasters in making warning decisions. The ABI can also aid in identifying storms and convective complexes which have stalled or are “training”, which can signal a flood risk and help forecasters issue flood or flash flood warnings sooner. Lightning data provided by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper will help forecasters and fire analysts identify areas prone to wildfires sparked by lightning, as well as give insight into a storm’s severe potential.

  • Rapid Scan Imaging

    Rapid Scan Imaging (Dan Lindsey, STAR)

    GOES-16 offers 30-second and 1-minute RapidScan imagery to provide unprecedented views of convection, fire starts and spreads, storm intensification, and other quickly-evolving features. In this course segment, we’ll explore the RapidScan imagery capabilities for capturing the development of new convective features and evolution of short-lived convective features. GOES-16 RapidScan also enables cloud and feature tracking in and around tropical cyclones.  

  • Aviation Products

    Aviation Products (Amanda Terborg, CIRA/AWC with contributions from Chad Gravelle, OPG Satellite Liaison)

    This webinar will demonstrate the capabilities of GOES-R/16 in analyzing hazards affecting the aviation industry. The talk focuses specifically on four hazards (but there are others): 1) fog and low stratus, 2) in-flight turbulence, 3) dust, and 4) volcanic ash. Through the use of GOES-R/16 spectral bands, band differences, and RGB composites, satellite data users can detect the development and evolution of aviation threats better than with any previous geostationary satellites. 

  • Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

    Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) (Geoffrey Stano, SPoRT and Scott Rudlosky, STAR )  

    In this webinar, Scott Rudlosky and Geoffrey Stano will discuss and demonstrate the capabilities of the GOES-R/16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) in both operational and research applications. You will learn how the GLM, the first lightning mapper in geostationary orbit, differs from land-based lightning detection. The presenters will illustrate important processes know as lightning events, group, flashes, and lightning jumps. They will show products that illustrate the location and areal extent of lightning, and its evolution in cloud systems. With this information you should be able to integrate lightning data into studies about storm type and evolution, lightning safety, lightning climatology, multi-sensor products, wildfire initiation, and more.

  • Multispectral RGB Composites

    RGB (Emily Berndt NASA, SPoRT and Michael Folmer, GOES-R/JPSS Satellite Liaison at WPC/OPC/TAFB/SAB)  

    The 16 channels aboard the GOES Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) offer three times more spectral channels and four times greater resolution than ever before. Multispectral or Red-Green-Blue (RGB) composites are qualitative, false color images designed to enhance specific features in the atmosphere that are important to forecasters, aviators, mariners, and emergency response officials. RGB composites have been enthusiastically integrated into forecast operations because of their ability to highlight the presence and evolution of important forecast phenomena. This presentation will detail the development of RGB composites and provide examples of RGB use for atmospheric dust, volcanic ash, cyclogenesis, air mass characteristics, fog, and low clouds.

  • Course Certificate of Completion

    Learners completing all the webinars and associated quizzes can receive a Certification of Completion for the GOES-R Series Faculty Virtual Course.

    You can access the full course and track your progress here:
    https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=60