International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package

  University of Wisconsin Direct Broadcast Supported Projects

National Weather Service
    University of Wisconsin Direct Broadcast IMAPP MODIS products are being used to assist NWS forecasters in short term forecasting.  Products are being routinely created and sent to regional offices for system wide distribution and visualization via AWIPS.  The subset of products being distributed are:

  •  MODIS True Color Images (250 m)
  •  MODIS Band 1 (.66 micron visible)  1 km
  •  MODIS Band 26 (1.38 micron cirrus)  1 km
  •  MODIS Band 7  (2.1 micron snow/ice) 1 km
  •  MODIS Band 20 (4 micron window) 1 km
  •  MODIS Band 27 (6.5 micron water vapor)  1 km
  •  MODIS Band 31 (11 micron window)  1 km
  •  MODIS Sea Surface Temperatures  1 km
  •  MODIS Fog Product (4-11 micron) 1 km
  •  MODIS NDVI   1 km
  •  MODIS Land Surface Temperatures  1 km
  •  MODIS Cloud Top Temperatures 5 km
  •  MODIS Cloud Phase  5 km
  •  MODIS Total Precipitable Water Vapor 5 km
The MODIS products compliment the 15 minute GOES data by providing higher resolution (i.e., 1 km SST's) and/or new products (i.e., Cloud Phase).

A real-time web page has been set up to support the NWS LaCrosse, Wisconsin forecast office by providing them with specific data product images tailored to their preference in location, enhancements, etc. 

For more information on this project, please see the University of Wisconsin MODIS AWIPS project web site set up by Jordan Gerth.

MODIS Product Assimilation in NWP
    MODIS Total Precipitable Water (TPW) vapor and MODIS cloud effective emissivity direct broadcast products are being assimilated into the CIMSS Regional Assimilations System (CRAS) numerical weather prediction model.   The products are used to improve the depiction of moisture and clouds in the model.  Work continues to make both the model and the assimilation of local direct broadcast MODIS products part of the IMAPP suite of utilities.

Lake Monitoring
    True color high resolution MODIS GeoTIFF images are being used by the NOAA Great Lakes Coast Watch program to assist in the monitoring of conditions in and around the Great Lakes. 

MODIS true color images are also being used by the Canadian Ice Service as part of their suite of instruments used to define ice formation in shipping lanes. 

Sea Surface Temperatures
    Two interactive near real-time IMAPP MODIS Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) web pages have been created to provide high resolution images of the Gulf of Mexico and the near-shore Western Atlantic as well as one requested by the NWS which covers the individual Great Lakes.

Air Quality
    University of Wisconsin direct broadcast MODIS cloud, aerosol and true color imagery are providing timely support for the Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications (IDEA) project.  This program is a partnership between NASA, NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to improve air quality assessment, management and prediction.

Polar Weather Forecasts
    IMAPP MODIS software is being used by the NOAA/STAR/ASPT group to support the development of real-time products for improvement of polar forecasts and the creation of polar winds for improvement of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) global forecasts.   This data is being used by NWP centers operationally including ECMWF, GMAO, JMA, CMC, FNMOC, UKMO, DWD and NCEP/EMC.  The inclusion of these polar winds has shown a positive impact on forecasts globally, and the direct broadcast capabilities allow assimilation to take place more quickly than using data from the NOAA bent pipe.  In addition, other IMAPP MODIS products are being generated and used by forecasters in the Antarctic, Norway and Finland from direct broadcast data.

PDA Animated Weather
    IMAPP MODIS Images are being used to support the PDA Animated Weather (PAW), a project used to support users who need real-time access to weather data via a PDA.  Users include firefighters, police, pilots and commuters.

Global Outreach
    University of Wisconsin staff has championed the global understanding and use of AIRS and MODIS data through the teaching of IMAPP direct broadcast seminars.  So far, five workshops have been held in China, Norway, South Africa, Brazil and again in South Africa as part of IGARSS  with the goal of fostering young scientists to use the freely available data and software to improve environmental monitoring and forecasting in their countries.

Real-time Data Customers
   The University of Wisconsin direct broadcast projects continue  to provide real-time Terra and Aqua products to a number of customers in the US. The reliability and timeliness of products from the CIMSS/SSEC reception and processing system enabled these customers to make use of EOS products in near real-time. A list of a few real-time data customers is shown below: