INTERNATIONAL WINDS WORKING GROUP

John Morgan, the first Director of EUMETSAT, was the driving force behind the creation of the group, which initially focussed on cloud track winds from geostationary satellites. As the interests of the group widened the Working Group was formally renamed from the Working Group on Cloud Motion Winds (WG-CMW) to the Working Group on Satellite Derived Winds (WG-SDW) at CGMS-29 in 2001. The group is more commonly referred to as the International Winds Working Group (IWWG).

IWWG was established to pursue an objective of CGMS which is to encourage support and compatibility in meteorological data products and to complement the work of other international satellite coordination mechanisms. Objectives include the coordination of operational procedures, the development of common verification and validation procedures, and the encouragement of a robust programme of scientific research.

IWWG is comprised of representatives from the satellite operators and user community. Under the lead of the Chairperson(s), IWWG organizes Workshops, co-sponsored by CGMS and WMO, approximately every two years.

Interaction with CGMS
IWWG topics and issues are dealt with under a working group on Satellite Products at the annual CGMS meetings. This is the forum where the close formal interaction between satellite operators in CGMS and the IWWG takes place. Practically the interaction between the IWWG and the biennial IWWG meetings is realised through a rapporteur who participates regularly in the annual CGMS meetings. Recommendations from IWWG to CGMS are considered by the CGMS plenary and often lead to actions and pertinent changes in the operational systems for the derivation of winds.

The chairperson or co-chairs of IWWG are appointed by the plenary of the CGMS. Interaction between IWWG and the CGMS Plenary is performed via a Rapporteur who attends and reports to the CGMS meetings.

Current Chairmen (2023 - Present):

Iliana Genkova, NOAA

Feng Lu, CMA

CGMS Rapporteur for IWWG: Jaime Daniels, NOAA

 To promote increased scientific activity in the field of satellite-derived winds and to establish routine means of exchanging scientific results and progress

 To establish and encourage a regular dialogue and information exchange between producers and users of satellite-derived wind data. This should include both scientific and operational exchanges in order to:
       - agree on modifications to data formats and codes, including provision of additional information e.g. quality flags
       - discuss developments to the wind derivation methodology, including likely impacts and operational implementation details.
       - discuss assessments of the usefulness and quality of the data for numerical analysis and prediction

 To promote harmonization and, where feasible/practical, the standardization of operational procedures.

 To support collaborative activities including AMV derivation inter-comparison studies (see activities tab).

 To establish agreement for standards in the verification and validation of satellite-derived winds.
       - choice of data sources for validation
       - standardization of statistics
       - standardization of verification criteria, e.g., collocation window size in space and time, pre-filtering of data

 To make recommendations to CGMS and to national and international agencies regarding the utilization of current and the development of future satellite instruments on polar and geostationary satellites