NUCAPS profiles from NOAA-21 are now flowing into AWIPS, joining NUCAPS from NOAA-20 and Metop-C. NOAA-21 and NOAA-20 orbits are similar, and the combination of the two satellites means complete coverage twice daily. That is demonstrated in the animation above over Hawai’i that shows gridded NUCAPS fields of 500-mb temperatures... Read More

Metop-C and NOAA-20 are now both supplying NUCAPS profiles to National Weather Service AWIPS machines. Both the vertical profiles and gridded fields are available. The toggle above shows all the MetopC overpasses early on 4 April, and it includes horizontal maps of 850-mb Temperatures derived from the Metop-C NUCAPS profiles. Large swaths of satellite-derived fields are available... Read More

The incorporation of MetopC NUCAPS files into AWIPS also means that MetopC Gridded NUCAPS fields are available for forecasters to help diagnose the state of the atmosphere. The toggle above shows two swaths of data, one from MetopC over China, and one from NOAA-20 over the western Pacific. The imagery also includes estimates of the 850-500 mb lapse rates in... Read More

Gridded NUCAPS data, available from NOAA-20 data within AWIPS, can be used to construct cross-sections in AWIPS. The image above includes an editable baseline J-J’ (one of 10 different lines that can be used for data in AWIPS) from Minnesota into Indiana, roughly perpendicular to a line of broken cumulus... Read More