GOES-15 RSO Testing
GOES-15 10.7 µm infrared channel imagery in Sitka Sector (click to enlarge)
NOAA/NESDIS placed GOES-15 in Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) mode for several hours on 7 October 2014 (link) to test RSO capabilities over different sectors of the Pacific Ocean. RSO Capabilities over the Pacific were possible in the 1990s; the testing yesterday showed they could be done again. Three sectors were scanned. The Sitka sector, above (centered near the Island of Sitka), can monitor the eastern Gulf of Alaska and western North America. The other sectors were over Hawaii (below, the Hawaii Sector) and over the western Gulf of Alaska and parts of the Bering Sea (bottom, the TPARC Sector, which sector overlaps a THORPEX experiment site).
GOES-15 10.7 µm infrared channel imagery in Hawaii Sector (click to enlarge)
GOES-15 10.7 µm infrared channel imagery in TPARC Sector (click to enlarge)
NESDIS is investigating why these RSO data did not flow into AWIPS as intended.
==============================================================================
Update, 15 October 2014.
A second RSO Test occurred on 15 October (Link). Data from this successful RSO test were available in AWIPS during this test. GOES-15 scanning strategies are shown here. The Hawaii sector is shown here. Data available over the Hawaii sector from 1930 to 2030 UTC on 15 October are shown below.
GOES-15 10.7 µm infrared channel imagery in Hawaii Sector (click to animate)