Transitioning research satellite data to the operational weather community: The SPoRT Paradigm [Organization Profiles]

Established in 2002 to demonstrate the weather forecasting application of real-time EOS measurements, the SPoRT project has grown to be an end-to-end research to operations activity focused on the use of advanced modeling and data assimilation techniques, nowcasting tools, and unique high-resolution multispectral observational data from NASA, NOAA, DoD, and international partner satellites to improve short-term weather forecasts on a regional and local scale. Through these efforts, SPoRT strives to be a focal point and facilitator for the transfer of unique Earth science technologies to the operational weather community with an emphasis on short-term forecasting. To achieve this vision, the SPoRT project will continue to address new data and technologies and develop and test solutions to critical forecast problems, and integrate solutions into end user decision support tools. SPoRT will draw on new instrumentation from satellites such as the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), which will provide high spatial resolution soil moisture data for diagnostic studies and data assimilation and weather forecasting, and the Global Precipitation Mapping (GPM) mission for more accurate measurements of precipitation at fine space and time scales.