Winds Products HomePage

DOC | NOAA | NESDIS | OSDPD | IPD

PSB WINDS PRODUCT AREA

The WINDS product area is so named for the primary product derived from GEOSTATIONARY (GOES) satellite images, i.e., cloud drift winds. NESDIS has two complementary GOES winds production systems:

a fully automated system in IPD utilizing the CEMSCS and
an interactive system in SSD utilizing the MIDAS.

The basic assumptions of both methods are:

that clouds move with the prevailing wind;
that the cloud motions can be tracked in successive GOES images;
that cloud altitude can be inferred from infrared imagery.

Each method requires at least two successive images (two motions between three images are normally used).

The WINDS product area is responsible for the IPD cloud motion wind system which has the following main attributes:

Input data: GOES Infrared Images - 8km resolution
Coverage: 2«ų grid over oceans
Frequency: 00,06,12,18z
Pattern Tracking Method: Cross Correlation
Output product: Low level (900mb) cloud drift winds.

Approximately 250 winds are computed for each of the four daily times. The winds are broadcast over the GTS and sent directly to NMC. A permanent archive is maintained at the NCDC.

contact: George Hughes
Last revised: Dec. 10, 2003 (kcs)
Privacy Policy