Blended Hydrometeorological Products for the Research and Operational Communities

With advances in environmental parameter retrieval algorithms and their use of a wide array of satellite instruments, constantly changing views of Earth are possible. Enabling users to reap the benefits of this data requires good communication about the products. More and more, new near-realtime blended multisensor satellite products are becoming available to the weather forecaster, who must quickly decide whether the product is helpful or not. Research users of blended products can take more time to explore the suitability of these data for their applications, but communication and guidance from the data provider is essential. An effort under NASA's Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program has reprocessed and extended the NASA Water Vapor Project (NVAP) dataset, which now includes data from 1988-2009. The new dataset is named NVAP-M and includes global grids of both total and layered precipitable water vapor, as well as data source codes for each grid box. NVAP-M is distributed to the weather and climate research community via the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center. The global (land and ocean) NVAP-M dataset features different product types designed to fit a variety of user needs on a variety of time scales, from weather case studies to studies of climate change and trends. In particular, a three-track approach focused on weather, climate and ocean applications was chosen. Challenges and lessons learned in communicating with the diverse user community for NVAP-M (e.g., hydrologists, weather and climate scientists, epidemiologists) will be presented. Close relatives of NVAP-M are the NOAA Operational Blended Total Precipitable Water and Blended Rain Rate products. These products are available hourly in near-real time to National Weather Service forecast offices and are valuable for precipitation analysis and forecasting. They are created from a composite of passive microwave instruments on board typically six polar orbiting satellites. The types of comments from users, how they are trained to use the blended products, and the process for user feedback and product modifications will be discussed.