The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has developed several products for its NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) partners that can initialize specific fields for local model runs within the NOAA/NWS Science and Training Resource Center Environmental Modeling System (EMS). The suite of SPoRT products for use in the EMS consists of a Sea Surface Temperature (SST) composite that includes a Lake Surface Temperature (LST) analysis over the Great Lakes, a Great Lakes sea-ice extent within the SST composite, a real-time Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) composite, and NASA Land Information System (LIS) gridded output. This paper and companion poster describe each dataset and provide recent upgrades made to the SST, Great Lakes LST, GVF composites, and the real-time LIS runs

Case, Jonathan L.

Lafontaine, Frank J.

Molthan, Andrew L.

Rozumalski, Robert A.

Zavodsky, Bradley T.

NASA Technical Reports Server

Recent Upgrades to NASA SPoRT Initialization Datasets for the Environmental Modeling System

The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has developed several products for its National Weather Service (NWS) partners that can initialize specific fields for local model runs within the NOAA/NWS Science and Training Resource Center (STRC) Environmental Modeling System (EMS). In last year's NWA abstract on this topic, the suite of SPoRT products supported in the STRC EMS was presented, which includes a Sea Surface Temperature (SST) composite, a Great Lakes sea-ice extent, a Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) composite, and NASA Land Information System (LIS) gridded output. This abstract and companion presentation describes recent upgrades made to the SST and GVF composites, as well as the real-time LIS runs. The Great Lakes sea-ice product is unchanged from 2011. The SPoRT SST composite product has been expanded geographically and as a result, the resolution has been coarsened from 1 km to 2 km to accommodate the larger domain. The expanded domain covers much of the northern hemisphere from eastern Asia to western Europe (0 N to 80 N latitude and 150 E to 10 E longitude). In addition, the NESDIS POES-GOES product was added to fill in gaps caused by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) being unable to sense in cloudy regions, replacing the recently-lost Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS with negligible change to product fidelity. The SST product now runs twice per day for Terra and Aqua combined data collections from 0000 to 1200 UTC and from 1200 to 0000 UTC, with valid analysis times at 0600 and 1800 UTC. The twice-daily compositing technique reduces the overall latency of the previous version while still representing the diurnal cycle characteristics. The SST composites are available at approximately four hours after the end of each collection period (i.e. 1600 UTC for the nighttime analysis and 0400 UTC for the daytime analysis). The real-time MODIS GVF composite has only received minor updates in the past year. The domain was expanded slightly to extend further west, north, and east to improve coverage over parts of southern Canada. Minor adjustments were also made to the manner in which GVF is calculated from the distribution of maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index from MODIS. The presentation will highlight some examples of the substantial inter-annual change in GVF that occurred from 2010 to 2011 in the U.S. Southern Plains as a result of the summer 2011 drought, and the early vegetation green up across the eastern U.S. due to the very warm conditions in March 2012. Finally, the SPoRT LIS runs the operational Noah land surface model (LSM) in real time over much of the eastern half of the CONUS. The Noah LSM is continually cycled in real time, uncoupled to any model, and driven by operational atmospheric analyses over a long-term, multi-year integration. The LIS-Noah provides the STRC EMS with high-resolution (3 km) LSM initialization data that are in equilibrium with the operational analysis forcing. The Noah LSM within the SPoRT LIS has been upgraded from version 2.7.1 to version 3.2, which has improved look-up table attributes for several land surface quantities. The surface albedo field is now being adjusted based on the input real-time MODIS GVF, thereby improving the net radiation. Also, the LIS-Noah now uses the newer MODIS-based land use classification scheme (i.e. the International Biosphere-Geosphere Programme [IGBP]) that has a better depiction of urban corridors in areas where urban sprawl has occurred. STRC EMS users interested in initializing their LSM fields with high-resolution SPoRT LIS data should set up their model domain with the MODIS-IGBP 20-class land use database and select Noah as the LSM

LaFontaine, Frank J.

37th National Weather Association Annual Meeting      Madison, WI 
Abstract          6–11 October 2012 
 
Recent Upgrades to NASA SPoRT Initialization Datasets for the  
Environmental Modeling System 
 
Jonathan L. Case1, Frank J. LaFontaine2, Andrew L. Molthan3, Bradley T. Zavodsky3, and  
Robert A. Rozumalski4 
 
1ENSCO, Inc./NASA Short‐term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center; Huntsville, Alabama 
2Raytheon/NASA SPoRT Center; Huntsville, Alabama 
3NASA Marshall Space Flight Center/SPoRT Center; Huntsville, Alabama 
4NOAA NWS/Forecast Decision Training Branch; Boulder, CO 
 
The NASA Short‐term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has developed several products 
for its National Weather Service (NWS) partners that can initialize specific fields for local model runs 
within the NOAA/NWS Science and Training Resource Center (STRC) Environmental Modeling System 
(EMS).  In last year’s NWA abstract on this topic, the suite of SPoRT products supported in the STRC EMS 
was presented, which includes a Sea Surface Temperature (SST) composite, a Great Lakes sea‐ice extent, 
a Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) composite, and NASA Land Information System (LIS) gridded output.  
This abstract and companion presentation describes recent upgrades made to the SST and GVF 
composites, as well as the real‐time LIS runs.  The Great Lakes sea‐ice product is unchanged from 2011. 
 
The SPoRT SST composite product has been expanded geographically and as a result, the resolution has 
been coarsened from 1 km to 2 km to accommodate the larger domain.  The expanded domain covers 
much of the northern hemisphere from eastern Asia to western Europe (0°N to 80°N latitude and 150°E 
to 10°E longitude).  In addition, the NESDIS POES‐GOES product was added to fill in gaps caused by the 
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) being unable to sense in cloudy regions, 
replacing the recently‐lost Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS with negligible change to 
product fidelity.  The SST product now runs twice per day for Terra and Aqua combined data collections 
from 0000 to 1200 UTC and from 1200 to 0000 UTC, with valid analysis times at 0600 and 1800 UTC.  
The twice‐daily compositing technique reduces the overall latency of the previous version while still 
representing the diurnal cycle characteristics. The SST composites are available at approximately four 
hours after the end of each collection period (i.e. 1600 UTC for the nighttime analysis and 0400 UTC for 
the daytime analysis).   
 
The real‐time MODIS GVF composite has only received minor updates in the past year.  The domain was 
expanded slightly to extend further west, north, and east to improve coverage over parts of southern 
Canada.  Minor adjustments were also made to the manner in which GVF is calculated from the 
distribution of maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index from MODIS.  The presentation will 
highlight some examples of the substantial inter‐annual change in GVF that occurred from 2010 to 2011 
in the U.S. Southern Plains as a result of the summer 2011 drought, and the early vegetation green‐up 
across the eastern U.S. due to the very warm conditions in March 2012. 
 
Finally, the SPoRT LIS runs the operational Noah land surface model (LSM) in real time over much of the 
eastern half of the CONUS.  The Noah LSM is continually cycled in real time, uncoupled to any model, 
and driven by operational atmospheric analyses over a long‐term, multi‐year integration.  The LIS‐Noah 
provides the STRC EMS with high‐resolution (3‐km) LSM initialization data that are in equilibrium with 
the operational analysis forcing.  The Noah LSM within the SPoRT LIS has been upgraded from version 
2.7.1 to version 3.2, which has improved look‐up table attributes for several land surface quantities.  The 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20130000587 2019-08-30T23:39:39+00:00Z
37th National Weather Association Annual Meeting      Madison, WI 
Abstract          6–11 October 2012 
 
surface albedo field is now being adjusted based on the input real‐time MODIS GVF, thereby improving 
the net radiation.  Also, the LIS‐Noah now uses the newer MODIS‐based land use classification scheme 
(i.e. the International Biosphere‐Geosphere Programme [IGBP]) that has a better depiction of urban 
corridors in areas where urban sprawl has occurred.  STRC EMS users interested in initializing their LSM 
fields with high‐resolution SPoRT LIS data should set up their model domain with the MODIS‐IGBP 20‐
class land use database and select Noah as the LSM. 
 


Recent Upgrades to NASA SPoRT Initialization Datasets for the Environmental Modeling System

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