The GOES-R Program is committed to user readiness. Users are defined as the individuals, companies, and institutions that will use the GOES-R Level 1b (L1b), Level 2, and higher-level (L2+) products to perform their meteorological functions. Preparing users for the advanced capabilities of GOES-R is essential to the success of the mission.
GOES-R User Readiness Process:
User readiness leverages the activities the GOES-R Program currently uses in the development of the Space and Ground Segments. The following is a list of actions that have already been taken by the GOES-R Program Office (GPO) to include a user readiness process within the framework of existing activities:
1.
Identify User Readiness as a significant risk to be mitigated in the GOES-R mission implementation and to be addressed in the Mission Readiness Review.
2.
Establish a method of assessing User Readiness, identifying readiness criteria and methods of measuring the achievement of those criteria at staged intervals in the schedule of mission implementation.
3.
Initiate and support the Proving Ground activity.
4.
Establish a direct collaboration between the GOES-R Proving Ground and the NOAA training functions.
5.
Establish and maintain a Communications and Outreach Plan.
6.
Monitor the development, integration, and validation status of the user systems.
7.
Present user readiness activities and training functions at various meetings and conferences to ensure current data is being disseminated.
The following criteria will be used to assess user readiness:
1.
Users are aware of the changes and updates being made to the GOES-R mission.
2.
Training is readily available for the products being developed.
3.
Participation and feedback for the various user readiness activities are well documented.
4.
All questions from users are addressed by the GPO.
5.
GOES-R Rebroadcast (GRB) users are aware of the needed changes for their ground station.
6.
All user readiness information is easily attainable.
The GOES-R Proving Ground is an essential component of user readiness. Because of the length of time required for planning, acquisition, and development of the GOES-R instruments and spacecraft, and the importance of these new capabilities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has undertaken early planning and demonstration activities to ensure timely and cost-effective integration of the future GOES capabilities. The GOES-R Proving Ground program will ease the transition from research to operations. This program consists of a broad set of field demonstration activities structured to gain early National Weather Service (NWS) field experience utilizing the NOAA Testbeds. The principal focus is on the forecaster/ Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS)-II environment. Learn more about these activities in the Proving Ground section of the website.
Training
Training is another crucial component of user readiness. A number of resources will be used to prepare GOES-R user communities for the use of new data and products that will be available with the next generation of geostationary weather satellites.
Training Development
NOAA has a well-established training program that will support GOES-R User Readiness:
Under the NWSTC, a new Operations Proving Ground in Kansas City, MO has been established and will be the main focus of obtaining and creating new training on GOES-R products for National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and other NOAA users. All users can obtain GOES-R training from various websites and teletraining, specifically COMET and VISIT. These programs are also developing training specifically geared toward the NWS user. A fair amount of preliminary training will come from the GOES-R PG.
A more recent addition to the GOES-R program is the position of “satellite liaison”. Satellite liaisons are stationed at most of the National Centers and the NWS Training Center. Satellite liaisons are tasked with running the various GOES-R demonstrations within these testbed locations. They are essentially a research-to-operations liaison, improving upon training from the product developers to present to testbed participants, and providing participant feedback to the developers for further improvement.
Training Sources
There are many sources of training information for GOES-R. To learn more about these resources, please visit the Training section of the website.
