GOES satellite-derived Lifted Index; total precipitable water; as well as 500 mb, 700 mb, 850 mb temperature fields, and individual SKEWT plots are available on the Forecast Products Development Team Web page at:
On August 8th, 1997, at 1800Z, a visible full disk image arrived from a revitalized GOES 10 (albeit upside down). Several other images followed (full disks, conus, and northern hemispheres). A sounder ASOS frame was also ingested. After completion of the imagery/sounding sectors, GOES 10 instruments were returned to a "star stare." Current plans are to deploy the cooler covers on 18 August and then take infrared images after a roughly 3-day cool down. That means the next frame recordings would most likely occur on Wednesday 20 August.
Radiosonde interference from the 12Z sounding at IAD continues to cause significant degradation to both soundings and imagery from approximately sounding time to 1300Z. Engineers are working to eliminate the interference.
GOES 8 and GOES 9 are in the process of battery reconditioning which involves discharging and overcharging the power cells. This semi-annual procedure preceeds the fall eclipse period which begins August 30, 1997.
On July 31st, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) announced the award of six contracts for the development of instruments for the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The six companies awarded the competitive sensor and algorithm contracts are: Hughes Space and Communications Company, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Hughes Aircraft, ITT Aerospace/Communications Division, and Saab Ericsson of Sweden.
Information concerning NOAAs Hurricane Research Division (HRD) programs and projects can be found on HRD's homepage at:
The 1997 edition of HRD's Hurricane Field Program Plan is available as an Adobe Portable Document file (PDF ~1 Mb) at the following address:
NOAA's Office of Global Program (OGP) has just announced a web site with the latest information on ENSO. The address is http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/enso/.
