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Remote Sensing from Geostationary Orbit: GEO TROPSAT, A New Concept for Atmospheric Remote Sensing

The Geostationary Tropospheric Pollution Satellite (GEO TROPSAT) mission is a new approach to measuring the critical constituents of tropospheric ozone chemistry: ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols. The GEO TROPSAT mission comprises a constellation of three instruments flying as secondary payloads on geostationary communications satellites around the world. This proposed approach can significantly reduce the cost of getting a science payload to geostationary orbit and also generates revenue for the satellite owners. The geostationary vantage point enables simultaneous high temporal and spatial resolution measurement of tropospheric trace gases, leading to greatly improved atmospheric ozone chemistry knowledge. The science data processing, conducted as a research (not operational) activity, will provide atmospheric trace gas data many times per day over the same region at better than 25 km ground footprint. The high temporal resolution identifies short time scale processes, diurnal variations, seasonal trends, and interannual variation.

Little, Alan D.

A Numerical Testbed for Remote Sensing of Aerosols, and its Demonstration for Evaluating Retrieval Synergy from a Geostationary Satellite Constellation of GEO-CAPE and GOES-R

We present a numerical testbed for remote sensing of aerosols, together with a demonstration for evaluating retrieval synergy from a geostationary satellite constellation. The testbed combines inverse (optimal-estimation) software with a forward model containing linearized code for computing particle scattering (for both spherical and non-spherical particles), a kernel-based (land and ocean) surface bi-directional reflectance facility, and a linearized radiative transfer model for polarized radiance. Calculation of gas absorption spectra uses the HITRAN (HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption) database of spectroscopic line parameters and other trace species cross-sections. The outputs of the testbed include not only the Stokes 4-vector elements and their sensitivities (Jacobians) with respect to the aerosol single scattering and physical parameters (such as size and shape parameters, refractive index, and plume height), but also DFS (Degree of Freedom for Signal) values for retrieval of these parameters. This testbed can be used as a tool to provide an objective assessment of aerosol information content that can be retrieved for any constellation of (planned or real) satellite sensors and for any combination of algorithm design factors (in terms of wavelengths, viewing angles, radiance and/or polarization to be measured or used). We summarize the components of the testbed, including the derivation and validation of analytical formulae for Jacobian calculations. Benchmark calculations from the forward model are documented. In the context of NASA's Decadal Survey Mission GEOCAPE (GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events), we demonstrate the use of the testbed to conduct a feasibility study of using polarization measurements in and around the O2 A band for the retrieval of aerosol height information from space, as well as an to assess potential improvement in the retrieval of aerosol fine and coarse mode aerosol optical depth (AOD) through the synergic use of two future geostationary satellites, GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series) and TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Strong synergy between GEOS-R and TEMPO are found especially in their characterization of surface bi-directional reflectance, and thereby, can potentially improve the AOD retrieval to the accuracy required by GEO-CAPE.

Aerosols

An Overview of the Design and Development of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) Space Segment

The first of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series (GOES-R) satellites was launched in November 2016. GOES-R has been developed by NOAA in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The satellite represents a quantum leap in the state of the art for geostationary weather satellites by providing data from a suite of six new instruments. All instruments were developed expressly for this mission, and include two Earth-observing instruments (the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)), two solar-viewing instruments (Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) and Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS)) and two in situ instruments (Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS) and a magnetometer pair). In addition to hosting the instruments, GOES-R also accommodates several communication packages designed to collect and relay data for weather forecasting and emergency management. Accommodating the six instruments and four communication payloads imposed challenging and competing constraints on the satellite, including requirements for extremely stable earth and solar pointing, high-speed and nearly error-free instrument data transmission, and a very quiet electromagnetic background. To meet mission needs, GOES-R employed several technological innovations, including low-thrust rocket engines that allow instrument observations to continue during maneuvers, and the first civilian use of Global Positioning System-based orbit determination in geostationary orbit. This paper will provide a brief overview of the GOES-R satellite and its instruments as well as the developmental challenges involved in accommodating the instruments and communications payloads.

SUVI

An Overview of the Aerosol and Clouds-Convection-Precipitation Study (A-CCP) and its Relationship to the Geostationary AC-VC

The 2017 Decadal Survey (DS) highlighted Earth System Science themes, science and application questions, and several high priority objectives that have led to the inclusion of Aerosols (A) and Clouds-Convection-Precipitation (CCP) as Designated Observables (DOs) The aerosol-related science questions outlined by the DS focus on two major themes: 1) Climate Variability and Change and 2) Weather and Air Quality. The Aerosol mission observables targeted to address these major objectives may potentially contribute to three additional themes: 3) Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems, 4) Global Hydrological Cycle, and 5) Earth Surface and Interior; this study will examine these linkages.In response to NASA's Designated Observables Guidance for Multi-Center Study Plans released on June 1, 2018, GSFC, LaRC, JPL, MSFC, GRC and ARC submitted Study Plan to the NASA Earth Science Division for the Aerosol (A) and Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation (CCP) Pre-formulation Study (A-CCP). The DS recognized the science merit in combining the A and CCP DOs for both enhancing the ability to address a number of Most Important (MI) objectives defined by the disciplinary panels and also to provide an expanded capability to address additional objectives beyond those addressed by individual DOs. The DS also identified Integrating Themes that can also be addressed through combinations of observables including potential combinations of DOs and the PoR. The combined A+CCP portion of this study will demonstrate how the combination of A and CCP observables will enhance the objectives of A and CCP individually, while providing the ability to expand the DS objectives addressed, and will closely connect to the A and CCP studies being performed in parallel. A critical element of the A-CCP observing strategy is to make extensive use of the so-called Program-of-Record (PoR). In this regard, the Geostationary Atmospheric Composition Virtual Constellation consisting of the GEMS, TEMPO and SENTINEL-4 and other relevant geostationary assets will provide a critical foundation for A-CCP. In this talk we will discuss how the A-CCP measurements contributes to air-quality and the geostationary constellation, and conversely, how the geostationary constellation helps answering fundamental A-CCP science objectives.

Da Silva, Arlindo

Using OSSEs to Evaluate the Impacts of Geostationary Infrared Sounders

An observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) was performed to assess the impact of assimilating hyperspectral infrared (IR) radiances from geostationary orbit on numerical weather prediction, with a focus on the proposed sounder on board the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program’s central satellite. Infrared sounders on a geostationary platform would fill several gaps left by IR sounders on polar-orbiting satellites, and the increased temporal resolution would allow the observation of weather phenomena evolution. The framework for this OSSE was the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) OSSE system, which includes a full suite of meteorological observations. The experiment additionally assimilated four identical IR sounders from geostationary orbit to create a “ring” of vertical profiling observations. Based on the experimentation, assimilation of the IR sounders provided a beneficial impact on the analyzed mass and wind fields, particularly in the tropics, and produced an error reduction in the initial 24–48 h of the subsequent forecasts. Specific attention was paid to the impact of the GeoXO Sounder (GXS) over the contiguous United States (CONUS) as this is a region that is well-observed and as such difficult to improve. The forecast sensitivity to observation impact (FSOI) metric, computed across all four synoptic times over the CONUS, reveals that the GXS had the largest impact on the 24-h forecast error of the assimilated hyperspectral infrared satellite radiances as measured using a moist energy error norm. Based on this analysis, the proposed GXS has the potential to improve numerical weather prediction globally and over the CONUS.

OSSE

Illustrating the Spatiotemporal Complexity of No2 Columns Using A Multi-Perspective Observing System: Moving Toward Geostationary Product Validation and Applications

As a precursor to secondary pollutants like ozone and PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is crucial to understand when addressing air quality issues. However, due to NO2’s short lifetime during the daytime and complexity of emission sources in urbanized regions, interpreting datasets from ground or satellite perspectives alone are challenged by variance in spatial and temporal resolutions. High resolution airborne mapping (< 1 km) of NO2 column densities across morning, midday, and afternoon add a unique perspective toward interpreting satellite data with respect to ground-measurements. This presentation focuses on the interpretation of spatiotemporal complexity of NO2 columns from the Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Science Study (STAQS). The mission’s goal is to integrate geostationary observations from Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) with traditional and enhanced air quality monitoring to improve the understanding of air quality science for increased societal benefit. We will demonstrate the interweaved perspective of NO2 columns from ground-based Pandora spectrometers and satellite-based observations (e.g., TROPOMI) as compared to high spatial resolution airborne observations from the GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Airborne Simulator (GCAS). This includes the evaluation of each dataset through comparison to each other to identify potential biases in data products and the impact of heterogeneity on these comparisons. Airborne data will also be used as a proxy for geostationary observations with morning, midday, and afternoon raster maps collected over four cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and New York City). Finally, recent research outcomes will be presented to demonstrate how airborne and geostationary observations can be used to evaluate emission inventories and air quality models.

Laura Judd

Inter-Calibrating CERES Instrument Fluxes Utilizing the CERES Instrument Geostationary Scan Mode Observations

The NASA Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project provides the scientific community observed top-of-atmosphere (TOA) fluxes to monitor the Earth’s energy imbalance and validate climate models. The CERES instruments onboard the Terra, Aqua, SNPP and NOAA-20 satellites need to be inter-calibrated to provide a continuous and consistent TOA flux record contained in the CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) product. The SNPP and NOAA-20 satellites are positioned a half an orbit apart within the same sun-synchronous orbit (1:30 PM equatorial crossing time) thus preventing any direct time-matched observations. The CERES project designed the geostationary scan mode (GEOscan) to inter-calibrate the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) broadband measurement onboard the Meteosat 8-11 satellites. By rotating the orientation of the CERES instrument scan to match the angular configuration of the geostationary scan mode, the comparison of both angle and time matched observations suitable for inter-calibration is possible. To determine if the GEOscan mode is useful for inter-calibrating two CERES instruments placed in the same 16-day repeating orbit, the CERES project placed the Terra and Aqua CERES instruments in GEOscan mode once every 6 days over a rotation of five geostationary domains beginning in February 2023. The GEO imager narrowband to broadband derived radiances are used as transfer radiometers to compare the Terra and Aqua CERES observed radiances. Since both the Terra and Aqua CERES instruments are in GEOscan mode over the same GEO domain and day, the GEO imager calibration is expected to be consistent between the Terra and Aqua overpass times. Any GEO imager narrowband to broadband regional biases should be similar for the Terra and Aqua overpasses. The GEOscan mode Terra and Aqua CERES inter-calibration coefficients for both shortwave and longwave broadband radiances will be compared against the CERES instrument team’s coefficients to determine the viability of this approach. Improvements in the GEO imager narrowband to broadband approaches will also be investigated and verified within this framework.

Kyle Itterly

The Geostationary Fourier Transform Spectrometer

The Geostationary Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GeoFTS) is an imaging spectrometer designed for a geostationary orbit (GEO) earth science mission to measure key atmospheric trace gases and process tracers related to climate change and human activity. GEO allows GeoFTS to continuously stare at a region of the earth for frequent sampling to capture the variability of biogenic fluxes and anthropogenic emissions from city to continental spatial scales and temporal scales from diurnal, synoptic, seasonal to interannual. The measurement strategy provides a process based understanding of the carbon cycle from contiguous maps of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), and chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) collected many times per day at high spatial resolution (~2.7kmx2.7km at nadir). The CO2/CH4/CO/CF measurement suite in the near infrared spectral region provides the information needed to disentangle natural and anthropogenic contributions to atmospheric carbon concentrations and to minimize uncertainties in the flow of carbon between the atmosphere and surface. The half meter cube size GeoFTS instrument is based on a Michelson interferometer design that uses all high TRL components in a modular configuration to reduce complexity and cost. It is self-contained and as independent of the spacecraft as possible with simple spacecraft interfaces, making it ideal to be a "hosted" payload on a commercial communications satellite mission. The hosted payload approach for measuring the major carbon-containing gases in the atmosphere from the geostationary vantage point will affordably advance the scientific understating of carbon cycle processes and climate change.

atmospheric trace gases

Geonex: A NASA-NOAA Collaboration for Producing Land Surface Products from Geostationary Sensors Using Cloud Computing

The latest generation of geostationary satellites carry sensors such as the Advanced Baseline Imager (GOES-16/17) and the Advanced Himawari Imager (Himawari-8/9) that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of MODIS and VIIRS, useful for monitoring land surface conditions. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team at Ames Research Center has embarked on a collaborative effort among scientists from NASA and NOAA exploring the feasibility of producing operational land surface products similar to those from MODIS/VIIRS. The team built a processing pipeline called GEONEX that is capable of converting raw geostationary data into routine products of Fires, surface reflectances, vegetation indices, LAI/FPAR, ET and GPP/NPP using algorithms adapted from both NASA/EOS and NOAA/GOES-R programs. The GEONEX pipeline has been deployed on Amazon Web Services cloud platform and it currently leverages near-realtime geostationary data hosted in AWS public datasets under a NOAA-AWS agreement.Initial analyses of various products from ABI/AHI sensors suggest that they are comparable to those from MODIS in representing the spatio-temporal dynamics of land conditions. Cloud computing offers a variety of options for deploying the GEONEX pipeline including choice CPUs, storage media, and automation. We estimate the cost of deploying GEONEX to be $400 - 750 a month for processing data (every 30 minutes) and producing products over the conterminous US. For products such as Fire, latency can be as little as 10 minutes from the time of data acquisition.

Geostationary

GEONEX: Webpage to Display NASA-NOAA Collaboration of Producing Land Surface Products from Geostationary Sensors

The latest generation of geostationary satellites carry sensors such as the Advanced Baseline Imager (GOES-16/17) and the Advanced Himawari Imager (Himawari-8/9) that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of MODIS and VIIRS, useful for monitoring land surface conditions. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team at Ames Research Center has embarked on a collaborative effort among scientists from NASA and NOAA exploring the feasibility of producing operational land surface products similar to those from MODIS/VIIRS. The team built a processing pipeline called GEONEX that is capable of converting raw geostationary data into routine products of Fires, surface reflectances, vegetation indices, LAI/FPAR, ET and GPP/NPP using algorithms adapted from both NASA/EOS and NOAA/GOES-R programs. The GEONEX pipeline has been deployed on Amazon Web Services cloud platform and it currently leverages near-realtime geostationary data hosted in AWS public datasets under a NOAA-AWS agreement.In order to better introduce the GEONEX products to the science community, we set up a simple webpage (www.geonex.org) to describe the background and the motivation of the project, the algorithms used in deriving the products, and user manuals to the data files. We will also update the status of the data processing, in particular the near-real-time products, on the website and provide links (in text or json files) to the latest datasets.

geostationary

Earth Observations from Geostationary Satellites

The latest generation of geostationary satellites carry sensors such as the Advanced Baseline Imager (GOES-16/17) and the Advanced Himawari Imager (Himawari-8/9) that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of MODIS and VIIRS, useful for monitoring land surface conditions. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team at Ames Research Center has embarked on a collaborative effort among scientists from NASA and NOAA exploring the feasibility of producing operational land surface products similar to those from MODIS/VIIRS. The team built a processing pipeline called GeoNEX that is capable of converting raw geostationary data into routine products of Fires, surface reflectances, vegetation indices, LAI/FPAR, ET and GPP/NPP using algorithms adapted from both NASA/EOS and NOAA/GOES-R programs. The GeoNEX pipeline has been deployed on Amazon Web Services cloud platform and it currently leverages near-realtime geostationary data hosted in AWS public datasets under a NOAA-AWS agreement. Initial analyses of various products from ABI/AHI sensors suggest that they are comparable to those from MODIS in representing the spatio-temporal dynamics of land conditions. Cloud computing offers a variety of options for deploying the GeoNEX pipeline including choice CPUs, storage media, and automation. By making the GEONEX pipeline available on the cloud, we hope to engage a broad community of Earth scientists from around the world in utilizing this new source of data for Earth monitoring.

Earth

GeoNEX: A Geostationary Earth Observatory

The latest generation of geostationary satellites (Himawari 8/9, GOES-16/17, FY-4, GK-2A) carries sensors that closely mimic the spatial and spectral characteristics of widely used polar-orbiting, global monitoring sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS. When combined, data from various currently operating/planned geostationary platforms provide a geo-ring of hyper-temporal (5-10 minutes), multispectral observations at spatial resolutions as high as 500 m. These high frequency observations offer exciting new possibilities for monitoring our planet, including better retrievals of geophysical variables by overcoming cloud cover, enabling studies of diurnally varying phenomena in the atmosphere, land, and the oceans, and support operational decision-making in agriculture, hydrology and disaster management. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) team, in collaboration with scientists from JAXA, KARI, NOAA and other international institutions, created the GeoNEX (www.nasa.gov/geonex) pipeline to integrate data from all available geostationary platforms and produce and distribute spatially, temporally, and radiometrically consistent data for the earth science community. We envision various institutions adapting the Geo component (e.g., GeoNOAA, GeoKARI, GeoChiba, GeoJAXA, GeoCMA) and customizing the pipeline and downstream products to serve the local/regional research and applied science communities. To facilitate collaborative work among the partners, we have established the OpenNEX platform on the public cloud. OpenNEX provides researchers, developers, educators, and ordinary users with easy access to an integrated Earth science computational and data platform, enabling citizen scientists and application developers to realize the full value of GeoNEX data assets and software tools.

GeoNEX

Uncertainty Analysis of the GeoNEX Top-of-Atmospheric Reflectance Products Generated from the Third-Generation Geostationary Satellite Sensors

The GeoNEX (Geostationary-NASA Earth eXchange) Level-1G products consist of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) bi-directional reflectance factor (BRF) and brightness temperature generated with data streams from the latest geostationary (GEO) sensors including GOES-16/17 ABI, Himawari-8/9 AHI, and GK-2A AMI on a global tiled common grid (60oN-60o and 180oW-180oE) in geographic coordinates. With their 16 spectral bands, 0.01o/0.02o nadir spatial resolution, and 10-minute temporal resolutions, these products provide exciting opportunity to monitor Earth surface processes. However, the unique Sun-Target-Satellite geometry of geostationary sensors demands special attention in analyzing/interpreting these datasets. In this study we present a systematic analysis on the relationship between the radiometric uncertainties of the GeoNEX TOA reflectance and the corresponding solar/satellite zenith angles. We show that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the BRF are positively proportional to the square roots of the cosine of solar illuminating zenith angles. That is, the BRF data are noisier earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon than in the mid of the day. The cosine of satellite viewing zenith angles do not directly influence the SNR of the TOA BRF. However, they positively regulate the relative importance of the surface component in the TOA BRF. This means that variations in surface reflectance are more difficult to detect for pixels with larger view zenith angles, even when the SNR of the TOA BRF is the same. We are developing metrics to specify such illumination-view geometry related uncertainties in the GeoNEX L1G TOA BRF products so that this key information can be easily accessed by the user community.

Geostationary satellite

Geostationary Satellite Observations Over Global Environmental Monitoring Sites

Globally, there are now hundreds of ground-based environmental monitoring stations routinely collecting data on a variety of earth-atmosphere interactions. Such observations are also being augmented with data from orbiting satellites. With the beginning of the EOS-era, the MODIS subset around flux towers has been frequently used for validating ecosystem models developed at flux towers and upscaling the observed flux data to regional scales. However, MODIS on the polar-orbiting satellites can observe target regions only once a day, while the Fluxnet eddy- covariance data are compiled as sub-hourly. Therefore, summarizing the sub-hourly flux data into daily statistics is necessary for the comparison between MODIS and Flux data. The new generation geostationary satellite sensors (GOES-16/17 ABI and Himawari-8/9 AHI) have capabilities similar to MODIS but collect data at 5-15 minute intervals. These high-frequency observations allow us to understand and scale diurnal fluxes. Some studies have already shown the effective utilization of time series of geostationary satellite data for ecosystem modeling. We are producing NEX Level-1G products, which are gridded Top-of-Atmosphere reflectance and brightness temperature data from geostationary satellite sensors. We cut out the NEX Level-1G data using the same file format with the MODIS subset except for the projection. The other data products (e.g., surface reflectance, land surface temperature, vegetation indices, and climate data) will be added upon their availability. Currently included networks are Fluxnet, PhenoCam, and AERONET. The NEX subset data will be provided through NASA NEX data portal.

Geostationary Satellites

Impacts of Assimilating Infrared Sounders from Geostationary Orbit

A set of observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) was used to assess the impact of assimilating hyperspectral infrared (IR) radiances from geostationary platforms. This was done in preparation for the proposed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary eXtended Observations (GeoXO) Sounder (GXS), expected to launch in the 2030s, using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) OSSE framework. From a numerical weather prediction (NWP) perspective, a global “ring” of geostationary IR sounders was found to improve both the analysis and forecasts and provide beneficial impacts as measured by the forecast sensitivity observation impact (FSOI) metric.

Geostationary orbit

Joint Retrieval of Surface BRDF from Geostationary and Polar-Orbiting Satellite Sensors

The latest geostationary sensors like GOES 16/17 ABI and Himawari 8/9 AHI provide high frequent observations of the Earth surface with continuously changing solar illumination geometries, which allow us to retrieve the surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) with dedicated atmospheric correction algorithms like MAIAC (Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction). However, because the viewing geometry of a specific location from the geostationary satellites are fixed, the angular sampling of surface BRDF by GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) sensors is far from comprehensive. This study tries to address this issue by exploring a GEO-LEO (Low-Earth-Orbit) synergy, in particular, jointly retrieving surface BRDF parameters with concurrent ABI/AHI and VIIRS top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance for the near-infrared (NIR) band. The NIR band is chosen because the ABI, AHI, and VIIRS instruments have very similar spectral response functions in this band and therefore simplifies the requirements for cross-sensor radiometric calibration. We compile ABI/AHI and VIIRS TOA data with the best quality (cloud-free and low aerosol loading) at chosen AERONET sites. We then run the GeoNEX MAIAC algorithm to retrieve the Ross-Thick-Li-Sparse (RTLS) surface BRDF parameters with or without the AEORNET measured atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) as inputs. The joint retrieval results are considered the best estimate of surface BRDF. We compare the joint BRDF retrievals with the corresponding MAIAC BRDF products, retrieved with ABI/AHI or VIIRS separately, to evaluate their differences. We expect that the jointly retrieved BRDF data are more robust than the standard products and may help us reduce uncertainties in higher-level earth observation satellite products.

Remote Sensing

Subsets of geostationary satellite data over international observing network sites for studying the diurnal dynamics of energy, carbon, and water cycles

The latest generation of geostationary satellites provide Earth observations similar to widely used polar-orbiting sensors but at intervals as frequently as every 5–10 min, making them ideal for studying the diurnal dynamics of land–atmosphere interactions. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) group created the GeoNEX datasets by collating data from several geostationary platforms, including GOES-16/17/18, Himawari-8/9, and GK-2A, and placing them on a common grid to facilitate use by the Earth science community. Here, we document the GeoNEX Coincident Ground Observations (GeCGO) dataset for terrestrial ecosystem studies and provide examples for its use. Currently, GeCGO provides GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data over a 10 km × 10 km area surrounding 1586 network sites across the Americas. GeCGO makes it easy to compare the time series of geostationary data with the diurnal ground observations, including carbon/water fluxes and aerosol optical depth, and is extensible to other regions. We also develop GeoNEXTools to facilitate analyses that require both GeoNEX data and other NASA satellite data. The objectives of this paper are to introduce GeCGO and GeoNEXTools and demonstrate their applications. First, we describe the details of GeCGO and GeoNEXTools. Second, we explain how GeCGO can be integrated with other satellite data. Finally, we showcase comparisons between GeCGO and observations from three ground-based networks. GeCGO is available at https://doi.org/10.25966/y5pe-xp41 (Hashimoto et al., 2025).

Hashimoto, Hirofumi [NASA Ames Research Center (AR

The operational feasibility of orbit and attitude determination for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (SMS/GEOS) using only imagery data

Experimental results from three evaluation periods on three geostationary spacecraft (SMS-2, GOES-1, and GOES-2) are presented. It is shown that using existing landmark extraction and identification techniques (1) for east geostationary spacecraft, a high quality orbit and attitude state is maintained with imagery data only, and (2) for west geostationary spacecraft, a high quality orbit and attitude state is recovered with imagery data only in approximately seven days.

Mack, E.