| |June 20189CIOReviewoutages in radio communication and GPS.In 2003, Atmospheric and Envi-ronmental Research (AER), a Ver-isk Analytics business focusing on researching the global environment and weather- and climate-related risk, began preparing for GOES-R and carried out several government-sponsored concept studies to help shape the future measurement and performance requirements for the satellite. Once NOAA finalized the specifications, separate proposals were requested to build each of the instruments, the satellite itself, and the ground satellite control and data processing system. AER joined a team formed by Harris Corporation, a leader in satellite ground-processing systems, to provide a state-of-the-art solution to meet NOAA's needs for decades to come. In May 2009, after two years of proposal preparation--including intensive written questions and an oral exam--the Harris team was selected by NOAA as the win-ner for the GOES-R ground system development, responsible for satellite control, instrument data processing, and data distribution.The GOES-R project required software to convert raw instrument measurements into geophysical pa-rameters, including cloud cover, lightning, and sea surface tempera-ture maps; characterization of wild-fires; atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles; and space weather measurements such as solar X-ray intensity. AER worked with govern-ment scientists to translate algorithms developed by government and uni-versity researchers into high-quality operational software. (An algorithm, in this case, is the recipe for convert-ing the sensor measurements into geophysical quantities such as cloud type, lightning strikes, and solar flare information.)Sifting the DataAlong the way, AER used its scien-tific expertise to understand the algo-rithms and develop the data necessary to fully test the software before de-livery to Harris for integration into the operational Product Generation System. The challenge is to meet the requirements for high availability (uptime is better than 99.99 percent) and high throughput/low latency: GOES-16 records more than 60 times more data than previous GOES satellites. The AER Algorithm Work-bench, a software framework to expe-dite system test and evaluation, was used to support both functions. Ul-timately, more than 450,000 logical lines of code were installed and tested in the ground-processing system and delivered to NOAA by May 2015. Since that time, AER continues test-ing the software to ensure the new system is ready for "live data." What started with a handful of scientists and engineers working the initial concept studies evolved into, at its peak, an integrated team of more than 60 AER scientists and software engineers, uniting people with different scientific and software skill sets into a cohesive team focused on the goal of readying a ground system for launch. The GOES-R series of satellites--which includes GOES-S, GOES-T, and GOES-U--is scheduled to provide NOAA's geostationary environmental data until 2036. 001020Water-Droplet CloudsGOES-13 1445 UTC Thurs 06 Oct 16Atmospheric andEnvironment Reaearch Inc.Ice-Particle Clouds304050607021426485128150107Cloud Liquid-Water Path (g/m==2)Circus Ice-Water Path (g/m==2)
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