Metop-C and NOAA-20 are now both supplying NUCAPS profiles to National Weather Service AWIPS machines. Both the vertical profiles and gridded fields are available. The toggle above shows all the MetopC overpasses early on 4 April, and it includes horizontal maps of 850-mb Temperatures derived from the Metop-C NUCAPS profiles. Large swaths of satellite-derived fields are available at times (0220 UTC, 0356 UTC) when radiosondes typically are not being launched. These fields are ideal to compare to model fields as a method of model evaluation.

The toggle below compares the three overpasses of MetopC Sounding Availability points to one overpass from NOAA-20. The two satellites have very different orbital paths. NOAA-20 overlaps different MetopC orbits; the time difference if you’re comparing data varies depending on where you are in the NOAA-20 orbit.

What kind of gridded fields were available on this day? The toggle below compares the 850-mb Temperature fields from Metop-C (0220 UTC) and NOAA-20 (0832 UTC). Over the western Great Lakes and parts of Canada, this is giving information on how the 850-mb fields are evolving during those 6 hours between radiosonde releases.

You can also derive a notion on how temperatures are changing over the southern part of the NOAA-20 pass, but that requires using a later MetopC pass, as shown below in the toggle that compares 850-mb temperatures from Metop-C NUCAPS (0356 UTC) and the NOAA-20 field at 0832 UTC.

This is a lot of excellent data that can be used, day or night. Starting in May, data from NOAA-21 will be added as well! If you’re using AWIPS, the most efficient way to view these fields is by creating Procedures.

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