• Meeting, MV Sub-Group

GSICS Microwave Sub-Group/ Plotting Tool Requirements Meeting 2026-05-21

Agenda

  1. EUMETSAT MATRICS – Jagjeet Nain
  2. EUMETSAT New GSICS Plotter – Thomas Honig
  3. EUMETSAT Old Plotting Tool– Tim Hewison
  4. NOAA ICVS + iSensor-RCBA – Ninghai Sun & Banghua Yan
  5. CMA NSMC FY Cal/Val IPM

Attendees

EUMETSAT: Tim Hewison (Chair), Ali Mousivand, Thomas Honig, Jagjeet Nain
NOAA: Ninghai Sun, Banghua Yan, Kun Zhang, Lei Sui
Tomorrow io: Ryan Honeyager, Teajan King
University of Hamburg: Martin Burgdorf

Quick Recap

An interactive review of the GSICS Plotting Tool strawman requirements was conducted to support the implementation of common plotting and monitoring functionalities by GSICS agencies across their instruments. The review defined the tool’s purpose, users, and desired functionality, and prioritised requirements as High (H), Medium (M), or Low (L). Specific considerations for microwave instruments were also identified, recognising their smaller set of key monitoring parameters and differing priorities.

Summary

1. Purpose of GSICS Plotting Tool for MWSG:

Users: 

  • Satellite operators (H)
  • GSICS Developers (H)
  • Instrument Developers/Industrial partners providing instruments (M)
  • NWP users (H)
  • Operational L2/EDR developers using data (H)
  • Researchers (M)

Purposes: 

  • Understand uncertainties in Level-1 (L1) data, including both random errors and systematic biases, through comparison with reference instruments and models.
  • Characterise instrument noise and bias, including current performance and historical or expected baseline values.
  • Detect and monitor changes in instrument noise characteristics and calibration performance over time.

 

2. Instrument Performance Monitoring:
  • Independent of the inter-calibration monitoring tool
    • Integrate Instrument Performance and Inter-Calibration Monitoring tools (M)
    • Could help identify the root cause of calibration changes
  • Radiometric Noise
    • White noise / NEDT – (H)
    • 1/f noise / striping – (M)
    • Noise spectra – (L)
  • Temperatures
    • Baseplate / Shelf (M), Oscillators (M), Amplifiers (M), Filters (M), Calibration Targets (H)
  • Time Series
    • Fixed plotting periods: Orbit (L), Day (M), Week (M), Month (M), Year (H), Mission Lifetime (H)
    • Dynamic (user-defined) periods (M)
  • Averaging
    • Averaging periods: Orbit (L), Day (M), Week (M), Month (M), Year (H), Mission Lifetime (H)
  • Calibration Parameters
    • Gain, offset – (M)
    • Calibration counts – (L)
  • Quality Flags related to calibration – (H)
  • Geolocation (M) – can impact radiometric calibration and inter-calibration algorithms
  • Statistics (not limited to plots)
    • Mean values over the selected period – (H)
    • Standard deviation – (L)
    • Trends – (L)

 

3. Inter-Calibration Bias Monitoring:
  • Ability to Select
    • Inter-calibration method: SNO, RTM-based (NWP/GNSSRO), Vicarious Inter-Calibration, Other… (H)
    • Monitored instrument and channel (H)
    • Reference instrument (channel automatically selected from LUT) or source (H)
    • Ascending, descending, or both (M)
  • Plot time series of relative bias (in kelvin) – (H)
    • Fixed plotting periods: Orbit (L), Day (M), Week (M), Month (M), Year (H), Mission Lifetime (H)
    • Dynamic (user-defined) periods (M)
    • Mean bias (M) or bias as a function of scene radiance / brightness temperature (Tb) (H)
  • Scatterplots (L)
    • Of SNOs, etc.
  • Plot maps of relative bias (M)
  • Brightness Temperatures (H) or Antenna Temperatures (M)
    • Before and/or after application of antenna pattern correction
  • Plot bias dependencies on other variables (M)
    • Scan angle, latitude, etc.
  • Statistics (not limited to plots)
    • Mean values over the selected period (H)
    • Uncertainty of mean values (M)
    • Standard deviation (L)
    • Trends (L)

 

4. Other Functionality:
  • Ability to compare results from different satellites and processing versions (H)
    • E.g. NWP O-B, DD
    • NRT vs reprocessed data
  • Interactive pan/zoom (M)
  • Noise/Bias Dashboard (“Heat Map”) (M)
    • Mean value over a selected period for all instruments/channels
    • Colour-coded (e.g. based on performance requirements)
    • Current status (L) and/or previous period (M)
  • Alerts (M)
    • Ability for users to subscribe to alerts
    • Triggered when significant changes are detected
    • Alert definition, e.g. based on severity (M), 3-sigma thresholds (M), or user-selectable criteria (L)
    • Defined per parameter and/or per instrument, at the agency’s discretion
    • Delivery mechanism (API, RSS, email, etc.) at the agency’s discretion
    • Table of anomalies (e.g. archive of alerts)
  • Ability to download the data being plotted (H)
    • Action: A.GMW.2026.4z-1 – NOAA to consider making the data behind the ICVS plots available for download
      • Closed through the new Vector Data Display functionality in ICVS
  • Traceability
    • Define versions (at minimum a generation timestamp) (M) for both L1 processing and inter-calibration algorithms, supported by release notes
    • Version information could be included in metadata
    • Unique static URL for plots/statistics (L)
    • DOI for plots/statistics – probably not practical 

 

              Presentation: