Southern Region SPoRT/SOO Workshop Review

1. Southern Region SPoRT/SOO Workshop Review • Workshop Overview and Summary • Action Items and Progress Report • SPoRT Related Activities and Interactions • A Brief Summary

2. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Agenda Review • The Workshop was a joint project of the NWS Southern Region and the NASA SPoRT Program • Directly addressed one of the recommendations of the 2005 SAC Meeting • Workshop was held at the NSSTC building July 11-13, 2006 • Significance: • Unique opportunity to bring both communities together to discuss collective goals and unique collaborative potential. • This was also the first large gathering of SOOs in the Southern Region in several (many) years. • Unique opportunity to expand SPoRT activities in SR

3. Southern Region SPoRT/SOO Workshop Review • The agenda was a collaborative effort and included a nice mix of science, research, technology transfer, and training topics. • The presenters were invited based on the recommendations of a joint team of SR SOOs, SRH, and SPoRT • Based on the team’s draft outline of topics and areas of interest • The two underlying themes from the SOOs’ perspectives for the workshop were: • Introduce a larger SR audience to tools and technologies available in the “research” community • Bring researchers and operational forecasters closer together to get a better understanding of each other’s needs, strengths, and focus areas.

4. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Agenda Topics • Specific SPoRT/Collaborative Topic Areas Discussed • NASA’s Weather Research Program • NASA’s Aviation Weather Program • SPoRT Overview • The Hazardous Weather Testbed • WRF – Regional Data Assimilation • Total Lightning: Advancement in Severe • Storm Forecasting • GOES Convective Nowcasting Products • NPOESS Data Exploitation • The Gulf Coast Initiative

5. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Impressions • Overall, the workshop was a huge success • SOOs left Huntsville impressed with the SPoRT program and excited about partnering with SPoRT on future activities. • Many SOOs felt they had a greater understanding of NASA , and in particular SPoRT’s, role in research and transition to operations after the workshop. • After the workshop, a brief survey was submitted to the SOOs that attended to gauge their overall opinion of the workshop. • We will briefly go over some highlights in the next few slides.

6. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Surveys • What did you like most about the meeting? • Nice to see presentations on real science activities • The opportunity to interact with NASA researchers • The mix of research and SOO topics and the excellent discussion • SPoRT operational forecasting applications • I got the feeling that SPoRT wanted to work with as many offices as they could. • I liked the collaborative nature…learning what the NASA folks were doing and how we could work with them. I would like to see other agency partners attend and promote the collaborative spirit. • Meeting personally with the SPoRT folks and seeing in greater detail the potential avenues for collaboration. • Nice mix of SOO and SPoRT related topics. • Some folks mentioned they would have liked even more time to visit individually, or in groups, with the SPoRT folks.

7. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Surveys • What did you like least about the meeting? • After learning about the research and products available from SPoRT, a more detailed discussion on how to incorporate them into our office would have been beneficial. • Listening to SPoRT talk about the good things, but not getting access on a regional basis. • No structured tour of the facilities or the WFO scheduled • It was a little unclear what the goals of the meeting were for the SPoRT folks until the final day • Not having the meeting co-located with the hotel facility was a problem • Lack of direction/focus in the breakout session led to unproductive time. • The feeling that we left without any concrete post-conference action items.

8. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Surveys • Some General Comments from the SOOs… • I wish we had more time for offices to show what they are doing that might be unique. • Note: there was a designated poster session for this, but several folks mentioned that the logistics were confusing and made this less than optimal • It would have been nice to have a little more time built in for discussion to get to know the other SOOs and SPoRT/NASA folks better. • I would have liked more time to cover SR SOO “issues” (stated by several people) • Lots of hand-wringing and few solutions – limited action items. • Conference seemed too short and hurried. • Some of the presentations were too lengthy and difficult to follow.

9. SPoRT/SOO Workshop Summary • Overall, the joint SPoRT/SOO Workshop was a huge success! • The SR SOO community had gone several years without gathering, and this was a much needed meeting. • Nearly all the SOOs in attendance stated that they enjoyed the interaction with the SPoRT scientists and were quite interested in the technologies and tools that SPoRT had to offer. • As will be discussed in the following slides, the interest level in these tools since the workshop has been high! • Based on the surveys, there are some recommendations to improve future joint meetings. • The bottom line though is that the more opportunities you have to bring researchers and forecasters together the more productive the collaboration will become.

10. Outgrowth from the SOO Workshop • Focused Data Delivery/expansion • LDM setup @ SRH • GOES Aviation to MLB • Push to get MODIS moved to LDM • WRF work Miami WFO • Case study work with Mobile WFO. • GOES Aviation work with NESDIS/NWSHQ

11. Current activities • Working on getting MODIS data delivered using LDM. • Incorporate SRHQ LDM as intermediary. • Begin delivery of MODIS data to more offices. • Move all offices receiving LMA to LDM.

12. Questions?