APPLICATION OF AMSU-BASED PRODUCTS TO

Passive microwave observations and derived products from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) are now widely used in an assortment of meteorological analysis and forecasting applications. These hydrological and imagery products, which first became operational in January 2000, build upon the success of a similar product suite from the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). This paper highlights the AMSU rainfall, total precipitable water (TPW) and snowfall rate products with examples from various applications at NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and National Weather Service (NWS). Discussion of the future polar-orbiting operational satellites and products are presented at the conclusion of the paper