NWP SAF near-real time (NRT) quality monitoring

Introduction

Continuous routine monitoring of the characteristics and quality of satellite data is an essential adjunct to their assimilation in NWP systems and their reliable use for other purposes. NRT monitoring and alerts ensure that forecast quality is not compromised by degraded performance of the data, which can occur due to instrument degradation or errors within the product delivery chain. Such degradations can happen quickly and without prior warning, so it is the NRT data monitoring activity that initially captures these occurrences. Output from the related data alert system (follow link above) can be used by NWP centres to remove bad or suspicious observations from their assimilation systems in a timely manner so as not to compromise the quality of forecast products. The NRT monitoring and alerts are also used by data providers to augment and cross-check their own internal quality assurance systems (for example noise reduction resulting from Metop-IASI decontamination events were clearly detected by the NRT monitoring).

You can see which upcoming satellite instruments we plan to add to the NRT quality monitoring on the planned monitoring page.

Additional data types

Radio occultation data monitoring on ROM SAF website