Please review the program and contact the IWWG group co-chairs  if you have any questions/comments. 

Posters

OTHER ATTENDEES (Remote non-presenters)

Shelley Stover
Josh Cossuth
Michael Kavaya
Jose Garcia-Rivera
Josephine Hall
Mary Forsythe
Joe Schmetz

Communication within the group is managed via a list server iwwg@ssec.wisc.edu.

Please let us know if you would like your email address added or removed from the list server or if you would like more information about activities of IWWG. Please also let us know if you have any annoucements or news items for the IWWG front page or if you would like to supply updates to other information or links on the IWWG web pages. You can contact us using the IWWG contact form.

Workshops are held approximately every 2 years. The aim is to promote exchange of scientific and operational information between the producers of satellite derived wind products, the research community and the user community.

Links to online proceedings are provided below.

The copyright notice for the proceedings applies only to the overall collection of papers. Authors retain their individual rights and should be contacted directly for permission to use their material separately; contact EUMETSAT for permission pertaining to the overall volume. The papers reflect the author’s opinions and are published as presented, without editing. Their inclusion in the proceedings does not necessarily constitute endorsement by EUMETSAT or the co-organisers.

The International Winds Working Group (IWWG) was established in 1991 and became a formal working group of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) in 1994.

IWWG was initially established to focus on cloud track winds from geostationary data. As the satellite observing system has developed, the IWWG has broadened its interest to cover the range of wind datasets derived from current and future satellite missions. The main focus remains the atmospheric motion vectors produced by tracking features (clouds and water vapour) in geostationary and polar imagery sequences. Other winds datasets addressed by the group include: (i) ocean surface winds derived from radar backscatter and conical-scanning microwave radiometers (ii) data from research missions (e.g. MISR winds) and (iii) future datasets including wind profile information from space-borne lidar and 3-D wind fields derived from tracking features in clear sky moisture fields produced from future geostationary hyperspectral infrared sounders.

IWWG provides a forum to discuss and coordinate research and developments in data production, verification/validation procedures and assimilation techniques.

General Announcements

18th International Winds Workshop

The 18th International Winds Workshop will take place in Spring 2027. More information will be published here soon.

Latest News

Sep 2023: 2023 Operational AMV Production Survey

Apr 2023: 10th NWP SAF AMV monitoring report released by the Met Office

Jan 2023: 4th AMV Intercomparison Results

Apr 2022: Recommendations for AMV Configuration

Apr 2021: Terms of Reference for the IWWG

Mar 2020: 9th NWP SAF AMV monitoring report released by the Met Office

Dec 2018: Operational AMV Production Survey

Jun 2018: Introduction to the Himawari-8 AMV Algorithm.

Mar 2018: 8th NWP SAF AMV monitoring report released by the Met Office

John Morgan, the first Director of EUMETSAT, was the driving force behind the creation of the group, which initially focussed on cloud track winds from geostationary satellites. As the interests of the group widened the Working Group was formally renamed from the Working Group on Cloud Motion Winds (WG-CMW) to the Working Group on Satellite Derived Winds (WG-SDW) at CGMS-29 in 2001. The group is more commonly referred to as the International Winds Working Group (IWWG).

IWWG was established to pursue an objective of CGMS which is to encourage support and compatibility in meteorological data products and to complement the work of other international satellite coordination mechanisms. Objectives include the coordination of operational procedures, the development of common verification and validation procedures, and the encouragement of a robust programme of scientific research.

IWWG is comprised of representatives from the satellite operators and user community. Under the lead of the Chairperson(s), IWWG organizes Workshops, co-sponsored by CGMS and WMO, approximately every two years.

Interaction with CGMS
IWWG topics and issues are dealt with under a working group on Satellite Products at the annual CGMS meetings. This is the forum where the close formal interaction between satellite operators in CGMS and the IWWG takes place. Practically the interaction between the IWWG and the biennial IWWG meetings is realised through a rapporteur who participates regularly in the annual CGMS meetings. Recommendations from IWWG to CGMS are considered by the CGMS plenary and often lead to actions and pertinent changes in the operational systems for the derivation of winds.

Co-chairs

The chairperson or co-chairs of IWWG are appointed by the plenary of the CGMS. Interaction between IWWG and the CGMS Plenary is performed via a Rapporteur who attends and reports to the CGMS meetings.

Current Chairmen (2023 – Present):

Iliana Genkova, NOAA

Feng Lu, CMA

CGMS Rapporteur for IWWG: Jaime Daniels, NOAA

Past Chairmen:
2016-2023, Régis Borde, EUMETSAT and Steve Wanzong, UW-Madison/SSEC/CIMSS
2008-2016, Jaime Daniels, NOAA and Mary Forsythe, Met Office
2011, Régis Borde, EUMETSAT (acting co-chair whilst Mary Forsythe on maternity leave)
1999-2008, Ken Holmlund, EUMETSAT and Chris Velden, CIMSS
1996-1999, Johannes Schmetz, EUMETSAT
1991-1995, Gerard Szejwach, EUMETSAT

Objectives

• To promote increased scientific activity in the field of satellite-derived winds and to establish routine means of exchanging scientific results and progress
• To establish and encourage a regular dialogue and information exchange between producers and users of satellite-derived wind data. This should include both scientific and operational exchanges in order to:
  • agree on modifications to data formats and codes, including provision of additional information e.g. quality flags
  • discuss developments to the wind derivation methodology, including likely impacts and operational implementation details.
  • discuss assessments of the usefulness and quality of the data for numerical analysis and prediction
• To promote harmonization and, where feasible/practical, the standardization of operational procedures.
• To support collaborative activities including AMV derivation inter-comparison studies (see activities tab).
• To establish agreement for standards in the verification and validation of satellite-derived winds.
  • choice of data sources for validation
  • standardization of statistics
  • standardization of verification criteria, e.g., collocation window size in space and time, pre-filtering of data
• To make recommendations to CGMS and to national and international agencies regarding the utilization of current and the development of future satellite instruments on polar and geostationary satellites