SSMI test delayed

The test of the MERRA system during the mid-1980s, enveloping the initiation of SSMI observations, had been running with a critical bug in the system. It was caught after the third of 5 planned years of running. The bug was a known problem in an old tag, but that tag was not adequately updated in Operations, despite being fixed in the research and development systems for months.

The purpose of this experiment is to test the impact of a significant change in the observing system, namely SSMI, on the GEOS5 time series. The system is running at a very coarse 2x2.5 degrees, 3 hourly output, which allows for much quicker throughput than we will see with the full half degree system. While the configuration is close to, but not exactly, that of the MERRA validation experiments, it should be close enough to contribute to the system validation. It will assess how sensitive the system is to the SSMI data when it first becomes available.