Best US weather satellite ever awaits sunset launch

Lockheed Martin designed, built and tested the satellite at its Space Systems facility near Denver.

GOES-R, built by Lockheed, includes the first operational lightning mapper, which will image lightning fields in the western hemisphere 200 times a second, NOAA said. The three GOES-R satellites yet to begin their missions – now known as GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U – are scheduled to launch in 2018, 2019 and 2024, respectively.

Ed Grigsby of NASA, the deputy assistant director of the GOES-R program, said NASA has a rich history of making science vision a reality.

“It’s nearly like stepping from black and white to high definition”, Sorrells said. Weather forecasters have predicted a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for the one-hour launch window on Saturday at Space Launch Complex 41, NASA said in a statement. There, it will join three aging spacecraft with 40-year-old technology, and become known as GOES-16.

Scans of the Western Hemisphere from North Pole to South Pole will be collected five times faster – in just five minutes.

Severe weather often exhibits a significant increase in lightning activity many minutes before radar can detect a potential storm.

“The quoted number now is 13 minutes for tornado warning lead times”, Rudlosky said. The new GOES-R will reduce that time significantly. There is also a solar mapper that can help predict solar storms and flares that could disrupt power grids, cell transmissions and even Global Positioning System. A second, unrelated issue also contributed to the delay. The satellite is scheduled to launch Saturday. This Earth-facing instrument is able to gather weather imaging from across 16 disparate spectral bands – two in the visible spectrum, four near-infrared, and ten infrared – providing three times more channels of data than the satellites preceding it.

Meteorologist Rob Nucatola and I will be putting together a story on it after launch.

Scientists are prepared to launch what they call a “super satellite” that will improve weather forecasting.

This GOES satellite program may represent a great leap forward in meteorology.

The financial consequences are obvious. The first was launched in 1975.

“These images can be used to aid in weather forecasts, severe weather outlooks, watches and warnings, lightning conditions, maritime forecasts and aviation forecasts”, NASA wrote in a blog post about the mission.

GOES-R will transmit more data in the first six months of operation than all previous GOES weather satellites combined. This “geosynchronous orbit” means it remains stationary in relation to a fixed point on the Earth’s surface.

NOAA funds, manages and will operate the GOES-R Series satellites.

Human-induced climate change has been on the forefront of research over the past few decades.

It gets better. This satellite series will revolutionize many aspects of forecasting.