Evolution of Weather Satellites: GOES to GOES-R

1. Stephanie Higbee Laura Koehler Bryan Losier GOES-R

2. Outline • What is GOES? • History of the GOES Satellites • Instruments on the current GOES Satellite • What is GOES-R? • Instruments and differences on GOES-R • Conclusion

3. What is GOES? • GOES – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite • Operated by the NOAA and NASA • It is used to support weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorological research • Views continental US, Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, central and south America, southern Canada • Used to get frequent cloud images, monitor earth’s surface temperature and water vapor fields, and sound the atmosphere for its vertical thermal vapor structures

4. History of GOES • The first launch was in 1974 and the satellite was called SMS-1 • First GOES satellite was launched October 16th, 1975 • After reaching orbit, GOES satellites are given numbers, so GOES-A becomes GOES-1 • SMS-A through GOES-C • Essentially the same spacecraft • GOES-D • Improved data transmission • GOES-H • SARSAT • GOES-I • 3 axis stabilized • Improved weather imaging and atmospheric sounding

5. First image captured by GOES-1

6. History of GOES • There are currently 4 satellites in operation: • GOES 9 • GOES 10 • GOES 11 • GOES 12 • There are other GOES satellites in orbit, but they are either inactive or being used for different reasons.

7. Instrumentation on the current GOES • Imager • Sounder • Space Environment Monitor • Ground Based Data Collector and Relay

8. GOES-R • The next generation satellite in the GOES series • Being developed by NOAA in partnership with NASA • Will incorporate technically advances “third generation” instruments and spacecraft enhancements to meet evolving observational requirements of forecasting

9. Instruments on GOES-R • Environmental Sensing Payloads: • Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) • Space Environmental In-Site Suite (SEISS) • Solar Imaging Suite (SIS) • Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) • Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) • Auxiliary Communication Services: • Data Collection • Data Broadcast • GOES Re-Broadcast (GRB) • Search and Rescue (SAR) • Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) • Low Rate Information Transmission

10. Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) • Features 16 channels • Two visible and 14 near infrared and infrared • Spatial resolution • 0.5 km in the visible band • 1 km for the near infrared • 2 km for the infrared • In contrast the current GOES imager has only 5 channels with resolutions 2 & 4 km.

11. Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) GOES-R channels

12. Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Current GOES channels

13. Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) GOES-R increased temporal coverage can be illustrated by comparing the 5-minute coverage of current GOES (left) with the 5-minute coverage from the simulated GOES-R (right). GOES-R can image the entire hemisphere in one-sixth the time it takes for the current GOES system.

14. Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Current GOES Image Simulated GOES-R Image

15. Space Environmental In-Situ Suite (SEISS) • It will provide real-time measurements of the charged particle environment in geosynchronous orbit • Consists of 3 sensors: • MPS: magnetospheric particle sensor • EHIS: energetic heavy ion sensor • SGPS: solar and galactic proton sensor

16. Space Environmental In-Situ Suite (SEISS) The GOES-R magnetometer will measure the Earth’s geomagnetic field in three-axes, providing information on geomagnetic activity in space.

17. Solar Imaging Suite (SIS) • Consists of 3 Sensors • XRS: Solar X-Ray Sensor • EUVS: Extreme UltraViolet Sensor • SXI: Solar X-Ray Imager

18. Solar Imaging Suite (SIS)

19. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) • sensitive enough to detect 70–90 percent of all lightning strikes • help predict severe storms by continuously tracking the intensity, frequency, and location of lightning discharges • provides rapid information that could be correlated with radar returns, cloud images, and other meteorological data • Aerospace will support all these instruments through design, trades, satellite integration, and operations.

20. Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) • It will perform three tasks and one goal tasks • Disk sounding • Coastal waters imaging • Severe weather/Mesoscale sounding • The goal task is Open Ocean Imaging • There is a huge improvement over the current sounder. • The HES coverage rate will be about 5 times faster than the current sounder • Regular coverage of the sounder can extend over an area that is much larger than the CONUS • The number of spectral channels will also increase from 18 IR bands to about 1500 IR bands

21. Communication • Communication Services • Data Collection • Data Broadcast • GRB: GOES-R ReBroadcast • SAR: Search and Rescue • EMWIN: Emergency Managers Weather Information Network • LRIT: Low Rate Information Transmission

22. Ground Systems • Troubleshooting and Challenges • Ground facilities will need to include a remote backup location, so its survival will not be threatened by the weather at primary sites. • GOES-R will maintain a 30-day archive of raw data records and a 3-day archive of reconstructed unprocessed instrument data at full space-time resolution with supplemental information to be used in subsequent processing appended (Level 0). • GOES-R will generate nearly 16 terabytes per day of meteorological and environmental (Level 2+) products

23. Conclusion • The GOES-R system will transition to operations around 2014, with the first launch planned for late in 2012. • The GOES-R satellite series will operate for more than 16 years, providing regional environmental imagery and specialized meteorological, climatic, terrestrial, oceanographic, and solar-geophysical data. • GOES-R will support a wide variety of end users such as National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Homeland Security. GOES-R products will be useful to much of America's industry, including agribusiness, transportation, and construction. • Aerospace participation in research, source selection, and program office activities has been instrumental in identifying difficult issues facing the GOES-R system. • Aerospace's continued support in the upcoming acquisition phase can help ensure that the final architecture will be both feasible and powerful enough to meet the diverse user requirements. • Aerospace expertise and continued involvement should enable NOAA to provide an improved geostationary weather and environmental sensing capability that can serve up to 2030.

24. Any Questions?

25. Sources http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9032330/electron-volt#153906.hook http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/winter2005/07.html http://osd.goes.noaa.gov/documents/GOES-R_Pamphlet_R22-Final-1_rotated.pdf http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/Next_Generation_Geo_2006.pdf images.google.com