GOES-R’s
Innovative
Technology
• The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI),
which is GOES-R’s key instrument, will
view Earth with 16 different spectral
bands, compared with the five on today’s
geostationary operational environmental
satellites. This will provide greater
resolution, allowing NOAA meteorologists to
characterize storm intensity and track their
development earlier and more accurately.
• The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)
will be the first-ever operational lightning
mapper flown from a geostationary orbit.
The GLM will provide total lightning activity
across North and South America and the
adjacent waters with near-uniform accuracy
day and night. It will also provide early
indication of storm intensification and
severe weather events, helping improve
tornado warning lead time, and provide data
for long-term climate variability studies.
In order to achieve NOAA’s goals of improved weather
reporting and data collection, the new GOES-R satellite
series is comprised of six sophisticated instruments:
the Advanced Baseline Imager, the Geostationary
Lightning Mapper, the Solar Ultraviolet Imager, the
Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors, the
Space Environment In-Situ Suite and the Magnetometer.
• The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) and the
Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance
Sensors (EXIS), which will provide vital
information to NOAA’s Space Weather
Prediction Center, are located on the Solar
Pointing Platform of the satellite. The
SUVI is a high-powered telescope that
will observe the sun in the extreme
ultraviolet wavelength range
and observe and characterize
complex, active regions of the
sun, solar flares and eruptions
of solar filaments. The EXIS
will detect solar soft X-ray
irradiance and solar extreme
ultraviolet spectral irradiance and
monitor solar flares that can disrupt
communications and degrade GPS
navigational accuracy, affecting satellites,
astronauts, airline passengers and
power grid performance.
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• The Space Environment In-Situ Suite
(SEISS) and the Magnetometer will provide
more accurate monitoring, respectively,
of energetic particles and the magnetic
field variations that are associated
with space weather.
Beginning this fall, Fairmont, WV, will play a major behindthe-scenes role in shaping the future of weather forecasting. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
will launch the Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite-R (GOES-R) Series, a new, highly advanced series of
weather satellites expected to boost the accuracy and timeliness of its forecasts and warnings. Fairmont will be the home
of GOES-R’s Consolidated Backup Facility (CBU), which will
support emergency operations and perform critical functions
for satellite maintenance.
Groundbreaking GOES-R
The Lincoln Economic
Development Authority
wishes to congratulate
Executive Director Larry L. Stutler
on his induction into
the Sharp Shooters Class of 2016!
82
west virginia executive
GOES-R, which will launch from Cape Canaveral, FL, in late
fall 2016, will provide forecasters the meteorological data equivalent to going from black and white to ultra HDTV. GOES-R
will provide vivid images of severe weather every 30 seconds,
scanning the Earth five times faster with four times greater
image resolution and using triple the number of channels than
are currently available.
GOES-R will feature the first-ever operational space-based
detection system for total lightning activity over land and
water, which is important because an increase in total lightning is an indicator of potential severe storm intensification.
The new satellites will also improve warnings for heat stress,
bolster forecasts for unhealthy air quality and carry advanced
solar-monitoring instruments for space weather forecasts and
warnings of solar storms.