New geostationary satellite enters service

NOAA’s operational satellite fleet has a brand new member. GOES-18 entered service as GOES West on Jan. 4, 2023.

The milestone comes after a Mar. 1, 2022, launch and post-launch testing of the satellite’s devices, programs, and information. GOES-18 replaces GOES-17 as GOES West, positioned 22,236 miles above the equator over the Pacific Ocean. GOES-17 will grow to be an on-orbit standby.

In its new function, GOES-18 will function NOAA’s main geostationary satellite for detecting and monitoring Pacific hurricanes, atmospheric rivers, coastal fog, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and different environmental phenomena that have an effect on the western contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and Central America.

The satellite delivers high-resolution seen and infrared imagery, atmospheric measurements, and real-time mapping of lightning exercise. It’s ideally positioned to watch the northeastern Pacific Ocean, the place many climate programs that have an effect on the continental U.S. originate. GOES-18 additionally watches the sun and detects approaching space climate hazards.

GOES-18 joins GOES-16 (GOES East) in operational service. Collectively the 2 satellites watch over greater than half the globe, from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand and from close to the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle. Their information assists climate forecasters, emergency managers, first responders, the aviation and transport industries, and extra.

Whereas GOES-18 has simply formally entered operational service, the satellite has been helping NOAA Nationwide Climate Service forecasters for months. Normally, GOES satellites full post-launch testing in a location over the central U.S., however GOES-18’s early successes allowed NOAA to maneuver it to its future operational location early. GOES-18 started sending imagery from its new location in June.

Resulting from a difficulty with the cooling system on GOES-17’s Superior Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument, some GOES-17 imagery was degraded throughout sure instances of the 12 months. In August, NOAA applied a singular resolution to mitigate the lack of some GOES-17 imagery throughout these “heat” durations. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 8 and from Oct. 13 to Nov. 16, NOAA offered information from the GOES-18 ABI to GOES West information customers. This was completed by a knowledge “interleave” that delivered GOES-18 ABI information alongside GOES-17 lightning mapper and space climate information. This allowed forecasters to make the most of GOES-18 imagery in the course of the top of the Pacific hurricane season.

Now that GOES-18 is working as GOES West, GOES-17 will likely be moved to a central location between GOES East and GOES West to function a backup for the operational constellation.

The GOES-R Collection Program is a four-satellite mission that features GOES-R (GOES-16, launched in 2016), GOES-S (GOES-17, launched in 2018), GOES-T (GOES-18), and GOES-U, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. This system is a collaborative effort between NOAA and NASA. NASA builds and launches the satellites for NOAA, which operates them and distributes their information to customers worldwide.

GOES-R Collection satellites are deliberate to function into the 2030s. NOAA and NASA have already begun work on the next-generation geostationary mission known as Geostationary Prolonged Observations (GeoXO). The Division of Commerce formally permitted the GeoXO Program on Dec. 14, 2022. GeoXO will proceed observations offered by GOES-R and produce new capabilities to handle our altering planet and the evolving wants of NOAA’s information customers.