DENVER – The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the most recent satellite tv for pc in its geostationary fleet, GOES-18, operational Jan. 4 and designated it GOES West.
With that designation, the satellite tv for pc launched in March took over for GOES-17 as one in every of NOAA’s two major geostationary satellites. GOES West observes climate and local weather situations over the western United States, together with Alaska and Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean.
GOES-17 will transfer to an orbit over the central United States to function a backup for GOES East and GOES West.
Often, GOES satellites spend about six months of their preliminary geostationary orbital slots earlier than shifting into place as GOES East or GOES West. For GOES-18, NOAA started shifting the satellite tv for pc in Might, two months after launch, and shortly started sharing information from GOES-18 devices with the Nationwide Climate Service and different information customers as quickly as every instrument was calibrated and the information was validated..
NOAA accelerated the timeline for making GOES-18 a part of its operational fleet due to issues with the cooling system for GOES’17’s Superior Baseline Imager. Working collectively, representatives from NASA, NOAA and business have been capable of mitigate the influence of the cooling system deficiency, however the steps taken shortened the satellite tv for pc’s anticipated lifespan.
To minimize the influence of GOES-17’s ABI downside, NOAA shared imagery from the GOES-18 ABI with GOES West information prospects from Aug. 1 to Sept. 8 and from Oct. 13 to Nov. 16.
“This allowed forecasters to make the most of GOES-18 imagery through the peak of the Pacific hurricane season,” NOAA stated in a Jan. 9 information launch.
The first instrument on GOES-18, the third satellite tv for pc within the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite tv for pc-R collection, is the Superior Baseline Imager constructed by L3Harris. The brand new GOES West, like its predecessor, additionally is supplied with the Geostationary Lightning Mapper and the Photo voltaic Ultraviolet Imager constructed by Lockheed Martin, the Excessive X-Ray and Irradiance Sensors from the College of Colorado, Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and House Physics, the House Surroundings In-Situ Suite from Assurance Expertise Corp. and two magnetometers supplied by the NASA Goddard House Flight Heart.
GOES-U, the ultimate satellite tv for pc within the GOES-R collection, is scheduled to launch in 2024.
