Music Starts
Narrator: When NOAA’s GOES-U satellite is launched in 2024,
it will be the final satellite in a heralded NOAA satellite program
and a bridge to another future age of advanced satellite technology.
For nearly 50 years, NOAA and NASA have partnered to develop and
advance NOAA’s geostationary satellites as part of the most sophisticated
weather-observing, environmental monitoring, and space weather
monitoring satellite system in the world.
When GOES-U reaches orbit, it will be the culmination of nearly five
decades of state-of-the-art geostationary Earth-observing satellites.
It all began back in October 1975...
--Retro Music from Aeronautics and Space Report begins--
Narrator: ...for the launch of NOAA’s GOES-1 satellite
which monitored our weather and space weather.
-- Indecipherable radio chatter-- Aeronautics & Space Report Narrator: We’ve come a long way in weather
forecasting, since the early balloon launching days
thanks mainly to weather satellites.
With each succeeding one, these weather sentinels have become more and
more sophisticated.
Here, the synchronous meteorological satellite.
Two are already in orbit with a third scheduled for launch this Fall.
The synchronous meteorological satellite pictures are made into film loops daily.
Meteorologists are hopeful this kind of information will give them clues
to the weather conditions that, for instance, cause tornadoes and
other fast moving weather systems.
Narrator: As groundbreaking as it was, it had limited capabilities and only
viewed Earth about ten percent of the time.
By 1980, a new series of GOES satellites went into orbit.
These satellites had the capability to obtain vertical profiles of temperature
and moisture throughout the various layers of the atmosphere.
This added dimension gave forecasters a more accurate picture of the
intensity and extent of storms, and allowed them to better monitor rapidly
changing events and make more accurate predictions.
In 1994, GOES-I was launched and with it came significant improvements
in the resolution, quantity, and continuity of GOES imagery and data,
thanks to a new three-axis method of stabilization.
Once it reached orbit, it was renamed GOES-8, and gave forecasters more
accurate information to pinpoint locations of storms, wildfires, and other hazards.
--Hip early-aught music plays and fades away--
Narrator: By the mid-2000s, GOES-N, GOES-O, and GOES-P further improved the
imager and sounder resolution to better pinpoint the locations of intense storms
This satellites series also had improved optics, better batteries, and more
power, allowing for more continuous imaging.
--Countdown: Three...two...one... (roar of rocket ignition)--
Narrator: Then in 2016, (Countdown: And liftoff...)
Narrator: the current generation of geostationary satellites was launched.
The GOES-R Series. With this series came new advancements that
included state-of-the-art instruments like the Geostationary Lightning Mapper
and the Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI.
Ken Graham: I’ll tell you what, when we got the GOES-R, I remember
sitting at the forecast desk and seeing some of the earliest data and it was,
it was a game changer. Absolute critical part of our forecast process.
To see that ABI and actually track cloud movements and track how much
moisture is in clouds. It was amazing.
And it enables us to look at phenomena like atmospheric rivers and being
able to help us with the, the forecast for the flooding, the amount of rainfall.
And on the front lines of the National Weather Service, we provide decision support and so to have that
information from GOES-R, it really enabled us to communicate
information to decision makers for them to make really tough decisions.
Pam Sullivan: Well, we knew the technology was going to be game
changing. We knew the ABI with its capabilities and then, the
geostationary lightning mapper, which was a brand new instrument.
You know, we knew that it was going to be revolutionary.
We even thought it’s so new that there’s probably going to be new
applications, but the range of new applications that people have found
have really surprised me.
We found over time that ABI can detect turbulence, so it can really look at
a patch of sky and see when there’s going to be turbulence for aircraft
flying through it. We’ve recently found that ABI can actually detect
large methane leaks. So it can tell when, you know, something is going
wrong in a plant or a refinery, and be able to track that feature.
Narrator: Space weather monitoring has also been part of the GOES
mission since its inception, and continues on today’s GOES-R satellites.
So, after Goes-U, what’s next for NOAA’s geostationary satellites?
Its planned successor will be a state-of-the-art satellite series called
Geostationary Extended Observations, or GeoXO.
The first GeoXO satellite is expected to launch in the early 2030s
as the GOES-R Series nears the end of its operational lifetime.
Like GOES-R, GeoXO will continue NOAA’s five decades of critical
Earth-observing data. However, GeoXO will have new technology onboard.
One of the new instruments will be an infrared sounder, which will allow
weather forecasters to see the atmosphere in extremely fine detail.
Pam Sullivan: It really looks at very fine slices of the atmosphere across a
wide area, so that it builds up sort of a 3D view of what the atmosphere
looks like. And forecasters can use that information to very precise
about their forecasts.
Where a storm is going to be, how severe a storm is going to be.
They can even do predictions of, uh, how much water. You know, what the
precipitation levels are going to be. So that’s one new capability that our
forecasters are really looking forward to.
Narrator: The sounder will also help detect quickly changing wind speeds
and direction, which will assist in everything from hurricane prediction
to aviation forecasts.
Ken Graham: It’s a big part of the National Weather Service mission is to
forecast for aviation. For safety, and and also looking at that fuel economy,
looking at detecting the direction of the wind. So that capability
is just going to be absolutely amazing for aviation and earlier detection
and quicker detection of tropical systems when it comes to rapid intensification.
Narrator: There will be two other new instruments on GeoXO as well.
One will be an air quality instrument that will monitor and track harmful
air pollutants, including wildfire smoke and volcanic gasses.
It will provide continuous observations and measurements of atmospheric composition which will help improve
air quality forecasts and alerts across the U.S.
Another instrument will measure ocean color, which helps detect and track
threats to our lakes and ocean, such as harmful algal blooms and oil spills.
Perhaps, most critically, NOAA’s GeoXO will also meet new needs for the
data-user community, including forecasters, researchers and others, who
depend on receiving crucial environmental information across the
Western Hemisphere. Data from GeoXO will contribute to weather
prediction models and drive short-term weather forecasts and severe weather warnings.
Pam Sullivan: These users are looking for advanced capabilities.
And they’ve told us what they want to see in this next generation, which is
going to start observing in the 2030s, but continue into the 2050s.
And with the changes on our planet and with the society’s increased
reliance on environmental information, it’s really important to be able
to serve this wider variety of needs.
Narrator: GeoXO observations will allow scientists to better monitor
environmental conditions and will complement observations from other
satellites from NOAA, NASA, and our international partners.
This will help them to address emerging environmental challenges,
respond to the effects of Earth’s changing climate, and improve forecasting
and warnings of severe weather and environmental hazards.
GOES-U Mission Logo GeoXO Mission Logo
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