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When weather imaging went from VHS to BluRay

By Jason Shamroski posted Mon July 25, 2022 01:31 PM

  

My friends in the Weather Community asked me to write a short article talking about some of my past project work with NOAA, so here we go…

From 2016-2021 I helped support the ground systems that manage the GOES-R weather satellite program for NOAA, part of the Department of Commerce. GOES-R is a series of 4 satellites built by Ratheon, Lockheed-Martin, L3Harris, and many others. The first satellite of the series to launch was GOES-R and it was renamed to GOES-16 after it went active in 2016.

Many people asked, “Didn’t we already have weather satellites?”. Yes, we have had weather satellites for decades – but like all things, it was time for an upgrade. The thing I can compare the previous generation and the new generation of satellites to is the difference between VHS and BluRay. The quality and speed of the new imaging and sensor arrays allow NOAA to see ignition points of wildfires, real-time lightning detection, and view across the infrared spectrum.

Most of this information is publicly available across the various NOAA websites, but I’ll do my best to consolidate the high points.

The GOES-R Series is a four-satellite program including GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T, and GOES-U. The GOES-R Series is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) mission, supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NOAA manages the GOES-R Series Program through an integrated NOAA-NASA office, with personnel from both agencies. The goals of the GOES-R series were the following:

  • Improved hurricane track and intensity forecasts
  • Increased thunderstorm and tornado warning lead time
  • Earlier warning of lightning ground strike hazards
  • Better detection of heavy rainfall and flash flood risks
  • Better monitoring of smoke and dust
  • Improved air quality warnings and alerts
  • Better fire detection and intensity estimation
  • Improved detection of low cloud/fog
  • Improved transportation safety and aviation route planning
  • Improved warning for communications and navigation disruptions and power blackouts
  • More accurate monitoring of energetic particles responsible for radiation hazards

The GOES-R Series also continues the legacy Geostationary Search and Rescue (GEOSAR) function of the SARSAT system onboard NOAA’s GOES satellites which have contributed to the rescue of thousands of individuals in distress. The GOES-R Series SARSAT transponder operates with a lower uplink power than the previous system, enabling GOES-R Series satellites to detect weaker beacon signals.

There are many instruments on the satellites, but the main instrument is the ABI – Advanced Baseline Imager. ABI views the Earth with 16 different spectral bands (compared to five on the previous generation of GOES), including two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels. These different channels (wavelengths) are used by models and tools to indicate various elements on the Earth’s surface or in the atmosphere, such as trees, water, clouds, moisture or smoke.

ABI is a multi-channel passive imaging radiometer designed to observe the Western Hemisphere and provide variable area imagery and radiometric information of Earth’s surface, atmosphere and cloud cover. The instrument has multiple scan modes. In mode 4, or continuous full disk mode, the ABI produces a full disk (Western Hemisphere) image every five minutes, this is an incredibly hi-resolution image scanning the entire Western Hemisphere. ABI is used for a wide range of applications related to weather, oceans, land, climate, and hazards (fires, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and storms that spawn tornadoes).

It tracks and monitors cloud formation, atmospheric motion, convection, land surface temperature, ocean dynamics, flow of water, fire, smoke, volcanic ash plumes, aerosols and air quality, and vegetative health. ABI’s data enables meteorologists to pinpoint and track developing storms in much greater detail. Future products will also help the aviation industry with aircraft icing threat detection and turbulent flight condition predictions.

Benefits from the ABI include improved tropical cyclone forecasts, fewer weather-related flight delays and airline incidences with volcanic plumes, improved production and distribution of electricity and natural gas, increased efficiency in irrigated water usage in agriculture, and higher protection rates for recreational boats in the event of a tropical storm or hurricane.

If you like this information, I can do more articles in the future highlighting the other instruments, getting satellites to space, Space Weather and much more.


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Comments

Tue August 02, 2022 08:53 AM

Jason, fantastic post. As a former aviation forecaster, I can tell you how much the new set of GOES satellite changed the game. The detail really allowed us to pin point things like turbulence and volcanic ash so much easier vs what we had prior. Thank you for your work, and welcome to the club!

Mon July 25, 2022 04:32 PM

Great article! It's fascinating how big of an impact this has across the major industries including aviation. Thank you for sharing - I would love to learn about sending satellites to space and space weather! 🤩