NOAA: GOES-16 Now in Orbit: Will eventually become GOES-E

[tolakram]

Why in the world would they want to use it for GOES-W?

[wxman57]

Why in the world would they want to use it for GOES-W?

Remember, GOES-R is forecast to be placed over the U.S. for the next year for testing. Something could happen to either satellite during that time. They'll evaluate the status of GOES-W and GOES-E in about a year to determine which might fail first. If GOES-W is showing signs of failing, then GOES-R would be moved over the East Pacific to cover that area.

[AJC3]

Why in the world would they want to use it for GOES-W?

Remember, GOES-R is forecast to be placed over the U.S. for the next year for testing. Something could happen to either satellite during that time. They'll evaluate the status of GOES-W and GOES-E in about a year to determine which might fail first. If GOES-W is showing signs of failing, then GOES-R would be moved over the East Pacific to cover that area.

Would it? My guess would be that in the event of a failure of GOES-W (GOES-15), that GOES-14 would become the new GOES-W. A couple interesting scenarios would be if we wind up with up with 13/14/15/R up there and all functional in 2017 or functional 14/15/R/S birds in 2019. What happens then?

GOES-13 Launched 24 MAY 2006, began service as GOES-E 14 APR 2010
GOES-14 Launched 27 JUN 2009, in storage as an on-orbit spare
GOES-15 Launched 4 MAR 2010, began service as GOES-W 6 DEC 2011

[wxman57]

That's true, GOES-14 remains parked in orbit and could replace GOES-W if it fails. Hopefully, we'll get GOES-R out over the Atlantic for the 2018 season. For next year, it may be able to monitor the Caribbean and Gulf until it's moved east.

[AJC3]

That's true, GOES-14 remains parked in orbit and could replace GOES-W if it fails. Hopefully, we'll get GOES-R out over the Atlantic for the 2018 season. For next year, it may be able to monitor the Caribbean and Gulf until it's moved east.

I like that idea. It would be great, on an as-needed basis - better yet, routinely. Speaking of that, I wonder if NESDIS would actually be able to routinely operate 3 geostationary birds at once. I suspect congress might not go for that due to the the cost factor.

And I'm literally drooling at the prospect of routinely monitoring the evolution of coastal sea breezes, thunderstorms, and fog/stratus with the higher temporal spatial/resolution of the new GOES series. I got a chance to spend a week at the GOES-R OPG this past spring. We used Himawari-8 for evaluation of all the new channels, such as RGB/Dust, low level water vapor, true-color and false-color visible, just to name a few of the new ones.

[Nimbus]

Some of the specs were released where they basicly made the analogy to HDTV.

NOAA officials said that GOES-R's six-instrument suite represents a big upgrade from the equipment on GOES-East and GOES-West, which launched in 2006 and 2010, respectively.

For example, GOES-R's primary instrument, called the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), will gather three times more data, with four times higher resolution, than comparable gear on GOES-East and GOES-West. And ABI will be able to scan the landscape five times faster to boot, NOAA officials said.

I'm wondering if there might be some classified instrumentation along the lines of a 24/7 Gulfstream flight?

The higher resolution might only improve forecasting within the last model run otherwise.

[wxman57]

I've been monitoring the "chatter" on the tstorms email list about the new satellite. Apparently, there is no plan to put GOES-14 (currently stored in-orbit) if GOES-E or GOES-W fails. GOES-R will be placed in orbit over the equator at 89.5W longitude for the next year. Most likely, it will replace GOES-E in late 2017 or in 2018. That's not 100% guaranteed, of course. If GOES-W fails in the next year, then GOES-R may be moved west to cover that area.

The next satellite, GOES-S is scheduled for launch in 2018.

[AJC3]

I've been monitoring the "chatter" on the tstorms email list about the new satellite. Apparently, there is no plan to put GOES-14 (currently stored in-orbit) if GOES-E or GOES-W fails. GOES-R will be placed in orbit over the equator at 89.5W longitude for the next year. Most likely, it will replace GOES-E in late 2017 or in 2018. That's not 100% guaranteed, of course. If GOES-W fails in the next year, then GOES-R may be moved west to cover that area.

The next satellite, GOES-S is scheduled for launch in 2018.

Yeah, It was an interesting point made by a few people in that discussion that limitations in ground receiving capacity prevents NESDIS from keeping any more than 2 GOES birds "operational", even if 3 or 4 are "functional". Alas, my hopes of monitoring rapid-scan ops over the far eastern Atlantic next season have been dashed...

[RL3AO]

I'm sure the HWT in Norman would love to have it for spring severe weather season (even just some "testing" data). Can't wait for it to be in operation.

[RL3AO]

Since it is now in geostationary orbit, it has been renamed GOES-16.

[AJC3]

It was announced at the presser that GOES-16 will become GOES-E when it eventually becomes operational

[SouthDadeFish]

Why in the world would they want to use it for GOES-W?

I know this question was asked a while ago, but one answer I haven't seen yet is in regard to improvement in model forecasts. It has been proposed that placing GOES-16 as GOES-W would result in improved observations (better resolution & more channels) of the upstream flow relative to North America. The improved observation network could then in turn improve forecasts of downstream weather phenomena.