G-12 Fall 2006 Eclipse/KOZ Schedule (Don't shoot messenger)

[AJC3]

It's that time of year again kids.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/GOES/EA ... -Rout.html

Looks like the first day with missing images will be 14 Aug, with the span of missing images getting a bit larger every few days, reaching "total eclipse" from 18 Sep through 11 October.

[JonathanBelles]

whats this mean?

[Cyclenall]

The link won't show for me. So what exactly does this mean?

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

It means we get that freaking black out period back.

[Brent]

whats this mean?

Due to the position of earth in relation to the sun, the satellites will go out for a few hours every night. It happens every year and it sucks.

[JonathanBelles]

hmm and they cant correct it? at least its at night!

[x-y-no]

Why not shoot the messenger? It's a tradition!

This sucks.

The new generation bird cures this problem, right? Do we know if they plan to put it online next year, or are they waiting for one of the current ones to die?

[Cyclenall]

whats this mean?

Due to the position of earth in relation to the sun, the satellites will go out for a few hours every night. It happens every year and it sucks.

You would think we would be able to find a way to solve this problem by now. That does suck a lot.

[Brent]

What is a satellite eclipse period?
Since GOES is in a geosynchronous orbit, the sun will yearly traverse a +/- 23.5 degree angle perpendicular to the Earth's equator (GOES orbit plane). As a result, near the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes the Earth disk will periodically occult the sun, from a GOES perspective. Essentially, there are two eclipse seasons for each GOES spacecraft. Each eclipse season spans a 48-day period, symmetric around the equinox and the sun occultation lasts for a maximum of 72 minutes/day during the equinox. Each GOES spacecraft utilizes a solar array that converts sunlight into electricity in order to power the satellite. Each day during the eclipse season the sun is blocked by the Earth and sunlight is not available to the GOES solar array. Therefore, the energy needed to power the instruments is not available and the instruments are powered off. There is typically a 0-3 hour outage of imagery each day as GOES progresses through eclipse season. The maximum outage of 3 hours will occur at or near the equinox.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/ssd/html/goesfaqs.htm

[cycloneye]

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/SPBULL/ ... 304.01.txt

This is the information at link that works about the eclipses during the fall.

[JonathanBelles]

will we have a solar eclipse?

[Brent]

will we have a solar eclipse?

Yes... on September 22, but it will not be visible in North America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_ecli ... ptember_22

[wxmann_91]

I hate that satellite eclipse

[skysummit]

Oh poo....I almost forgot that darn eclipse. This brings back memories of last season during the Katrina and Rita days trying to catch a nap during the eclipse.

[Aslkahuna]

They will wait for the old satellites to die before bring the new ones on line. I believe GOES-13 is equipped which backup power for use during eclipses. The problem has been in the past that the instrumentation onboard the GOES satellites (which includes far more than just imagery since these are ENVIRONMENTAL satellites and not just weather ones) required so much power that installing backup batteries was just not possible from a standpoint of weight.

Steve