I remember learning about weather forecasting in college in the late 2000s. My classmates and I would draw maps with current weather patterns and then look at satellite data to help us picture what would happen in the coming hours and days.
NOAA’s weather satellites were great back then, but compared to what we have in orbit now, it’s like night and day. As a broadcast meteorologist, I have used the data they provide to communicate life-saving information and advanced warning when threatening weather develops, even in the United States and the Caribbean.
When GOES-U launches on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, it will complete NOAA’s GOES-R weather satellite suite, adding capabilities to its siblings and focusing more on space weather.
NOAA’s Geo-Operated Environmental Satellites (GOES) are not new; Since 1975 they have been providing scientists with a steady stream of data and images from space. But over the decades, advances in technology and lessons learned from each satellite launched so far have contributed to significant improvements in instruments and products. New models.
The most recent constellation of the GOES family began in November 2016, with the launch of its first four satellites, GOES-R. At the time, I was working at KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, California, and had the opportunity to get together. A special feature Preliminary data was available to scientists across the United States.
I interviewed a group of forecasters at the National Weather Service (NWS) Los Angeles office to learn how useful different types of imagery and observations were in each of their different roles. Meteorologists have seen how it was incorporated into their forecasts and used to issue warnings to warn the public of severe weather, and how unreliable it was compared to anything they had used before.
Seven years later, with three of the four satellites in the series orbiting the Earth, scientists and researchers are happy with the results and how the advanced technology has been a game changer.
„I think it really lived up to its hype in the thunderstorm forecast. Meteorologists can see the convection developing in real time. It gives them improved insight into storm development and intensity, which leads to better warnings,” John Cintinio, researcher at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). , told Space.com in an email.
„The GOES-R series not only provides observations where there is no radar coverage, but it also provides a strong signal ahead of the radar when a storm is strengthening or weakening. I’m sure there are many more improvements in forecasting. Environmental monitoring over the past decade, but this is where I most „I’ve definitely seen improvement,” Cintinio said.
In addition to helping predict severe thunderstorms, each satellite collects images and data on heavy rain events that can trigger flooding and detects low clouds and fog as they develop, making significant improvements in forecasts and services used during hurricane season.
„GOES provides our hurricane forecasters with critical, fast, accurate and comprehensive data to assess storm intensity, including cloud top cooling, convective structures, specific features of the hurricane’s eye, upper-level wind speeds and lightning activity,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS). told Space.com in an email.
Tools like Advanced Basic Imager (ABI) Three times more spectral channels, four times the image quality and five times the imaging speed of previous GOES satellites. The Geospatial Lightning Mapper (GLM) It is the first of the GOES-R series to orbit
„The GOES-U and GOES-R series of satellites provide scientists and forecasters with weather monitoring of the entire Western Hemisphere, at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales,” Cintinio said. „Data from these satellites is helping researchers develop new tools and methods to solve problems such as lightning prediction, sea-spray identification (dangerous to mariners), severe weather warnings, and accurate cloud estimation. GOES’ tools—through improved data integration—are global and regional. R also helps improve forecasts from numerical weather models.”
While GOES-U is similar to its siblings, GOES-U is unique in that it has improvements to its instruments that come from what scientists have learned from the three currently in orbit.
But what sets GOES-U apart from the rest is a new sensor on board Compact Coronagraph (CCOR)It will monitor the weather outside the Earth’s atmosphere, monitoring what is happening in space weather events that could affect our planet.
„This is the first real-time operational coronagraph that we have access to. It’s a big leap for us because until now, we’ve always depended on a research coronagraph instrument on a spacecraft that was launched a long time ago,” Rob Steinberg, a space scientist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), told Space.com. He said on the phone.
„So it’s exciting because now I don’t have to wait for the data to be downloaded, because sometimes the current coronagraph images are delayed. Sometimes we wait four or eight hours, and every hour counts when you’re there. Dealing with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), some Sometimes it comes to Earth and gives us big geomagnetic storms like the one we had last month.”
Before forecasting space weather, Steinberg was a meteorologist for terrestrial weather, and says the way these next-generation satellites have revolutionized the way scientists make predictions is huge. Advances in technology since the 1980s have given Earth and space weather forecasters the tools they need to build their confidence and improve forecast accuracy, he says.
„Probably one of the biggest (changes) was the introduction of the Doppler weather radar, which blew my mind. What a huge leap it was in terms of capabilities, so I felt like I was part of the golden age of meteorology,” Steinberg said. „I moved into space meteorology in 2005 and I was lucky enough to see the same evolution in the field. When I started, I had three numerical models more or less regularly.
„Now, I’ve got more than 16 and monitoring sites, with data quality beyond my wildest dreams in terms of temporal and spatial resolution I didn’t even imagine. I’m lucky to be living in another golden age,” Steinberg added. .
„Oddany rozwiązywacz problemów. Przyjazny hipsterom praktykant bekonu. Miłośnik kawy. Nieuleczalny introwertyk. Student.