Dear Blick and WeatherCat fans of the best tools for weather prediction,
The NOAA announced last week that their newest satellite, GOES-R (also known as GOES-16), which was launched last November, will be moved into a geostationary orbit to cover the eastern US. The images from this satellite are a remarkable upgrade from all previous weather satellites.
Thanks for sharing! Indeed the forecast community has been very pleased with the performance of this new generation of weather satellite.
The next GOES satellite is scheduled to launch in 2018 and will presumably replace the current weather satellite covering the western US. The technology on these newest satellites provides amazing data for weather maps, forecasts and trends. Pretty cool stuff.
I'm with you hoping that GOES-S will be assigned to the Western US. This webpage has the current status of all the weather satellites:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/our-satellites#flyoutThis page has the specific information for the GOES series of satellites:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/asset/document/geostationary_weather_march_2017.pdfIt appears that they try to have 4 satellites with a similar life expectancy in orbit at the same time. GOES-S is supposed to go to work immediately. The following two satellites GOES-T and GOES-U are supposed to be in put into orbit to be in reserve. So that basically guarantees that GOES-S will be assigned to the Western part of the United States!
Looking forward to it!
Cheers, Edouard