A new weather satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is about to be launched into orbit.
The newest geostationary satellite, GOES-U, will orbit the planet at the same speed for more than 22,000 miles.
The Advanced Baseline Imager, which can monitor the ocean and atmosphere in high definition up to once every 30 seconds, will be on board.
“The early identification is crucial. moreover possessing the instruments necessary to obtain information rapidly, particularly the rapid scan. Since we have a problem with rapid intensification—where a hurricane starts out as merely a band of clouds and grows into a powerful system very quickly—Ken Graham, the director of the National Weather Service, stated as much.
Thanks to the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which is also included in the bundle, it will assist not only with hurricanes but also with intense thunderstorms, flooding, downpours, fog, and even fires.
“Lightning detection is a key to some of our early warnings for the fire weather community. So a lightning strike in a dry area in a time of the year that can cause a fire, that’s an indicator to us that there could be a potential fire started,” Graham said.
Once in service, GOES-U will eventually take the name GOES-19 and replace GOES-16, which is presently keeping watch over the Atlantic and eastern United States.
With its newest equipment, the Compact Coronagraph, which will continuously monitor the sun’s surface, it will even be able to assist in the detection of impending solar storms when it eventually becomes operational following some testing.
Elsayed Talaat, head of the Office of Space Weather Observations, stated, “To protect our technological society, it’s very important for us to measure space weather effects and be able to model and provide warnings, forecasts and alerts for space weather.”
GOES-19 will continue to function long into the 2030s, according to NOAA, until the next generation of satellites is prepared to replace it.
The Space-X Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday of next week.
