GOES-S will be equipped with an infrared channel that helps forecasters monitor cloud top temperatures, which are used to predict rainfall intensity and the potential for flash flooding or thunderstorms. This means forecasters will have new high-resolution imagery of atmospheric rivers, as well as Pacific hurricanes that track toward Hawaii or Mexico during the summer and autumn. Like GOES-16, which provided groundbreaking new data and imagery during the severe 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, GOES-S will bring this same new technology to the Pacific Ocean. Strong atmospheric rivers can deliver enormous amounts of rain and high-elevation snow in California and the Pacific Northwest, especially during the winter months. If you live on the West Coast, you may have heard the term “ atmospheric river ” or the “pineapple express.” Like rivers in the sky, these narrow conveyor belts of moisture transport huge amounts of water vapor from the subtropics to the west coast of the continental U.S. Monitoring ‘Atmospheric Rivers’ and Pacific Tropical Cyclones GOES-S will provide a “second set of eyes” over the western U.S., and provide new wildfire monitoring capabilities where it is currently lacking, especially in Alaska. In some cases, satellite imagery helped detect fires before 911 calls began to come in. Thanks to high-resolution imagery from GOES-16, including red-green-blue thermal infrared imagery used to detect fire hot spots, forecasters at the National Weather Service were able to locate fires more quickly, and coordinate warnings with local emergency managers that helped save lives. ![]() In 2017, several catastrophic wildfires in California burned more than one million acres of land across the state. The arid climate of the western United States makes the region especially vulnerable to wildfires. Like GOES-16 (now NOAA’s GOES East satellite), GOES-S will collect three times more data at four times better resolution, and scan the Earth five times faster than previous geostationary satellites over western North America, providing far more information to the models used to make those five-day forecasts we’re so familiar with. This data then gets fed into computer models used by forecasters at the National Weather Service. The improved technology aboard GOES-S will provide valuable new data about upper level wind conditions. ![]() ![]() Data coverage is sparse over the northeastern Pacific, where many weather systems that affect the continental U.S. Our ability to see weather forming over the Pacific Ocean has been hampered by a lack of high-quality data. A reliable forecast - whether it’s for sunny skies, or a serious hazard such as flash floods or tropical cyclones - requires accurate and timely data, and that’s where weather satellites like GOES-S come into play. You may not realize it when you check your favorite weather website or smartphone app for a forecast in, say, San Francisco or Las Vegas, but weather forecasts in the western U.S. Better, Faster Data Means More Reliable Forecasts This graphic shows coverage of the Western Hemisphere by GOES-East and GOES-West.
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