Satellite data is frequently mentioned when the weather community talks about weather forecasts from hurricanes to snowstorms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been using the technology for more than 45 years. The latest addition to the collection is the GOES-16 satellite. GOES, or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, move at the same rate that the earth rotates keeping the satellite stationary in reference to a point on the earth. The latest in these satellites was the GOES-16. Launched in November 2016, it is currently undergoing the final testing phases. This satellite has a completely new suite of instruments, with more available bands of data and more frequent sampling and transmissions of data. For example, the Advanced Baseline Imager has five-times greater coverage, four-times the spatial resolution, and three-times the spectral channels. Thus the GOES-16 can provide more detailed imagery than previous systems.
Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu