GOES-17 is now GOES West

GOES-17, then known as GOES S was launched on March 1, 2018. After almost a year of various testing on February 12, 2019 she was operational as NOAA's GOES west. She is in geostationary orbit at 22,300 miles above the Earth at 137.2º West. There is a great article with some nice pictures and other images explaining what GOES-17 will bring, it is the February 12, 2019 article posted by NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. Here are some excerpts explaining how important GOES West will be.

GOES-17 is NOAA’s second advanced geostationary weather satellite and the sister satellite to GOES-16 (also known as GOES East). Together the two satellites provide high-resolution visible and infrared imagery as well as lightning observations of more than half the globe – from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand, and from near the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle.

Greatly improved weather forecasts over the Pacific.

In Hawaii and the central Pacific Ocean, GOES-17’s high-resolution visible and infrared imagery will improve hurricane forecasts and allow meteorologists to better predict areas of intense rainfall. … 

Forecasters in Hawaii and other remote territories like the Marshall Islands and American Samoa are also now able to track thunderstorms in real-time.

A boon to forecasting in Alaska with GOES-17 providing coverage not possible from older satellites.

“In my nearly six years forecasting here, I have never seen a product revolutionize our ability to forecast the way GOES-17 has,” said Michael Ottenweller, a National Weather Service forecaster at the Anchorage, Alaska field office. “The advent of GOES over our domain makes forecasting tangibly easier and better.”  

Ottenweller described a recent experience forecasting fog over southwestern Alaska. Before GOES-17 data was available, forecasters would have to wait for data from polar-orbiting satellites passing over Alaska. “Now, not only do I have reliable data, but I can loop that data. This changes everything,” said Ottenweller. “We are excited to see what [GOES-17] brings for the convective and fire weather season.”

Wildfire Detection

Finally like her sister satellite, GOES-16 (GOES East), GOES-17 is able to provide wildfire and smoke detection not seen under older geostationary satellites. I wrote an eight-part series a couple of years ago on the application of GOES-16 for wildfire detection. In part 4 of that eight-part series I discuss how GOES-16 improved wildfire detection, the same will apply to her sister satellite, GOES-17. I am embedding a video that I included in part 4 for you so you may see how GOES-16 and 17 will improved wildfire detection.


Direct link to video on Youtube from NOAA Visualizations

In the coming weeks, I hope to write more about GOES-17.