The song “Anything Goes” is a classic from the musical “Guys and Dolls,” originally staged in 1934. Its lyrics are full of wit, double-entendres and sexual innuendos that speak to contemporary audiences. The music and lyrics were composed by the renowned composer/lyricist Cole Porter. He is one of only a few people to have written both music and words for popular songs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has operated geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) since 1975. These spacecraft hover in a geosynchronous orbit 35,790 kilometers (22,300 miles) above Earth and continuously monitor atmospheric conditions. GOES data has led to improved weather forecasts, including those for tropical storms and hurricanes. Its products also support search and rescue operations, as well as a better understanding of long-term climate conditions.
GOES satellites are designed to operate for up to 14 years. The GOES-R series of satellites will provide a wide array of regional environmental imagery and specialized meteorological, oceanographic, solar-geophysical, and other data to central processing centers and direct users. GOES-R will feature enhanced capability, reduced latency, and full hemispheric coverage.
The GOES-R series of satellites is being developed to replace the aging GOES A through C spacecraft, which have been in orbit for more than 40 years. The first of these GOES-R satellites, called GOES 16 or GOES-R 1, is scheduled to be launched in 2018. It will join the existing three GOES satellites in geostationary orbit and will be known as GOES West.
In addition to imaging and radars, the GOES-R satellites will have a suite of instruments to provide real-time information on the near-Earth solar-terrestrial electromagnetic environment, including solar flares, geomagnetic storms and high-latitude space weather. This information is critical to military and commercial radio wave and satellite communication and navigation systems, as well as electric power networks, space station astronauts and high altitude aviators.
Each GOES-R satellite will carry two primary payload instruments: an imager and a sounder. The imager will sense infrared radiant energy and visible radiated solar energy that are reflected from the surface and atmosphere of Earth. The sounder will measure vertical atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, as well as cloud top temperatures.
GOES-R 1 will be equipped with an Advanced Baseline Imager that has three times the number of spectral channels and five times the scanning speed of previous GOES satellites. It will also have the new SUVI (Solar UV Imager), EXIS (Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors) and SEISS (Space Environment Monitoring Instrument). These three sensors are all based on technology that was successfully demonstrated on the GOES-13 satellite in 2011.