The geostationary GOES weather satellites provide the National Weather Service with a continuous stream of environmental imagery and quantitative sounding data that are critical to the Nation’s meteorological forecasting and severe storm tracking. The GOES satellite system has been a core element of the Nation’s weather services since its first launch in 1974, and the acquisition, design, development and operation of the satellite series is overseen by NOAA and NASA.

The GOES system is comprised of two spacecraft, each in a different orbital plane: GOES-E (slot at 75o W) and GOES-W (135o W). Each satellite covers approximately one third of the Earth’s surface — a significant portion of North and South America and the Atlantic Ocean. The primary mission of a GOES satellite is carried out by the Imager and Sounder, which monitor the Earth’s atmosphere and surface by sensing infrared radiation emitted and reflected from the atmosphere and surface and by measuring atmospheric temperature and moisture.

In addition to the Imager and Sounder, GOES satellites carry a number of other instruments, including the Space Environment Monitor (SEM) package which measures space weather phenomena on a real-time basis by monitoring the impact of solar wind particles on Earth’s upper atmosphere, magnetosphere and ionosphere. The SEM package includes an Energy Particle Sensor, High-energy Proton and Alpha Detector, Magnetometer, and Solar X-ray Sensor.

Other GOES systems include the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS). The new GOES-R satellite series, scheduled for launch in 2021, will bring even greater improvements to the GOES system with more advanced observation instruments and improved latency for the issuance of regional environmental imagery and meteorological data.

GOES data is provided to the public via the Internet. The data can be obtained from many sites across the globe, and is freely available. GOES data is also distributed to emergency managers through the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN), which provides a live stream of GOES images and other critical meteorological data to Local Emergency Management agencies and FEMA.

This page has been created to assist the community in accessing GOES image and sound files, which are free of charge for non-commercial use. However, the information on these websites is not considered to be operational and should not be relied upon to support weather forecasting, severe storm tracking or search and rescue operations. Please contact NOAA if you find any problems with these links or need assistance in using the data.