Go is a very old game, but its popularity in the West continues to grow. In fact, the most recent Go World Championship was held in New York in November of 2014. There are more than 30 million players worldwide and about 31,000 active tournaments every year. Interestingly, Go is not played by the same rules as chess or checkers. Rather, it is played by two or more opponents with the goal of making the most moves and capturing the opponent’s territory. The strategy is different from chess or backgammon, but the principles are similar.
The GOES satellites are part of NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, and they have been providing critical atmospheric conditions, solar activity and space weather data for more than 40 years. These observations directly impact our nation’s safety, security and economic well-being. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) builds the GOES spacecraft and NOAA operates them once in geostationary orbit.
GOES spacecraft are designed to fly above the Earth in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above the equator, and their three-axis body-stabilization allows the sensors to “stare” at an area of interest on Earth. This enables meteorologists to monitor the evolution of weather phenomena such as severe thunderstorms, hurricanes and flash floods by continuously imaging them from the same location.
These observations are made possible by a suite of instruments onboard the satellite, including the GOES Imager and GOES Sounder. The Imager senses radiated and visible reflected solar energy to provide images of clouds, the surface and oceans, and the atmosphere’s vertical temperature and moisture structure. The Sounder measures the atmospheric transmission of radiated thermal and water vapor energy, and provides data on the vertical structure of these quantities as well as surface and cloud top temperatures and humidity. The Sounder also includes an Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Sensor, which is capable of detecting solar flares that can affect communications, navigational accuracy and power grids on Earth.
In addition, GOES has a suite of Space Environment Monitor (SEM) instruments that detect and report on solar-terrestrial electromagnetic fields, with the ability to identify the source of a flare and determine its impact on our planet. The SEM instrument package consists of the Energy Particle Sensor, High Energy Proton and Alpha Particle Detector, Magnetometer, and the Solar X-ray Imager.
The GOES R system is designed to operate for at least 14 years, and will be able to acquire and disseminate regional environmental imagery and specialized meteorological, climatic, terrestrial, oceanographic and solar-geophysical data from the GOES R spacecraft and its data collection systems (DCS) and distribute them to direct users.
GOES R will offer reduced latency, full hemispheric coverage, and will operate during periods of eclipse at the vernal and equinoxes. This will enable the NOAA Satellite and Data Information Services (NESDIS) to deliver real-time and delayed data with a smaller bandwidth requirement. This will significantly reduce the time it takes for NOAA products to reach the public.