The GOES satellite system provides a continuous flow of environmental data used for weather forecasting, severe storm tracking and other meteorological research. It also enables the relay of distress signals from aircraft, ships and people in need of assistance to Search and Rescue (S&R) teams.

A GOES satellite is in geostationary orbit, 22,236 miles above Earth’s equator. This allows it to hover over the same geographic region of the Earth at all times, delivering images and data to NOAA’s National Weather Service offices in real time.

The satellites are equipped with a pair of instruments: an Imager and a Sounder. Both of these instruments monitor the atmosphere in different ways: the Imager senses radiances in a broadband visible and several infrared channels, while the Sounder measures atmospheric temperature and moisture.

During the day, the Imager will detect radiation that is reflected off of cloud and ground surfaces. This includes sunlight, but also the electromagnetic radiation emitted by lightning, nitric oxide and other air pollutants. These radiation signals are recorded by the instrument and transmitted to the Earth Data Acquisition System in Suitland, Maryland. The information is processed and displayed as imagery on a NOAA website or in a weather application.

At night, the Sounder will sense radio waves emitted by the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. These signals are recorded by the instrument and transmitted to a data processing center in Suitland, Maryland, where they are used for analysis of a variety of atmospheric phenomena, including severe storms and hurricanes. The Sounder also tracks the Sun’s solar wind and its impacts on the Earth’s electromagnetic environment.

In addition to the two main payload instruments, GOES satellites also fly the Space Environment Monitor (SEM) instrument package from NOAA’s Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado. This instrument measures the near-Earth solar-terrestrial electromagnetic field using an array of three boom-mounted sensors.

GOES-R is the next generation of NOAA’s geostationary operational environmental satellites. The program includes the development and deployment of seven new satellites, a robust ground system to receive the enormous amount of data from these satellites and deliver it to customers, as well as a suite of advanced science capabilities to support improved weather prediction.

Aerospace helped ensure GOES-R was ready to meet the needs of its users during the design, integration and launch phases by establishing and leading a first-of-its-kind embedded team that actively managed the production of all GOES-R data products. The team also designed and built the GEOS-R data processing and distribution system and the associated ground infrastructure.

For the GOES-R Level 1b and most Level 2 products, geographic information is stored in the GOES-R data files as horizontal (x) and vertical (y) scan angle coordinates. This information is required to correctly map eddy covariance tower locations onto the ABI fixed grid and obtain ABI observations. Using these coordinates, it is possible to convert the tower geodetic latitude and longitude values from the corresponding NOAA/NCEP station file into ABI scanning angles.