GOES (pronounced “goes”) is an acronym for geostationary operational environmental satellites. Since 1975, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES satellites have provided continuous imagery and data on atmospheric conditions and solar activity (space weather). GOES’s data has led to more accurate and timely weather forecasts and better understanding of long-term climate conditions. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration builds and launches the GOES satellites, while NOAA is responsible for their operations and distribution of the associated data.

Located 22,240 miles above Earth’s equator, the GOES satellites are positioned over different areas of the planet to provide continual coverage of the Earth. Two satellites currently orbit over the continental United States: GOES-16 at 75 degrees west longitude and GOES-15 at 135 degrees west longitude. By constantly observing the same area, these satellites can detect and measure the evolution of atmospheric phenomena such as severe local storms, tropical cyclones and even solar flares.

The GOES-R Series is NOAA’s next generation of geostationary weather satellites, which will replace the aging GOES-13, GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites in 2022. This new generation of satellites will have more capabilities, including enhanced lightning detection, increased spatial resolution, faster updates, and advanced imager technologies. This new technology will allow meteorologists to detect and track more storms, rapidly update maps of hazardous locations, monitor changes in the environment, and improve our ability to understand the effects of climate change.

In April 2019, the Advanced Baseline Imagers on GOES-16 and GOES-17 began operating in a new ten-minute flex mode. This mode is similar to the old flex mode but with one important difference: the imagers will scan two mesoscale domains every 30 seconds instead of every 15 seconds.

All GOES-R Series satellites feature the Advanced Baseline Imager, Cloud Top Height Imager, Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensor, and Space Environment In-Situ Suite sensors. Each of these sensors is critical to the operation of GOES-R and provides data that help scientists monitor the changing environment of our home planet and improve forecasting of the impact on human health, natural resources and the economy.

For more information about GOES-R, visit NOAA’s GOES-R webpage.

GOES-R is supported by NASA and NOAA’s Science Mission Directorate. NOAA’s Satellite and Information Services Office manages the acquisition, operations and distribution of GOES-R Series data.

The GOES-R website hosts procurement notices and a detailed GOES-R mission timeline, which is updated weekly.

Effective September 30, the GOES website will be replaced by the new Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) system website managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Current GOES users should save/print their GOES website account information (PASSID membership number and membership details) before the transition to the new site. This will make it easier to recreate their accounts when the GOES website is replaced by the TTP site.