Since 1975 NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have provided continuous imagery and data on atmospheric conditions as well as solar activity (“space weather”). They have aided in the search and rescue of people in distress, contributed to more accurate and timely weather forecasts and enabled us to better understand long-term climate conditions. NASA builds and launches the GOES, and NOAA operates them.

Two GOES spacecraft provide real-time weather data over the eastern and western United States at all times of day and night. The primary payload instruments are the Imager and Sounder, both of which employ a servo-driven, two-axis gimballed mirror system and a 31 cm Cassegrain telescope. The Imager has a multichannel capability that senses infrared radiation and visible reflected sunlight, while the Sounder gathers vertical air temperature and moisture profiles and ocean surface temperatures. Both sensors can scan the Earth’s full disk and are able to zoom in on severe storms.

The Imager on GOES-16 has three times more spectral channels, four times the resolution and five times the scanning speed than previous GOES satellites. The Sounder on GOES-16 can gather data on air temperature and humidity, cloud tops, surface water vapor, precipitation rate and motion, and ozone distribution. In addition, the GOES-16 Imager includes a suite of “first light” products, including the SUVI (Severe Urban and Rural Interface), that show the characteristics of a variety of meteorological phenomena at their early stages of development.

GOES satellites are also able to detect the atmospheric conditions that lead to tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes. These conditions are called atmospheric “triggers.” In addition, GOES satellite data are used to monitor the amount of rainfall during thunderstorms and hurricanes for the issuing of flash flood warnings. They are also used to estimate snowfall accumulations to issue winter storm warnings and to track the movement of ice sheets and lake and sea ice cover.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a GOES Imagery Archive with a wide range of real time images from the GOES satellites. There are also a number of websites where you can access GOES imagery and information, including: