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Forecasters will soon be able to view real-time mapping of lightning activity on Earth and more closely monitor solar storms triggered by the sun thanks to a new weather satellite.
Together, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched GOES-U, or the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U mission, on Tuesday.
The weather satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 p.m. ET. The launch was broadcast live on the NASA website. Weather conditions in Florida were 60% favorable for a launch early in the launch window.
GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the R-series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, “the most sophisticated weather and environmental monitoring system in the Western Hemisphere,” according to NOAA.
“The GOES-R series of satellites has been a game changer for us,” Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, said at a news conference Monday. “Since the series was first launched in 2016, the latest generation of GOES has enabled new and improved forecasting and warning services to help save lives and protect assets. »
Miguel J. Rodriguea Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images
The SpaceX rocket carrying the new GOES-U satellite sits on Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of Tuesday’s launch.
Once GOES-U reaches a geostationary orbit or circular orbit above the Earth’s equator, the satellite will be renamed GOES-19, or GOES East. The satellite will replace GOES-16, the older GOES East satellite launched in 2016, and will operate in tandem with GOES-18, also known as GOES West. Meanwhile, the GOES-16 satellite will essentially become an on-orbit backup for the system in case one of the satellites fails.
Together, the GOES-18 and GOES-19 satellites will collect atmospheric, solar, climate and ocean data and cover more than half the globe, from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand.
What sets GOES-U apart from other satellites is that it has a new space weather monitoring capability.
As the sun approaches its solar maximum – the peak of its 11-year cycle, expected this year – it becomes more active. Researchers observed increasingly intense solar flares and coronal mass ejections emerging from the sun’s surface.
Coronal mass ejections are large clouds of ionized gases called plasma and magnetic fields that radiate from the sun’s outer atmosphere.
When these explosions are directed toward Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms or major disruptions in the Earth’s magnetic field. With these events, there is always a risk that communications, power grid, navigation, and radio and satellite operations will be affected.
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly
Solar activity can be seen swirling across the sun on May 10. The new GOES-U satellite is expected to significantly improve predictions of solar flares and coronal mass ejections – huge plasma bubbles that can disrupt Earth’s power grids and communications.
The most intense solar storm to hit Earth in 20 years occurred on May 10, but fortunately it only shined auroras on states that never see the aurora borealis.
Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around the Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and the aurora australis, or aurora australis. When energetic particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.
GOES-U carries several instruments that will improve the detection of space weather hazards, including the Compact Coronagraph-1 which can detect solar flares and coronal mass ejections, as well as characterize the size, speed, density and direction of these solar storms.
The coronagraph will provide continuous observations of the solar corona, or the warm outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere, where space weather events originate, said Elsayed Talaat, director of NOAA’s Office of Space Weather Observations.
The instrument’s capabilities will allow NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to issue warnings and watches one to four days in advance and “mark a new chapter in space weather observations,” Talaat said.
The Compact Coronagraph-1 is the world’s first operational satellite coronagraph to better monitor the sun, said Steve Volz, deputy administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.
“This new instrument will provide images of the solar corona to our forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center in 30 minutes, compared to about eight hours previously,” Graham said. “Geomagnetic storms can impact our infrastructure here on Earth by endangering our power grid, communications, navigation systems, air and space assets. Having better and faster observation will help us better alert our infrastructure providers to potential dangers so they can take action.
From its orbit, GOES-U will monitor weather, climate and environmental risks across North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa.
From its unique vantage point, GOES-U will be able to spot tropical storms, send alerts to forecasters when storms form in the Atlantic Ocean, and provide near real-time tracking and monitoring .
The satellite carries a suite of scientific instruments, including imaging and mapping technology, that will allow it to capture valuable hurricane data, including wind speeds aloft, specific features on the eye of the hurricane and lightning activity, all of which can help forecasters better understand potential risks.
GOES-U will carry the first piloted operational lightning mapper into geostationary orbit. As storms develop, they tend to exhibit spikes in lightning activity. Understanding how storms develop and intensify can help meteorologists better predict whether storms will be capable of causing flash flooding, producing hail, damaging winds or generating tornadoes.
The lightning mapper will take photos of Earth at a rate of 500 times per second to track lightning like never before, Sullivan said.
GOES-U’s main camera can zoom in to track hazardous weather and environmental conditions every 30 seconds, a capability that enables better warning systems, said Pam Sullivan, GOES-R program manager for NOAA .
Forecasters can also use GOES-U instruments to identify wildfire risks, including hotspots, intensity, smoke production and air quality impacts, and even data that can help trackers predict fire movement. The satellite can also use its lightning mapper to determine which lightning strikes are most likely to spark wildfires.
Other environmental hazards that GOES-U can track include real-time imaging of fog and low clouds that can impact air and sea travel, as well as detection of volcanic eruptions and ash and sulfur dioxide spewed by volcanoes. GOES-U will also be able to monitor atmospheric riverine events, or large sections of Earth’s atmosphere that transport moisture from the equator toward the poles, which can cause floods and mudslides.
In addition to early warning of hurricane formation, GOES-U can also collect climate data from Earth’s oceans, such as signs of marine heat waves and sea surface temperatures, which have impact the marine food chain and can lead to mass coral bleaching events.