Back in November, meteorologists were euphoric as a satellite named GOES-R (now GOES-16) was launched into orbit. “GOES” stands for “Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite.” For meteorologists, it represents the future of weather observation from space. The satellite is now sending back imagery and data in an experimental, non-operational capacity. GOES-16 will be declared operational and unleashed for use in forecasting and observations later this year.
There’s a lot to love in GOES-16. We’ll have higher resolution imagery from a satellite than we’ve ever had in North America. In fact, at times, the satellite will be capable of sending back pictures every 30 seconds. By comparison, that’s more frequent than what a land-based Doppler radar typically scans. It will have 16 bands of imagery compared to five bands on the current GOES fleet. These satellites will give us more to look at, more to study, and more high quality data that will be ingested in weather models to help with short and medium range forecasts. It will also have the ability to see lightning.
Geostationary Lightning Mapper
The geostationary lightning mapper, or GLM, attached to GOES-16 can detect changes in a scene that indicate there’s lightning present. It’s the first such operational lightning mapper in orbit. The GLM will give us a capability to see and study lightning in a brand new way. It will also allow us to build up a historical database of lightning across much of the Western Hemisphere, including the tropics and deep oceans, where we lack a lot of good observational data. Best of all, it will allow for some really cool visualizations of storms.
