The latest in the series of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) platforms to be launched in July 2001, GOES-M, will offer several modifications in the suite of bands for the Imager. The 12.0 µm band (#5) will be eliminated and replaced with the 13.3 µm band (#6). The bandwidth for the nominal 6.7 µm band (#3) will be spectrally wider than its predecessors and the spatial resolution will change from 8 km to 4 km at the satellite sub-point.

Deleting band #5 is a setback. The 12.0 µm ("dirty window") band in conjunction with the 11.0 µm ("long wave window") band (#4) is used extensively in identifying low clouds, dust, volcanic ash, and low level moisture.

By adding a 13.3 µm ("CO₂ absorption") band to the Imager suite of radiances, cloud products can be derived by using the CO₂ Absorption Technique (CAT) for determining cloud information for semi-transparent high clouds. Now, full resolution estimates of Cloud Top Pressure and Effective Cloud Amount can be calculated for hourly, half hourly, or even 15 minute intervals. In addition, site-specific cloud coverage estimates in support of the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), and height determination for cloud motion vectors can be generated from the Imager using the more robust CAT.

What affect will the band changes on the GOES-M Imager have on these quantitatively derived cloud products? Will there be any improvement of these products resulting from the band changes once the GOES-M Imager becomes operational? This poster will address these questions from simulated data and from GOES-M Imager data when it becomes available.