Baseline instruments planned for the GOES-R series

NOAA began the effort to define and document the user requirements for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R series, planned for the 2012 -2025 time frame, in the late 1990s. Requirements for GOES environmental observations from within and outside the federal government have been documented in the GOES Program Requirements Document Version I (GPRD-I). Contributions to the requirements documented in the GPRD-I have been made by all the NOAA line offices, the Department of Defense, EUMETSAT, and participants of the GOES Users' Conferences. In order to meet these requirements, the instruments designated for the GOES-R notional baseline include an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES), a lightning mapper, and advanced space and solar observing instruments.

The Advanced Baseline Imager is a state of the art, 16-channel imager covering 6 visible to near-IR bands (0.47, 0.64, 0.86, 1.38, 1.61, and 2.26 m), and 10 infrared (IR) bands (3.90 m to 13.3 m). Spatial resolutions are band dependent, 0.5 km at nadir for broadband visible, 1.0 km for near IR and 2.0 km for IR. The ABI will provide three imaging sectors: Full Disk (FD), Continental U.S. (CONUS), and Mesoscale. Full Disk includes the full Earth view from space. The CONUS sector covers a 5000 km x 3000 km area and Mesoscale covers a 1000 x 1000 km square at nadir.

The HES is a multi channel imager and sounder instrument suite with three threshold tasks. HES will provide high-spectral resolution Hemispheric Disk Soundings (DS) and Severe Weather Mesoscale (SW/M) soundings and Coastal Waters (CW) imaging.

HES DS provides 10 km IR resolution from 3.7 m to 15.4 m with a one-hour refresh rate of the full disk, 62° local zenith angle. Visible resolution will be 1 km from a single broadband channel (0.4 m to 1.0 m). SW/M will cover a 1000 x 1000 km square in 4 minutes, at 4 km resolution for IR and 1 km for visible from a single broadband channel for cloud detection. HES CW task will provide at least 14 channel coverage from 0.4 m to 1.0 m, with a 300 m resolution and a 3-hour refresh rate. Coastal Waters are defined as the 400 km zone adjacent to CONUS.

Additional capabilities include an improved Space Environment Monitor, a Solar X-Ray Imager, and direct user services, such as Search and Rescue (SAR), and a Data Collection System (DCS). This paper will focus on the planned instrument capabilities of the GOES-R Series, the space system architecture, and how the new capabilities will meet the documented user needs.