Studies on the GOES-R Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) on GOES-R

High spectral resolution infrared radiances from the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R and beyond) will allow for monitoring the evolution of atmospheric profiles and clouds. The HES is currently slated to be launched in 2013. HES, together with the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) will operationally provide enhanced spatial, temporal and vertical information for atmospheric soundings and clouds. Trade-off studies have been done on the spectral coverage, spectral resolution, spatial resolution, temporal resolution, band-to-band co-registration and signal-to-noise ratio. HES data applications investigated include sounding temperature/moisture retrievals, trace gas estimation, cloud retrieval and surface property retrieval. The accuracy and vertical resolution of atmospheric temperature, moisture and trace gas associated with HES are investigated. These will be contrasted with capabilities from current sensors.