Monitoring Tropical Cyclones from Satellite: Improvements from 1966 to 2018

The Advanced Technology Satellite (ATS) was launched to the geostationary orbit in 1966. Images from the Spin Scan Cloud Camera (SSCC) gave some of the first animations from space of clouds, including tropical cyclones. This capability has improved over the decades and was greatly expanded with the 2016 launch of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-16, the first in the series that include the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). The 16 ABI spectral bands include the visible, near-infrared and infrared portions of the electro-magnetic spectrum, observe at improved spatial and temporal resolutions. GOES-16 imagery became operational in December 2017 in the East location. Many phenomena, beyond hurricanes, are monitored including: convection, fires, fog, smoke, snow, surface temperatures, volcanic ash plumes, moisture, atmospheric motion and atmospheric waves that may be associated with turbulence. The derivation of level 2 products allows quantitative information important for decision support services and numerical weather prediction. ABI images and products of tropical cyclones will be shown from both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.