The GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager Anomaly Mission Recovery

On March 1, 2018, NOAA launched GOES-17 into orbit, becoming its second in the GOES-R series of next-generation geostationary satellites. Its primary Earth-observing instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), provides significant improvements in spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution compared to the legacy GOES imager. During the checkout phase of the GOES-17 ABI, it was discovered that the Loop Heat Pipes, a component of the instrument cooling system, were not operating properly. Cooling is needed to offset the solar load by the sun during the nighttime hours, so given this anomaly, the ABI detectors heat up well above nominal levels, resulting in degraded or saturated channels.

To address this problem, NOAA's Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) put together an Anomaly Mission Recovery and Mitigation (MRM) team. Consisting of members from NESDIS, NOAA's National Weather Service, the ABI instrument vendor (Harris Corporation), and others, the MRM team's goal is to maximize the available data from the ABI while minimizing the impacts to downstream users. Three sub-teams were created to work on different aspects of the anomaly: 1) the Optimization Team worked to change the configuration of the ABI to maximize usable data, 2) the Constellation Team looked at ways other NOAA and non-NOAA satellites could be used to help fill any data gaps, and 3) the Science Options Team evaluated the ultimate downstream user impacts of the various options. This presentation will provide an overview of the GOES-17 ABI Anomaly and detail the big picture on the steps taken to minimize the ultimate impacts to users.