GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager Signal-to-Noise Performance and Impact on Downstream Products Using Optimized Sensor Configuration

The GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager experienced a degradation in its thermal system that limits ABI’s ability to shed solar heat load. The non-optimal thermal system decreases the instrument’s capacity to remove heat from the detector which therefore requires operation at elevated temperatures. While other work at this conference summarizes how GOES-17 ABI is configured to optimize its performance under these new thermal conditions, this work investigates the science impacts of potential performance degradation. In particular, the higher operating temperature causes increased measurement uncertainty and degrades signal-to-noise ratio. The effects on imagery and downstream data products due to lower SNR relative to GOES-16 ABI will be assessed and presented.