The Second GOES Users' Conference, focusing on the GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite)-R Series was held in Boulder Colorado from October 1 to 3, 2002, with approximately 200 participants from government, the private sector, academia and the international community. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) organized the conference with cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the National Weather Association, the World Meteorological Organization, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The first of the GOES-R satellites is slated to be launched in 2012.

The goals of the conference were: (1) to inform GOES users of plans for the next generation capabilities; (2) to provide information on the potential applications; (3) to determine user needs for new products, data distribution, and data archiving; (4) to assess potential user and societal benefits of GOES capabilities; and (5) to develop methods to improve communication between the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and the GOES user community. These goals were realized, in that many recommendations were made that NOAA will consider as the future series is developed. The conference participants strongly supported the concept of instruments with dramatic advancements in spatial coverage, radiometric accuracy and spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution. If these recommendations are followed, the new instruments will offer the potential for improvements in environmental observations for weather, climate, hydrological, solar, space weather, and oceanographic applications. A report summarizing the conference is available at www.osd.noaa.gov/goes_R/goesconf.htm.

This paper will cover the highlights from the report on the Second GOES Users' Conference, including information provided to the user community, and recommendations from the user community on capabilities needed in the GOES-R era. Some of the key recommendations from the participants include: 1) the need for a 4 km footprint on the sounder within the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES); 2) the need to explore the feasibility of a passive microwave instrument in a geostationary orbit; 3) the need for an operational lightning mapper on GOES; 4) the need to use data from experimental satellites to prepare for GOES-R; 5) the need for hyperspectral data in the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. 6) the need for onboard calibration on all channels for climate applications; 7) the need to provide observations of sea surface temperatures and ocean color, with improved spatial and temporal resolution especially over the coastal waterways.

The upcoming Third Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R Users' Conference will be held in Boulder Colorado, U.S.A. during May 24-27, 2004. More details can be found at: www.osd.noaa.gov/announcement/.