Hazards and their management are critical for the protection of our Nation’s economy. National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) maintains a variety of environmental sensors in order to perform its primary mission to protect US persons and property. Satellites, in particular, play an import role in providing information to safeguard US assets. The GOES satellite system maintains continuous, reliable operational environmental data collection and severe weather warning information that protects life and property. It monitors the Earth’s atmosphere and ocean surfaces, the space environment and provides data about global climate conditions. GOES R, designed to replace and upgrade the current generation of US geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES N-P) sometime after 2012, represents a major step forward in environmental sensing and environmental products for NOAA.

Proposed GOES R improvements may include a distributed architecture, in which major sensors are deployed across smaller, more flexible satellites. Traditional approaches place all the sensors onto one satellite, creating the need to replace the entire satellite when one sensor fails. Distributed architecture provides a more flexible approach; only those satellites with failed sensors need replacing. NOAA’s Industry partners are currently involved in end-to-end architecture studies to determine the best systems design. The GOES R architecture that is ultimately selected will far exceed current capabilities and satisfy many additional user requirements.

In addition to new architecture approaches, GOES R will introduce new technology, as well. Advancements in environmental sensors include an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES), capable of providing hyperspectral soundings and high-resolution imagery and a GOES Lightning Mapper (GLM). All three sensors will provide timely data of the Earth environment. GOES R will also have a Solar Instrument Suite (SIS) and Space Environment In Situ Suite (SEISS), to measure solar activity and the space environment surrounding our planet.

GOES R technology advancements will impact forecasts, climate modeling, and hazards monitoring. The improved spatial and spectral resolution and decreased latency will enable GOES R to provide better, near real time monitoring of floods, hazardous spills and forest fires. In addition, GOES-R data will provide much more data on meteorological conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity, sea surface temperatures, wind speeds), on or near the Earth’s surface (in clear air), and thereby improve support for models of dispersion of toxic chemicals, biological agents, and vector-borne diseases.