The current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Sounder with 18 infrared (IR) spectral bands, ranging from approximately 3.7µm – 14.7 µm, provides clear-sky radiances, atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, total precipitable water, cloud-top pressure, water-vapor tracked winds, etc. Products are generated operationally by NOAA/NESDIS in Washington, D.C. Some experimental GOES Sounder products, including total column ozone (TCO), are also produced at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Applications of those products include: nowcasting and forecasting of weather events, assimilation of cloud products into regional numerical forecast models, and monitoring of temperature and moisture changes in the pre-convective periods. One unique application of the current GOES Sounder products is the severe weather forecast. Hourly GOES Sounder data of typical convective storm cases, were used to illustrate the unique value of the GOES Sounder measurements in short range severe weather nowcast.

However, due to the lower spectral resolution and slow coverage rate of the current GOES Sounder, the information such as spatial coverage, lower level temperature inversion, surface emissivity, vertical resolution and accuracy is limited. There is a requirement for an operational advanced IR sounding system on future geostationary satellites. The increased spectral, temporal and spatial resolutions of the future geostationary hyperspectral sounder (GHS) will provide a substantial increase in the quantity and quality of the products. The future GOES sounder could provide high-spectral resolution Hemispheric Disk Soundings (DS) with spatial resolution better than 10 km spatial resolution and spectral resolution on the order of 1 cm-1. It is very useful when there is the potential for explosive development of severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, or severe winter storms. It can also be used over areas where the numerical forecast models have low confidence (targeted observations).

Aspects of improvement of future GOES sounders over the current GOES sounders include: spatial coverage, vertical moisture information, nowcasting, numerical weather prediction, clouds, winds, dust/aerosols, trace gases, climate, ocean/land. Current and future applications of GOES Sounder and GHS are demonstrated and compared in this paper by using the current satellite measurements such as AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) and IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer).