The first satellite of the NOAA GOES-R series, scheduled to be launch-ready in FY 2015, will usher in a new era in geostationary environmental satellites, providing improved spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), for example, will scan the Earth nearly five times faster than the current GOES. The satellites will provide the user communities, including the general public, television meteorologists, private weather companies, the aviation and agricultural communities, oceanographers, hydrologists, climatologists, and national and international government agencies with about 30 times the amount of data currently provided.

GOES are a mainstay of weather forecasts and environmental monitoring in the United States. Their images of the clouds are seen daily on television weather forecasts and are available in real-time from many weather related Web sites. The next generation GOES will provide critical atmospheric, hydrologic, oceanic, climatic, solar, and space data. Additional capabilities include improved direct services, such as GOES-R Re-Broadcast (GRB), Search and Rescue (SAR), Data Collection System (DCS), Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) and Low Rate Information Transmission (LRIT).

In developing the GOES-R series, NOAA and NASA are striving to maintain a balance between affordable cost and evolving user needs. Complete life cycle end-to-end costs and benefits were included in upfront planning to ensure decision makers have a full understanding of the system cost.

All of the GOES-R Instruments are under contract, and the GOES-R Program is evaluating industry responses to Request for Proposals for the GOES-R Spacecraft and the Ground System with contract awards expected in 2009. The GOES-R Program is also actively involved in user readiness activities, such as the GOES-Users' Conferences, the GOES-R Proving Ground, and user education through COMET, VISIT, EUMETSAT, WMO, SHyMet Course, and the new GOES-R website (www.goes-r.gov). The goal of these activities is to ensure that GOES-R products will provide full benefits to the user communities from the first day of operations.

The new instruments and improved Spacecraft and Ground System will provide a host of new environmental products and services, while improving most of the current products and services. The new observations will contribute to dramatically improved weather, water, and space environmental services in the next decades, enhancing public safety and providing economic benefits to the U.S. and our international partners.

This presentation will provide an overview of the GOES-R program and the strategies, plans, and schedules leading to an operational GOES-R system.