The GOES-N Sounder Data and Products

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) sounders have provided quality hourly radiances and derived products over the continental U.S. and adjacent oceans for approximately 10 years. The products derived include: temperature and moisture profiles; Total Precipitable Water vapor (TPW); atmospheric stability indices, such as Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) and Lifted Index (LI); cloud-top properties; and total column ozone. The GOES-N sounder will continue this mission. The GOES-N/O/P instruments will be similar to the GOES-8/12 instruments, but will be on a different spacecraft bus. The new bus will allow improvements both to the navigation and registration, as well as improved radiometrics. Radiances from the GOES-N+ sounder will be less noisy, due to a colder patch temperature. The first satellite of this new series, GOES-N, will be launched in the fall of 2005.

The various data and product enhancements will be monitored during the NOAA post-launch science test. As with other GOES check-outs, there are three primary goals for the GOES-13 (N) science test. The first goal is to assess the quality of the GOES-13 radiance data. This will be accomplished by comparisons with other satellite measurements, investigating the consistency with forward model calculations, and by calculating the signal-to-noise ratio. The second goal will be to produce products from the GOES-13 sounder data stream and compare them to products produced from other satellites, as well as other ground-based observations. The sounder products that will be produced include: temperature/moisture retrievals, Total Precipitable Water, Lifted Index, cloud-top parameters and possibly ozone. The third goal is to investigate and measure the impact of the new satellite bus on instrument performance and product quality, manifested through the expected improvements in navigation, calibration, and data availability.