GOES-R ABI new product development

The current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series was inaugurated in 1994 with the launch of GOES-8 and will continue with three more satellites (GOES-N, O, P) past the most recent GOES-12 launched in 2002. The next generation GOES (beginning with GOES-R) will be launched in the 2012 time frame. This new series of satellites will include improved spatial, temporal, spectral, and radiometric resolution. The last two characteristics are manifest by an increased number of spectral bands and increased precision for measurements from those bands. Because of the long lead-time needed to design, build, and test this new and complex satellite system, it is already time to do the background work needed to prepare for the development and implementation of GOES-R.

Preparations for GOES-R for applications to forecasting mesoscale weather events, including severe storms, tropical cyclones, lake effect snowstorms and fog outbreaks are well underway. Two approaches are being used for these “Risk Reduction” activities. In the first approach, data from existing operational and experimental satellites are used to create subsets of observations that will be available from GOES-R. In the second approach, numerical cloud models are being coupled with radiative transfer models to create simulated imagery. In this article, GOES-R is briefly reviewed, and some examples of risk reduction activities for mesoscale applications based on the first approach are described. Activities involving the second approach will be presented by other authors.