The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is planning implementation of the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R), which is expected to provide significant advances in earth coverage and weather and environmental information and prediction capabilities in the 2012 time frame. In general, changes in products from the GOES-R sensors can be attributed to: (1) more frequent updates; (2) finer horizontal resolution; and, (3) expanded and finer spectral resolution. Two of the key instruments planned for GOES-R are the GOES-R imager and sounder. To provide a firm foundation for the formulation of instrument development and procurement budgets, NOAA initiated an analysis of the marginal benefit differences between continuation of instruments with similar performance to today’s imager and sounder and the planned new capabilities of the GOES-R imager and sounder. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase looked at four case studies of economic benefits to the U. S.; Convective Weather Products and Volcanic Ash advisories, both a benefit to U. S. aviation; improved accuracy in temperature forecasts, which would provide cost savings to U. S. electric utilities: and improved accuracy in temperature forecasts that benefit agriculture /orchard frost mitigation in Washington State. In Phase II, the scope of the analysis was expanded. In particular we addressed in more depth, agriculture (irrigation efficiency), aviation (airspace management efficiency), and energy (electric power and natural gas load forecasting). We also expanded the research into other domain areas, including commercial shipping, recreational boating, trucking, severe weather (hurricanes, and tornadoes), and homeland security. Whereas, in Phase I, the goal of the benefits analysis was to ensure linkage of benefits to sensor performance improvements alone, in Phase II we considered sensor as well as other architectural changes as means to achieve these benefits. We also examined potential benefits realized from integrating GOES-R data with other space systems and in-situ measurements (e.g., radio sondes and ground stations). This work shows that GOES-R’s unique vantage point and substantially more powerful sensors will play a key role in the economic well being of critical sectors of the U.S. economy and to general national well being.