WASHINGTON: A “next generation” US weather satellite that was rocketed into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:42 p.m. EST on Saturday (5.12 a.m. Sunday, India time) is on its way to sharpen forecasts, watches and warnings about hurricanes and storms, NASA said. After the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R), reaches its final designated orbit in the next two weeks, it will be renamed GOES-16, the US space agency said in a statement. This next-generation GOES program — $11 billion in all — includes four satellites, an extensive land system of satellite dishes and other equipment, and new methods for crunching the massive, nonstop stream of expected data. Typically, it will churn out full images of the Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes and the continental United States every five minutes. This near-real-time imagery, as well as a new lightning mapper to highlight strikes, will help meteorologists see which storms are strengthening or weakening, improving lead times for warnings of severe storms. A second satellite, GEOS-S, is set to launch from Cape Canaveral in 2018.
An Atlas V rocket launches the GOES-R geosynchronous environmental satellite that will cover the Western Hemisphere for weather forecasting.