Re-forecasting the Forecast

If you live in or near Chicago then you understand how fast, the weather can change. Well, thanks to NASA you might not need to worry any longer if you should carry a winter coat in August.

On Saturday night, the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. Aboard the rocket was the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) satellite. The spacecraft will track U.S. weather as never before: hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, lightning storms, even solar flares.

About 50 TV meteorologists from around the country converged on the launch site including NBC's Al Roker. "What's so exciting is that we're going to be getting more data, more often, much more detailed, higher resolution," Roker said.

GOES-R's premier imagery will offer three times as many channels as the existing system, four times the resolution and five times the scan speed, said NOAA program director Greg Mandt. Typically, it will produce full images of the Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes and the continental United States every five minutes. Specific storm regions will be updated every 30 seconds.

The satellite valued by NOAA at $1 billion is aiming for a 35,888-kilometre-high equatorial orbit. There, it will join three aging spacecraft with 40-year-old technology, and become known as GOES-16. After months of testing, this newest satellite will take over for one of the older ones. The second satellite in the series will follow in 2018. All told, the series should stretch to 2036.