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Forecasters will soon be able to see real-time mapping of lightning activity on Earth and keep a closer eye on solar storms unleashed by the sun thanks to a new weather satellite.
Together, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched GOES-U, or the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U mission, on Tuesday.
The weather satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 p.m. ET. The launch was streamed live on NASA’s website. Weather conditions in Florida were 60% favorable for a launch early in the launch window.
GOES-U is the fourth, last satellite in the R Series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, “the Western Hemisphere’s most sophisticated weather observation and environmental monitoring system,” according to NOAA.
“The GOES-R series of satellites has been a game changer for us,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, during a press conference Monday. “Since the series was first launched in 2016, the latest generation of GOES has enabled new and improved forecasting and warning services to help save lives and protect property.”
Once GOES-U reaches a geostationary orbit, or a circular orbit above Earth’s equator, the satellite will be renamed GOES-19, or GOES East. The satellite will replace GOES-16, the former GOES East satellite launched in 2016, and will work alongside GOES-18, also called GOES West. Meanwhile, the GOES-16 satellite will essentially become an orbiting backup for the system in case one of the satellites falls.
Together, the GOES-18 and GOES-19 satellites will collect atmospheric, solar, climate and oceanic data and cover more than half the globe from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand.
What sets GOES-U apart from other satellites is that it has a new ability to keep an eye on space weather.
As the sun approaches solar maximum — the peak in its 11-year cycle, due this year — it becomes more active. Researchers have observed increasingly intense solar flares and coronal mass ejections erupting from the sun’s surface.
Coronal mass ejections are large clouds of ionizing gas called plasma and magnetic fields that are released from the sun’s outer atmosphere.
When these eruptions are directed at Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms, or large disturbances of the Earth’s magnetic field. With these events, there is always a chance that communications, power grid, navigation, and radio and satellite operations will be affected.
The most intense solar storm to hit Earth in 20 years happened on May 10, but fortunately it only caused the auroras to shine over states that never see the northern lights.
Increased solar activity causes the auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and the southern lights, or aurora australis. When energetic particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.
GOES-U carries numerous instruments that will improve the detection of space weather hazards, including the Compact Coronagraph-1 that can detect solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and characterize the size, speed, density and direction of these solar storms.
The coronagraph will provide continuous observations of the solar corona, or hot outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere, which is where space weather events originate, said Elsayed Talaat, director of NOAA’s Office of Space Weather Observations.
The instrument’s capabilities will allow NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to issue warnings and look one to four days ahead and “mark a new chapter in space weather observations,” Talaat said.
Compact Coronagraph-1 is the world’s first operational satellite coronagraph to better monitor the sun, said Steve Volz, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.
“This new instrument will deliver images of the sun’s corona to our forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center within 30 minutes, compared to the previous time of about eight hours,” Graham said. “Geomagnetic storms can affect our infrastructure here on Earth putting our power grid, communications, navigation systems, aviation and space-based assets at risk. Having better and faster surveillance will help us better alert our infrastructure providers and potential risks so they can take action.”
From orbit, GOES-U will monitor weather, climate and environmental hazards across North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa.
From its unique vantage point, GOES-U will be able to spot tropical storms, send alerts to forecasters as storms form in the Atlantic Ocean, and provide near-real-time tracking and monitoring.
The satellite carries a variety of scientific instruments, including imaging and mapping technology, that will enable it to capture valuable data about hurricanes, including upper-level wind speeds, specific features around the eye of the hurricane and the activity of lightning, all of which can help forecasters better. understand the potential risks.
GOES-U will carry the first operational lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit. As thunderstorms develop, they tend to exhibit spikes in lightning activity. Understanding how storms develop and intensify can help meteorologists better predict whether storms will be able to cause flash flooding, produce hail, damaging winds, or spawn tornadoes.
The Lightning Mapper will take pictures of Earth at a rate of 500 times per second in order to track lightning like never before, Sullivan said.
The main camera on GOES-U can zoom in to track hazardous weather and environmental conditions as often as every 30 seconds, a capability that enables better warning systems, said Pam Sullivan, GOES-R program director for NOAA.
Forecasters can also use GOES-U’s instruments to identify wildfire hazards, including hotspots, intensity, smoke output and air quality impacts, and even data that can help trackers predict wildfire movement. The satellite can also use its lightning mapper to determine which lightning bolts are most likely to start fires.
Other environmental hazards that GOES-U can track include real-time imaging of haze and low clouds that can affect air and sea travel, as well as the detection of volcanic eruptions and ash and sulfur dioxide spewed from volcanoes. GOES-U will also be able to monitor atmospheric events of rivers, or large parts of the Earth’s atmosphere that carry moisture from the equator to the poles, that can cause floods and mudslides.
In addition to early warning of hurricane formation, GOES-U can also collect climate data on Earth’s oceans, such as signs of marine heat waves and sea surface temperatures, which affect the marine food chain and can lead to massive coral bleaching events.