Breakdown: Why a new weather satellite is being launched into space

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will launch the next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Tuesday.

This satellite is the third in the GOES – R Series, the Western Hemisphere’s most sophisticated weather-observing and environmental-monitoring system.

The GOES Series provides advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and monitoring of space weather and helps speed up data delivery to the National Weather Service.

It will replace 2018′s GOES-17, which is operational but suffering from a cooling problem on its Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument.

After a transition period including data handoff, GOES-17 will go into orbital storage, according to the GOES website.

Once declared operational, GOES-T will be renamed GOES-18 and monitor the western part of the United States.

NOAA’s GOES-T is scheduled to launch between 4:38 p.m. EST and 6:38 p.m. EST on March 1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Copyright 2022 WMC. All rights reserved.

Click here to sign up for our newsletter!

Click here to report a spelling or grammar error. Please include the headline.