Santa Claus (NASA engineer Guy Naylor) poses with NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft and SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 11, 2025. The Orion spacecraft was stacked atop the SLS in October 2025.
Set to launch in early 2026, the Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under Artemis. Astronauts on their first flight aboard Orion will confirm all the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
OPERA: Addressing Societal Needs with Satellite Data
Introduction
The Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project represents a strategic initiative designed to address critical satellite data needs identified by federal agencies. Established in 2021 by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), OPERA responds to priorities identified by the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG), an interagency body convened by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). SNWG surveys federal agencies every two years to determine their top satellite data needs. This article summarizes OPERA, including its mandate, and then presents a case study demonstrating how the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is using OPERA to monitor agricultural health in the Midwestern United States.
OPERA Mandate and Approach
The core mandate for the OPERA project lies in its commitment to delivering data products in formats that are immediately usable and analysis-ready. Rather than providing raw satellite data that requires extensive processing expertise, OPERA transforms complex satellite observations into standardized, accessible products that federal agencies can quickly integrate into their existing workflows to support national security, environmental monitoring, disaster response, and infrastructure management. This approach eliminates the technical barriers that often prevent agencies from effectively using satellite data, allowing them to focus on their mission-critical applications rather than data processing challenges.
To achieve this goal at the scale required by federal agencies, OPERA has developed a sophisticated cloud-based production system capable of generating data products efficiently and consistently to meet the dynamic needs of federal users. As of 2025, OPERA has successfully released dynamic surface water extent, surface disturbance, and surface displacement data through various NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The vertical land motion product will be OPERA’s next offering beginning in 2028 – see Figure 1.
Figure 1. As of 2025, OPERA has successfully released dynamic surface water extent, surface disturbance, and surface displacement data products that are available through various NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers. The vertical land motion product will be OPERA’s next offering beginning in 2028.
Figure credit: Clockwise starting from bottom left. Firth River Yukon, Water Data. Credit: USGS/John Jones, Lava boiling out of the Kilauea Volcano, Volcano Data. Credit: ASI/NASA/JPL-Caltech, Subsidence and uplift over New York City, Vertical Land Motion Data. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Fire fighting helicopter carry water bucket to extinguish the forest fire, Fire Data. Credit: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
OPERA Mission
OPERA delivers high-quality, ready-to-use satellite-derived information to enable federal agencies to better monitor environmental changes, respond to natural disasters, assess infrastructure risks, and make data-driven decisions. To illustrate this goal, OPERA’s 5th Annual Stakeholder Engagement Workshop detailed real-world applications of this approach on Sept. 11, 2025.
Case Study: Harnessing OPERA Data to Map Crop Health in Midwest United States
When water lingers on farmland, the consequences often ripple outward, resulting in crop losses, changes in soil health, and shifting carbon storage. In the rolling landscape of central Iowa’s South Fork watershed, these challenges are a daily reality for farmers, researchers, and crop insurance companies. To address these concerns, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agriculture Research Service’s (USDA–ARS) National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment (NLAE) are partnering with NASA’s OPERA project.
Using OPERA’s Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) and Surface Disturbance (DIST) product suites, USDA–NLAE researchers began the process of identifying depressions where water consistently ponds across fields – see Figure 2.
Figure 2. The map of maximum inundation combines individual Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) granules acquired over a month.
Figure credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Dr. Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson
These sites are often more than nuisance puddles; they signal areas of reduced yield, risk for crop mortality, and hotspots for carbon and nutrient accumulation. By combining OPERA’s cloud-free, high-resolution mosaics with field-based measurements from USDA and university partners, the joint OPERA-NLAE team is producing actionable maps that pinpoint waterlogged zones – see Figure 3. Farmers can use these maps to improve soil health and guide land-management decisions.
Figure 3. The map depicts a field south of Iowa Falls in Hardin County, IA. The pixels are color-coded to indicate the number of times a region is inundated with water from May through October 2024. Larger numbers are associated with deeper depressions and with perennial lakes and rivers, including the Iowa River flowing west to east in the northern part of the image.
Figure credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Dr. Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson
The OPERA products also support broader watershed management. Analyses of river migration, oxbow lake formation, and storm damage from powerful Midwestern derecho events show how OPERA data extend beyond field plots to larger areas. By detecting both persistent inundation and shifts in vegetation health, DSWx and DIST together provide synergistic information identifying areas where improved tile drainage may result in better crop health and increased yields. This approach can also be used to mitigate topsoil erosion and nutrient transport to control the development of harmful algal blooms and the occurrence of anoxic zones with implications far beyond the Mississippi Delta.
Conclusion
The use of OPERA data by USDA–ARS to map and monitor crop health in the Midwest United States highlights how this vital data product bridges the gap between Earth science and agricultural resilience. The outcome of this collaboration underscores OPERA’s mission – translating cutting-edge satellite observations into usable tools that support farmers, improve soil and water conservation, and strengthen the resilience of U.S. agriculture. This collaboration signifies the mandate of OPERA as an SNWG solution provider to fulfill the observation needs of federal users. All OPERA’s data products are freely available to the public from various NASA DAACs and are discoverable from the NASA Earthdata Search platform. The team welcomes direct engagement with individual federal, state, academic, and commercial stakeholders and can be reached via opera.sep@jpl.nasa.gov.
Steven K. Chan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
steven.k.chan@jpl.nasa.gov
Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
renato.prata.de.moraes.frasson@jpl.nasa.gov
Get In, We’re Going to the Moon: Meet NASA’s Artemis Closeout Crew
Members of the Artemis II closeout crew, from left, William Sattler; Tyler Sutherland; Michael Heinemann; Christian Warriner; Jenni Gibbons, Artemis II backup crew member; Bill Owens; Taylor Hose; and Andre Douglas, Artemis II backup crew member, pose for a photo with NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building behind them at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025.
Credits:NASA/Jim Ross
For most, getting into a car is a task that can be done without assistance. Yet for those whose destination is the Moon, the process of getting inside and secured – in this case, in NASA’s Orion spacecraft – requires help. That’s the role of the Artemis closeout crew.
Trained to support Artemis II and future Moon missions, the five closeout crew members will be the last people to see NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen before their lunar journey.
The Artemis II closeout team consists of a lead, Taylor Hose; an astronaut support person, astronaut Andre Douglas; one technician specially trained on Orion crew survival system spacesuits, Bill Owens; and two Orion technicians, Christian Warriner and Ricky Ebaugh.
We are responsible for getting the astronauts strapped in their spacecraft, getting all their connections attached to their spacesuits, and then we close the hatch and close out Orion for launch.
Taylor Hose
Artemis II Closeout Team Lead
Think of them like a pit crew for car races.
When the astronauts arrive on launch day at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the closeout crew will already be in place. First, the team will help the astronauts don their helmets and gloves before entering the Orion spacecraft.
Closeout Crew lead Taylor Hose, second from left, talks with NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, second from right as he and closeout crewmembers Will Sattler, left, and Christian Warriner prepare for the arrival of Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; at the 275-foot level of the mobile launcher as they prepare to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
Once inside, Owens and Douglas will assist each crew member with buckling up – except instead of using just one seatbelt like in a car, the crew needs several more intricate connections. Each seat includes five straps to secure the astronauts inside the crew module and several additional connections to the environmental control and life support systems and communications system aboard.
After the astronauts are secured, the hatch technicians will begin closing the spacecraft hatch. Unlike a car door that easily opens and closes with the pull of a handle, Orion’s hatch requires more effort to securely close.
“The hatch is pneumatically driven so we have to have air lines hooked up to it, and we need the help of the ground support system to close it,” said Hose.
Bill Owens of the Closeout Crew is seen as he leads Artemis II crewmembers CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; and Christina Koch, mission specialist; out of at the elevator towards the crew access arm at the 275-foot level of the mobile launcher as they prepare to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
On launch day, it will take about four hours for the crew to get situated inside Orion and for the closeout process, including buttoning up both the crew module hatch and an exterior launch abort system hatch, to be complete. Even a single strand of hair inside the hatch doors could potentially pose issues with closing either hatch, so the process is carefully done.
“We have a lot of work to do with the seals alone – greasing, cleaning, taking the hatch cover off – and then we get into crew module hatch closure,” Hose said. “So after latching the hatch, we take window covers off, install thermal protection panels, and remove the purge barrier in between the vehicle and the ogive panels, which help protect the crew module during launch and ascent.”
The team then closes the launch abort system hatch and finishes final preparations before launch. Following the abort system hatch closure, the closeout crew departs the launch pad but stays nearby in case they need to return for any reason.
Taylor Hose prepares for the arrival of Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; at the 275-foot level of the mobile launcher to board their Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
My life goal was to be an astronaut. To help send people to the Moon for the first time since 1972 to not just go and visit, but this time to stay, I think that’s everything. That's our first steppingstone of going to Mars and expanding into the solar system.
Taylor Hose
Artemis II Closeout Team Lead
After launch, several team members will head to San Diego, to help with post-splashdown efforts once the mission concludes.
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the Artemis II test flight is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4750-4762: See You on the Other Side of the Sun
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image, with the boxwork terrain in the foreground and Gale crater rim in the far background, using its Right Navigation Camera. Curiosity captured the image on Dec. 21, 2025 — Sol 4755, or Martian day 4,755 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 15:57:21 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Written by Lucy Thompson, Planetary Scientist and APXS team member, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Earth planning date: Monday, Dec. 22, 2025
As we all prepare for the holiday season here on Earth, we have been planning a few last activities before Curiosity and the team of scientists and engineers take a well-deserved, extended break. This holiday season coincides with conjunction — every two years, because of their different orbits, Earth and Mars are obstructed from one another by the Sun; this one will last from Dec. 27 to Jan. 20. We do not like to send commands through the Sun in case they get scrambled, so we have been finishing up a few last scientific observations before preparing Curiosity for its quiet conjunction break.
As part of a pre-planned transect between our two recent drill holes, “Valle de la Luna” (hollow) and “Nevado Sajama” (ridge), we successfully completed chemical analyses and imaging of a ridge wall. These observations were acquired to document changes in texture, structure, and composition between the two drill holes and to elucidate why we see such contrasting physical features of resistant ridges and eroded hollows in this region. Mastcam and ChemCam also imaged a little further afield. ChemCam continued observations of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte and captured textures in the north facing wall of the next, adjacent hollow. Mastcam imaged the central fracture along the “Altiplano” ridge above the wall we were parked at, as well as polygonal features in our previous workspace.
The rover engineers then successfully orchestrated Curiosity’s drive back up onto the nearby ridge to ensure a safe parking spot over conjunction. We documented the drive with a MARDI sidewalk video, tracking how the terrain beneath the rover changes as we drive. Although we could not use APXS and MAHLI on the robotic arm from Friday on, owing to constraints that need to be in place prior to conjunction, we were able to use the rover’s Mastcam to image areas of interest in the near field, which will help us with our planned activities when we return from conjunction. These will hopefully include getting chemistry (with APXS and ChemCam) and imaging (with MAHLI) of some freshly broken rock surfaces that we drove over.
The environmental scientists were also very busy. Navcam observations included: Navcam suprahorizon and zenith movies to monitor clouds; Navcam line-of-sight observations; and Navcam dust-devil movies and surveys as we enter the dust storm season on Mars. Mastcam tau observations were acquired to monitor the optical depth of the atmosphere, and APXS analyses of the atmosphere were also planned to monitor seasonal variations in argon.
Today we are uplinking the last plan before Mars disappears behind the Sun and we all take a break (the actual conjunction plan to take us through sols 4763-4787 was uplinked a couple of weeks ago). Because of constraints put in place to make sure Curiosity stays safe and healthy, we were limited to very few activities in today’s plan. These include more APXS atmospheric argon measurements and Hazcam and Navcam imaging including monitoring for dust-devil activity.
As usual, our plans also included background DAN, RAD, and REMS observations, which continue through conjunction.
It has been a pleasure to be a part of this amazing team for another year. We are all looking forward to coming back in January, when Mars reappears from behind the Sun, to another exciting year of roving in Gale crater.
Sentinels in the Sky: 50 Years of GOES Satellite Observations
Introduction
In an era where satellite observations of Earth are commonplace, it’s easy to forget that only a few decades ago, the amount of information available about the state of Earth’s environment was limited; observations were infrequent and data were sparsely located.
As far back as the late 1950s, there were primitive numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that could produce an accurate (or what a forecaster would call “skillful”) forecast given a set of initial conditions. However, the data available to provide those initial conditions at that time were limited. For example, the weather balloon network circa 1960 only covered about 10% of the troposphere and did not extend into the Southern Hemisphere, the tropics, or over the ocean.
Weather forecasters of the pre-satellite era typically relied upon manual analysis of plotted weather maps, cloud observations, and barometric pressure readings when making forecasts. They combined this limited dataset with their own experience issuing forecasts in a particular area to predict upcoming weather and storm events. While those pioneering forecasters made the most of the limited tools available to them, poor data – or simply the lack of data – inevitably led to poor forecasts, which usually weren’t accurate beyond two days. This time duration was even less than that in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, the forecasts issued typically lacked the specificity and lead time required to adequately prepare a community before a snowstorm or hurricane.
Although the first satellite observations (e.g., from the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) program or early Nimbus missions) whet forecasters’ appetites for what might be possible in terms of improving weather forecasting, polar orbiting satellites could only observe a given location twice a day. Those snapshots from above were insufficient for tracking rapidly evolving weather phenomena (e.g., thunderstorms, tornadoes, and intensification of hurricanes). Beyond cloud information, forecasters required data on temperature, moisture, and wind profiles in the atmosphere in addition to output from NWP models.
It was the advent of geostationary observations (also called geosynchronous) that truly led to revolutionary advances in weather forecasting. This approach enabled continuous monitoring of the atmosphere over a particular region on Earth. Hence, the development and evolution of NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) has been a major achievement for weather forecasting.
For 50 years, GOES have kept a constant vigil over the Western Hemisphere and monitored the Sun and the near-Earth environment – see Visualization 1. Since 1975, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA have partnered to advance NOAA satellite observations from geostationary orbit. GOES satellites serve as sentinels in the sky, keeping constant watch for severe weather and environmental hazards on Earth as well as dangerous space weather. This narrative will focus on the development and evolutions of the Earth observing instruments on GOES with a mention of several of the space weather instruments.
Visualization 1. A YouTube video, created for the 50th anniversary of GOES, examines the partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA to advance NOAA satellite observations from geostationary orbit to monitor for weather and environmental hazards on Earth as well as dangerous space weather. Visualization credit: NOAA/NASA
The article provides the history leading up to the development of GOES and traces the development of GOES from the earliest launch in 1975 to the last launch in late 2024, which completed the GOES–R series – see Figure 1. The article ends with a look at the plans for Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO), which seeks to extend the GOES legacy to the middle of the 21st century, followed by some concluding thoughts.
Figure 1. Timeline of GOES launches including key technological developments associated with each “generation” of satellites.
Figure credit: NOAA/NASA
GOES Heritage Missions: ATS and SMS
The heritage of GOES can be traced to the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) series, which consisted of a set of six NASA spacecraft launched from December 7, 1966 to May 30, 1974. These missions were created to explore and flight-test new technologies and techniques for communications, meteorological, and navigation satellites. ATS was a multipurpose engineering satellite series, testing technology in communications and meteorological applications from geosynchronous orbit.
ATS satellites aimed to test the theory that gravity would anchor a satellite in a synchronous orbit, 22,300 statute miles (37,015 km) above the Earth. This orbit allowed the satellites to move at the same rate as the Earth, thus seeming to remain stationary. Although the ATS satellites were intended mainly as testbeds, they also collected and transmitted meteorological data and functioned at times as communications satellites. For example, ATS-6, the last in the series, was the first to use an education and experimental direct broadcast system, which is now commonplace on Earth observing satellites (e.g., Terra).
Also included in the ATS payload was a spin-scancamera that Verner Suomi and associates had developed in the early 1960s. The device was so named because it compensated for the motion of the satellite and still obtained clear visible (television-like) photographs. The University of Wisconsin, Madison’s (UWM) Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), which Suomi and colleagues at UWM had just recently established, funded the camera’s development and NASA approved its inclusion as part of the ATS payload. The spin-scan camera on ATS-1 produced spectacular full disk images of Earth; a few years later the camera on ATS-3 produced similar images, this time in color.
Although designed primarily to test and demonstrate new technologies, imagery captured by the ATS payload led to some serendipitous science. Analysis of spin-scan camera images, while labor intensive and expensive and not practical for use operationally, led to new discoveries about storm origins that had never before been available. For example, Tetsuya Fujita analyzed ATS camera images of storms in the Midwest United States in 1968 as part of his in-depth studies of tornadoes. This work led to the development of the Fujita Scale for tornado intensity. Also in 1968, “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft data and radar imagery, along with ATS images allowed meteorologists to observe the complete life cycle of Hurricane Gladys. Today, this approach is routine, but at the time it was groundbreaking.
Following the success of the ATS “technology demonstration” series, NASA and NOAA began to develop an operational prototype of the dedicated geosynchronous weather satellite, the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (SMS). SMS-1 was launched in 1974, with SMS-2 following the next year. Owned and operated by NASA, the SMS satellites were the first operational satellites designed to sense meteorological conditions in geostationary orbit over a fixed location on the Earth’s surface. The ATS spin-scan camera manufacturers – SSEC and Santa Barbara Research – altered their ATS camera design, replacing the television-like photographic apparatus with an imaging radiometer with eight visible and three infrared channels. The revised instrument became known as the Visible and Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (VISSR). They also added a telescope that would allow for high-resolution imaging of smaller portions of Earth, allowing researchers to study storm formation in more detail.
First Generation: GOES 1–3
The GOES era began in October 1975 with the launch of GOES-1 (initially called SMS-3). The first three GOES missions were spin-stabilized satellites. The VISSR instrument, initially developed for the SMS missions, became the workhorse instrument for the first generation of GOES missions. VISSR provided high-quality day and night observations of cloud and surface temperatures, cloud heights, and wind fields – see Figure 2.
The early GOES missions also focused on monitoring space weather. The first generation of GOES featured a Space Environment Monitor (SEM) to measure proton, electron, and solar X-ray fluxes as well as magnetic fields around the satellites. This technology became standard on all subsequent GOES satellite missions.
Figure 2. First image from GOES-1 obtained on October 25, 1975.
Figure credit: NOAA
The new satellites quickly began providing critical information about the location and trajectory of hurricanes. The earliest generation of GOES provided crucial data about Tropical Storm Claudette and Hurricane David in 1979 – both of which devastated regions of the United States.
Second Generation: GOES 4–7
The second generation of GOES began in 1980, with the launch of GOES-4. NASA, NOAA, and SSEC collaborated to make further enhancements to the VISSR instrument, adding temperature sounding capabilities. The development of the VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) was particularly helpful for the study and forecasting of severe storms. While there were sounders on polar orbiting satellites of this era (e.g., TIROS and Nimbus), polar orbiters, which take measurements of the same location twice daily, often missed events that occurred on shorter timescales, such as thunderstorms. By contrast, VAS on GOES could image the same area every half-hour, allowing for more detailed tracking of storms, leading to improved severe storm forecasting and enabling more advanced warning of the storm’s arrival. VAS became the basis for the establishment of an extensive severe storm research program during the 1980s.
The second generation GOES missions were capable of obtaining vertical profiles of temperature and moisture throughout the various layers of the atmosphere. This added dimension gave forecasters a more accurate picture of a storm’s extent and intensity, allowed them to monitor rapidly changing events, and helped to predict fog, frost, and freeze, as well as dust storms, flash floods, and even the likelihood of tornadoes.
The second generation of GOES helped forecasters track and forecast the impacts from the 1982–1983 El Niño event – one of the strongest El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events on record that led to significant economic losses. This generation of GOES satellites also gave forecasters vital information about Hurricane Juan in 1985 and Hurricane Hugo in 1989, both destructive storms for areas of the United States – see Figure 3.
Figure 3. GOES-7 infrared image of Hurricane Hugo on September 22, 1989.
Figure credit: NOAA
GOES-7, launched in 1987, added the new capability of detecting distress signals from emergency beacons. These GOES satellites have helped to rescue thousands of people as part of the Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system developed to detect and locate mariners, aviators, and other recreational users in distress. This system uses a satellite network to detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons on aircraft and vessels and from handheld personal locator beacons (PLBs) quickly. The SARSAT transponder on GOES immediately detects distress signals from emergency beacons and relays them to ground stations. In turn, this signal is routed to a SARSAT mission control center and then sent to a rescue coordination center, which dispatches a search and rescue team to the location of the distress call.
Third Generation: GOES 8–12
In 1994, advances in two technologies enabled another significant leap forward in capabilities for GOES: improved three-axis stabilization of the spacecraft and separating the imager and sounder into two distinct instruments with separate optics (e.g., GOES Imager and GOES Sounder). Simultaneous imaging and sounding gave forecasters the ability to use multiple measurements of weather phenomena, resulting in more accurate forecasts. Another improvement was flexible scanning, where the satellites could temporarily suspend their routine scans of the hemisphere to concentrate on a small area to monitor quickly evolving events. This capability allowed meteorologists to study local weather trouble spots, improving short-term forecasts.
In 2001, forecasters used GOES-8 to track the slow-moving remnants of Tropical Storm Allison, stalled over the Gulf Coast. During the next four days, Allison dropped more than three feet of rain across portions of coastal Texas and Louisiana, causing severe flooding, particularly in the Houston area.
GOES-12, the final satellite in the third generation, launched in 2001. It included a new Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) as part of its payload. SXI was the first X-ray telescope that could take a full-disk image of the Sun, which enabled forecasters to detect solar storms and better monitor and predict space weather that could affect Earth. Some geomagnetic storms can damage satellites, disrupting communications and navigation systems, impacting power grids, and harming astronauts in space.
Fourth Generation: GOES 13–15
By the mid-2000s, the fourth generation of GOES, known as the GOES-N series, enhanced the mission with improvements to the Image Navigation and Registration subsystem, including star-trackers, to better determine the coordinates of intense storms. Improvements in batteries and power systems allowed this generation to provide continuous imaging. GOES-13 also added an Extreme Ultraviolet Sensor, which monitored ultraviolet emissions from the Sun as well as the solar impact on satellite orbit drag and radio communications.
In April 2011, GOES-13 monitored the record-breaking tornado outbreak that hit the Southeastern United States – see Visualization 2. From April 25–28, 362 tornadoes carved a path across a dozen states, leaving an estimated 321 people dead. In 2012, NOAA operated GOES-14, the on-orbit backup satellite, in a special rapid-scan test mode, providing one-minute imagery of Tropical Storm Isaac and Hurricane Sandy, both destructive storms.
Visualization 2. GOES-13 visible imagery showing clusters of severe thunderstorms on April 27, 2011, that spawned several tornadoes.
Visualization credit: NOAA
The GOES-R Series: GOES-16–19
NASA launched the first satellite in the GOES-R Series for NOAA in 2016. The GOES-R Series brought new state-of-the-art instruments into orbit, including the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a high-resolution imager with 16 channels, and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, the first lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit. The satellites also gained the ability to concurrently provide a full-disk image every ten minutes, a contiguous United States image every five minutes, and two smaller localized images every 60 seconds (or one domain every 30 seconds). For the first time, meteorologists could see the big picture while simultaneously zooming in on a specific weather event or environmental hazard.
The latest GOES satellite series brought revolutionary improvements, providing minute-by-minute information to forecasters, decision-makers, and first responders to give early warning that severe weather is forming, monitor and track the movement of storms, estimate hurricane intensity, detect turbulence, and even spot fires before they are reported on the ground.
The GOES-R Series satellites also carry a suite of sophisticated solar imaging and space weather monitoring instruments. The final satellite in the series, GOES-19, is also equipped with NOAA’s first compact coronagraph (CCOR-1). This instrument images the solar corona (the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere) to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere, leading to geomagnetic storms, auroras, and potential disruptions to technology, including electricity and satellite communications.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria knocked out Puerto Rico’s radar just before landfall. With this critical technology disabled and a major hurricane approaching, forecasters used 30-second data from GOES-16 to track the storm in real-time – see Visualization 3. The satellite’s rapid scanning rate allowed forecasters to analyze cloud patterns and understand the evolution of Maria’s position and movement as well as discern the features within the hurricane’s eye to estimate intensity.
Visualization 3. GOES-16 GeoColor image of Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico as it made landfall on September 20, 2017.
Visualization credit: NOAA/CIRA
The most recent generation of satellites also significantly improved fire detection and monitoring. During California’s Camp Fire in 2018, GOES-16 played a crucial role in monitoring the fire’s progression and smoke plumes, assisting the efforts to contain the fire – see Visualization 4. The satellite provided an extremely detailed picture of fire conditions, quick detection of hot spots, and the ability to track the fire’s progression and spread in real-time. Forecasters used ABI data from GOES-16 to track the fire’s movement and intensity even before ground crews could fully see it due to thick smoke. Not only did the data help firefighters fight the fire more effectively, but it also helped keep firefighters safe during the disaster.
Visualization 4. Fire hot spots and a large plume of smoke are seen in this GOES-16 fire temperature red-green-blue imagery with GeoColor enhancement of the Camp Fire in northern California on November 8, 2018.
Visualization credit: NOAA/CIRA
What’s Next? GeoXO
NOAA, NASA, and industry partners are now developing the future generation of geostationary satellites. The Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) will provide continuity of observation from geostationary orbit as the GOES-R series nears the end of its operational lifetime. The first GeoXO launch is planned for launch in the early 2030s.
GeoXO will prioritize and advance forecasting and warning of severe weather. Similar to GOES, the information GeoXO gathers will also be used to detect and monitor environmental hazards (e.g., wildfires, smoke, dust, volcanic ash, drought, and flooding).
The more advanced observing capabilities will allow forecasters to provide earlier warning to decision makers, improve the skillfulness of short-term forecasting, and allow for greater lead times for warnings of severe weather and other hazards that threaten the security and well-being of everyone in the Western Hemisphere well into the 2050s.
Conclusion
For 50 years, GOES satellites have provided the only continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere. Their data have been the backbone of short-term forecasts and warnings of severe weather and environmental hazards. GOES detect and monitor events as they unfold, providing forecasters with real-time information to track hazards as they happen. They are also part of a global ring of satellites that contribute data to numerical weather prediction models. GOES also monitors the Sun and provides critical data for forecasts and warnings of space weather hazards.
Each successive generation of GOES has brought advancements and new capabilities that have improved the skill of short-term weather forecasts and our ability to prepare for and respond to severe weather and natural disasters. The information the satellites supply is essential for public safety, protection of property, and efficient economic activity. Meteorologists, emergency managers, first responders, local officials, aviators, mariners, researchers, and the general public depend on GOES. Everyone in the Western Hemisphere benefits from GOES data each and every day.
Acknowledgment
The primary source for the information provided in the section on “GOES Heritage Missions” was Conway, Eric: Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History (2008), pp. 140–41.
