NOAAs GOES-16 Satellite Sends First Images to Earth [View all]

[Quackers]

GOES-16, the first spacecraft in NOAA’s next-generation of geostationary satellites, has sent the first high-resolution images from its Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. Included among them are a composite color full-disk visible image of the Western Hemisphere captured on January 15, 2017. Created using several of the ABI’s 16 spectral channels, the full-disk image offers an example the satellite’s advanced technology.


The ABI can provide a full disk image of the Earth every 15 minutes, one of the continental U.S. every five minutes, and has the ability to target regional areas where severe weather, hurricanes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions or other high-impact environmental phenomena are occurring as often as every 30 seconds. The ABI covers the Earth five-times faster than the current generation GOES imagers and has four times greater spatial resolution, allowing meteorologists to see smaller features of the Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems.

More at link:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/goes-16-sends-first-images-to-earth

I remember when they launched this as GOES-R last year. They said that it would provide more astrological and meteorological data in 6 months than we've collected in the past 40 years. After leaving Earth, it takes 6 months for the satellite to unpack itself and be fully functional. This is one of my favorite projects that I follow closely. GOES-S should be ready to launch this year.