07-31-2015, 09:17 AM
This is probably way more info than you need but since you asked;
GOES 12, launched on July 23, 2001, providing coverage for South America
GOES 13, launched on May 24, 2006, in operation as GOES East, returned to operations 18 Oct 2012 after an anomaly
GOES 14, launched on June 27, 2009, standby spacecraft, located at 90 degrees W as of Dec 2012
GOES 15, launched on March 4, 2010, in operation as GOES West starting December 14, 2011
As long as GOES EAST and GOES WEST are operating correctly we will be able to monitor any storm in the Pacific. We rely heavily on these satellites for weather forecasting and any loss of info would have dire consequences for weather forecasting. So the US was very smart to put a standby satellite GOES 14 in orbit in 2009 in case of any satellite failure.
I am really looking forward to GOES R's launch next year 2016. This satellite should dramatically improve monitoring of;
Three times more spectral information
Four times greater spatial resolution
Five times faster coverage
Real-time mapping of total lightning activity
Increased thunderstorm and tornado warning lead time
Improved hurricane track and intensity forecasts
Improved monitoring of solar x-ray flux
Improved monitoring of solar flares and coronal mass ejections
Improved geomagnetic storm forecasting
And especially for Hawaii, the real time monitoring of lightning will be much improved, tracking and monitoring hurricanes should be much better- storm track cone should get much smaller and forecasting intensity of hurricanes will improve!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES-R#/me...Poster.png
As for sensible weather we are coming off a very long period of relatively cool sea surface temperatures (SST);
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/teleconnections/pdo/
That's why you'll notice it's much more humid than what we are used to. PDO is a normal oscillation and we could go warm for a long time except what's looking like an all time record El Nino event will be closely followed by it's counterpart La Nina as you can see in the chart at the top of the page and we'll get less humidity in the air.
Reliable and detailed weather records really only go back to the satellite era- since 1979-35 years is a very short time band to place much emphasis on. In other words what we think is normal or average is constantly changing because our records are so short in time.
GOES 12, launched on July 23, 2001, providing coverage for South America
GOES 13, launched on May 24, 2006, in operation as GOES East, returned to operations 18 Oct 2012 after an anomaly
GOES 14, launched on June 27, 2009, standby spacecraft, located at 90 degrees W as of Dec 2012
GOES 15, launched on March 4, 2010, in operation as GOES West starting December 14, 2011
As long as GOES EAST and GOES WEST are operating correctly we will be able to monitor any storm in the Pacific. We rely heavily on these satellites for weather forecasting and any loss of info would have dire consequences for weather forecasting. So the US was very smart to put a standby satellite GOES 14 in orbit in 2009 in case of any satellite failure.
I am really looking forward to GOES R's launch next year 2016. This satellite should dramatically improve monitoring of;
Three times more spectral information
Four times greater spatial resolution
Five times faster coverage
Real-time mapping of total lightning activity
Increased thunderstorm and tornado warning lead time
Improved hurricane track and intensity forecasts
Improved monitoring of solar x-ray flux
Improved monitoring of solar flares and coronal mass ejections
Improved geomagnetic storm forecasting
And especially for Hawaii, the real time monitoring of lightning will be much improved, tracking and monitoring hurricanes should be much better- storm track cone should get much smaller and forecasting intensity of hurricanes will improve!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES-R#/me...Poster.png
As for sensible weather we are coming off a very long period of relatively cool sea surface temperatures (SST);
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/teleconnections/pdo/
That's why you'll notice it's much more humid than what we are used to. PDO is a normal oscillation and we could go warm for a long time except what's looking like an all time record El Nino event will be closely followed by it's counterpart La Nina as you can see in the chart at the top of the page and we'll get less humidity in the air.
Reliable and detailed weather records really only go back to the satellite era- since 1979-35 years is a very short time band to place much emphasis on. In other words what we think is normal or average is constantly changing because our records are so short in time.