11.06.2024

Florida's new sentinel in the sky': NOAA's GOES-U satellite to help hurricane forecasters

An L3Harris-developed imager on the GOES-U weather satellite will soon launch from Cape Canaveral and settle into orbit 22,236 miles above Earth, serving as "Florida's new sentinel in the sky" monitoring the atmosphere for tropical cyclones and severe weather.

"It's of local interest — especially in Florida — because one of the primary missions is for tracking hurricanes. Whenever these hurricanes form, say as waves coming off of Africa, we don't have surface radars out there. There's only a few ships around. How do we know about them?" asked Dan Lindsey, a NOAA program scientist.

"We know about them because of the GOES satellites. They sit above the equator about 22,000 miles above the Earth and keep a constant watch," Lindsey said.

"The reason it's at that altitude above Earth is because it needs to orbit at the same rate that the Earth spins. That's the definition of geostationary. The advantage of doing that: If you can take a picture every, say, 10 minutes — or every five minutes, or every one minute — of the Earth, when you string those photos together it's sort of like time-lapse photography from space," he said.

"And you can see the hurricane spinning. You can see the hurricane moving," he said.

NOAA operates an orbiting network of four GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) weather satellites. NASA will launch GOES-U, the last in the series, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 5:16 p.m. EDT June 25 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The mission was pushed back after crews discovered a liquid oxygen leak in February during Falcon Heavy center-core booster testing.

Thursday, NASA hosted a media "meet-and-greet" so journalists could stand a few feet from the spacecraft — which measures the size of a small school bus — inside a towering white clean room at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville.

Participants donned zip-up gowns, gloves, disposable shoe booties, hairnets and beard covers to protect the satellite's delicate electronic componentry.

Lindsey labeled GOES-U "Florida's new sentinel in the sky" that will replace an aging satellite that launched in November 2016. The GOES-U updated instrument suite adds a compact coronagraph to capture images of the sun's corona, detecting and analyzing coronal mass ejections. The spacecraft will monitor weather across the contiguous United States, Central America, South America and the Atlantic Ocean.

Florida may be heading into a destructive above-normal Atlantic hurricane season, which lasts until Nov. 30. NOAA experts predict:

• 17 to 25 named storms.
• Eight to 13 hurricanes.
• Four to seven major hurricanes.

A major hurricane is a Category 3, 4 or 5 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 111 mph or stronger.

Beyond hurricanes, Lindsey said GOES-U sports a geostationary lightning mapper that will help meteorologists analyze intensifying severe storms. He said that could impact "lightning holds" for planes taking off from Orlando International Airport, for example.

"Say that there is a University of Florida football game happening in Gainesville, and you've got storms potentially forming. The product, based on the input from the GOES data, will tell you, 'What are the chances of having lightning in the next 60 minutes?' " Lindsey said.

L3Harris develops the GOES-U imager

Daniel Gall, an L3Harris GEO Imagers payload architect, stood near the spacecraft wearing clean-room garb Wednesday inside the Astrotech facility.

"If you see this mirrored side here, at the very top there's kind of a line there. Everything above that line basically is the advanced baseline imager. It's about a 6-foot cube," Gall said, gesturing toward the satellite with a gloved hand.

Every day, Gall said GOES-U will transmit about a terabyte of data to an antenna network in Wallops, Virginia. This data will be processed, then transmitted to L3Harris teams in Melbourne and sent to the National Weather Service and other agencies. He said several hundred company employees work on the program, the roots of which date to the mid-1990s.

"We want to get that (data) rapidly out to forecasters because of things like severe weather, hurricanes. It's less than a minute between that photon coming in the aperture of the ABI and it being out to users in images and products," Gall said.

In March 2023, L3Harris announced it had secured a $765 million NASA contract to design and build high-resolution imagers for NOAA's next-generation GeoXO weather satellites. This new system is slated to start launching in 2032 and operate through the mid-2050s.

Lockheed personnel travel to Florida

Matt Kettering, a Lockheed Martin assembly, test and launch operations manager, said his company constructed the GOES-U aluminum-and-graphite body frame that houses its scientific instruments, antennae and solar wing.

The defense contractor manufactured the satellite's "bus" in Littleton, Colorado. The spacecraft was shipped to the Space Coast in January within the belly of a U.S. Air Force C-5 Super Galaxy transport.

Kettering said 40 to 45 Lockheed personnel traveled from Colorado with GOES-U. They remain in Brevard County five months later as the launch date approaches.

"Everybody is doing local condos or Airbnbs between Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral and Titusville. Any off-days, we're hitting all the local spots and kayaking or paddle boarding or hanging out at the local beach, or hitting all the restaurants. It's great," Kettering said, standing near GOES-U.

Including instruments, Kettering said GOES-U weighed about 6,400 pounds before fueling. Now, it weighs about 10,900 pounds.

Lightning detector can spot wildfires

Will Ulrich is the warning coordination meteorologist at the NWS station at Melbourne Orlando International Airport. He labeled the GOES satellites "game-changers" that provide minute-by-minute data for weather forecasting in Brevard and the surrounding region.

"We're actually sometimes able to detect wildfires and pass that information along to first responders and fire weather managers throughout East-Central Florida to let them know that there's a new ignition source. It might be from a thunderstorm: lightning. Or it could have been human-induced," Ulrich said.

"There have been multiple times where we've actually seen a fire pop up, and we've called our partners with the St. Johns River Water Management District and South Florida Water Management District," he said.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 20.06.2024

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NASA Sets Launch Coverage for NOAA Weather Satellite

Crews transport NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-U) from the Astrotech Space Operations facility to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida beginning on Friday, June 14, 2024, with the operation finishing early Saturday, June 15, 2024. The fourth and final weather-observing and environmental monitoring satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series will assist meteorologists in providing advanced weather forecasting and warning capabilities. The two-hour window for liftoff opens 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The GOES-U satellite, the final addition to GOES-R series, will help to prepare for two kinds of weather — Earth and space weather. The GOES satellites serve a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This continuous monitoring aids scientists and forecasters in issuing timely warnings and forecasts to help protect the one billion people who live and work in the Americas. Additionally, GOES-U carries a new compact coronagraph that will image the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections. 

The deadline for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch has passed. NASA’s media credentialing policy is available online. For questions about media accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. 

NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations): 

Monday, June 24 

9:30 a.m. – NASA EDGE GOES-U prelaunch show on NASA+, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. 

11 a.m. – GOES-U science briefing with the following participants: 

• Charles Webb, deputy director, Joint Agency Satellite Division, NASA 

• Ken Graham, director, NOAA’s National Weather Service 
• Dan Lindsey, chief scientist, GOES-R Program, NOAA 
• Elsayed Talaat, director, NOAA’s Office of Space Weather Observations 
• Chris Wood, NOAA Hurricane Hunter pilot 

Coverage of the science news conference will stream live on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. 

Media may ask questions in person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than one hour before the start of the event at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. 

3:15 p.m. – NASA Social panel at Kennedy with the following participants: 

• Jade Zsiros, telemetry engineer, NASA’s Launch Services Program 
• Ellen Ramirez, deputy division chief, Mission Operations Division, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service Office of Satellite and Product Operations, NOAA 
• Dakota Smith, satellite analyst and communicator, NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere 
• Allana Nepomuceno, senior manager, GOES-U Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations, Lockheed Martin 
• Chris Reith, program manager, Advanced Baseline Imager, L3Harris Technologies 

The panel will stream live on NASA Kennedy’s YouTube, X and Facebook accounts. Members of the public may ask questions online by posting to the YouTube, X, and Facebook live streams or using #AskNASA. 

5 p.m. – Prelaunch news conference at Kennedy (following completion of the Launch Readiness Review), with the following participants: 

• Denton Gibson, launch director, Launch Services Program, NASA 
• Steve Volz, assistant administrator, NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service 
• Pam Sullivan, director, GOES-R Program, NOAA 
• John Gagosian, director, Joint Agency Satellite Division 
• Julianna Scheiman, director, NASA Science Missions, SpaceX 
• Brian Cizek, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Space Force 

Coverage of the prelaunch news conference will stream live on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. 

Media may ask questions in person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than one hour before the start of the event at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. 

Tuesday, June 25 

1 p.m. – Media one-on-one interviews with the following: 

• Michael Morgan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, NOAA 
• Michael Brennan, director, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center 
• James Spann, senior scientist, Office of Space Weather Observations, NOAA 
• John Gagosian, director, Joint Agency Satellite Division 
• Krizia Negron, language program lead, National Weather Service Office of Science and Technology Integration, NOAA (bilingual, available for Spanish interviews) 

• Dan Lindsey, chief scientist, GOES-R Program, NOAA 
• Jagdeep Shergill, program director, GEO Weather, Lockheed Martin 
• Chris Reith, program manager, Advanced Baseline Imager, L3Harris Technologies 

4:15 p.m. – NASA launch coverage begins on NASA+, the agency’s website, and other digital channels.  

5:16 p.m. – Two-hour launch window opens 

Audio Only Coverage 

Audio only of the news conferences and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240 or -7135. On launch day, “mission audio,” countdown activities without NASA Television media launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135. 

Live Video Coverage Prior to Launch 

NASA will provide a live video feed of Launch Complex 39A approximately 24 hours prior to the planned liftoff of the mission on NASA Kennedy’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/kscnewsroom.The feed will be uninterrupted until the prelaunch broadcast begins on NASA Television media channel. 

NASA Website Launch Coverage 

Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the agency’s website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 3 p.m., June 25, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. 

For questions about countdown coverage, contact the Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on the GOES blog. 

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o Messod Bendayan: messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov 

Quelle: NASA

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Update: 23.06.2024

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NASA Invites Public to Share Excitement of NOAA GOES-U Launch