**From Thunderstorms to Solar Storms...**

by Patrick L. Barry

When severe weather occurs, there\'s a world of difference for people on
the ground between a storm that\'s overhead and one that\'s several
kilometers away. Yet current geostationary weather satellites can be as
much as 3 km off in pinpointing the true locations of storms.

A new generation of weather satellites will boost this accuracy by 2 to
4 times. The first in this new installment of NOAA\'s Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites series, called GOES-N, was launched
May 24 by NASA and Boeing for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration). (A new polar-orbiting weather satellite, NOAA-18, was
launched May 2005.)

Along with better accuracy at pinpointing storms, GOES-N sports a raft
of improvements that will enhance our ability to monitor the
weather---both normal, atmospheric weather and "space weather."

"Satellites eventually wear out or get low on fuel, so we\'ve got to
launch new weather satellites every few years if we want to keep up the
continuous eye on weather that NOAA has maintained for more than 30
years now," says Thomas Wrublewski, liaison officer for NOAA at NASA\'s
Goddard Space Flight Center.

Currently, GOES-N is in a "parking" orbit at 90° west longitude over the
equator. For the next 6 months it will remain there while NASA
thoroughly tests all its systems. If all goes well, it will someday
replace one of the two active GOES satellites---either the eastern
satellite (75°W) or the western one (135°W), depending on the condition
of those satellites at the time.

Unlike all previous GOES satellites, GOES-N carries star trackers aboard
to precisely determine its orientation in space. Also for the first
time, the storm-tracking instruments have been mounted to an "optical
bench," which is a very stable platform that resists thermal warping.
These two improvements will let scientists say with 2 to 4 times greater
accuracy exactly where storms are located.

Also, X-ray images of the Sun taken by GOES-N will be about twice as
sharp as before. The new Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) will also
automatically identify solar flares as they happen, instead of waiting
for a scientist on the ground to analyze the images. Flares affect space
weather, triggering geomagnetic storms that can damage communications
satellites and even knock out city power grids. The improved imaging and
detection of solar flares by GOES-N will allow for earlier warnings.

So for thunderstorms and solar storms alike, GOES-N will be an even
sharper eye in the sky.

Find out more about GOES-N at goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes . Also, for
young people, the SciJinks Weather Laboratory at scijinks.nasa.gov now
includes a printable booklet titled "How Do You Make a Weather
Satellite?" Just click on Technology.

*This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.*

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="4.166666666666667in" height="6.25in"}

Caption:

*New GOES-N satellite launches, carrying an imaging radiometer, an
atmospheric sounder, and a collection of other space environment
monitoring instruments.*

*Note to editors:*

*This image may be downloaded from:*

*<http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/news_images/goes_n_launch.jpg>.*