In the past, scientists from environmental service agencies have stated a need for continuous, dependable, timely, and high-quality observations of the Earth and its environment. The new series of GOES satellites provide half-hourly radiometric observations to fill the need. The instruments on board the satellites measure Earth emitted and reflection radiation from which atmospheric temperature, winds, moisture and cloud cover can be derived. These instruments acquire high-resolution visible and infrared data, as well as temperature and moisture profiles of the atmosphere. They continuously transmit these data to ground terminals where the data are processed for rebroadcast to primary weather service offices in the United States and around the world, including the global research community.
Pacific coverage includes Hawaii and the Gulf of Alaska.
This is accomplished by two satellites, GOES West located at 135 degrees west longitude and GOES East at 75 degrees west longitude. NOAA's Command and Data acquisition station located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., supports the interface to both satellites. The GOES system is a basic element of U.S. weather monitoring and forecast operations and is a key component of NOAA's National Weather Service modernization program. Spacecraft and ground-based systems work together to accomplish the GOES mission of providing weather imagery and quantitative sounding data that form a continuous and reliable stream of environmental information for weather forecasting and related services. The new series of GOES satellites provides significant improvements over the previous GOES system in weather imagery and atmospheric sounding information.