Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOES ( Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite ) is a series of geostationary weather satellites of the U.S. weather agency NOAA. These form the basis of weather forecasts in the U.S., they allow monitoring of the weather around the clock. In addition, they are used for hurricane forecast and meteorological research.

The satellites orbit the earth in a geostationary orbit, that is, they are fixed on a certain point on the surface. They will all be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force station. GOES mainly supplies North America, and parts of the Pacific and Atlantic weather information.

The first GOES satellite, GOES -A was launched in 1975. After a successful launch of the satellites each numbers are assigned, from GOES - O was so GOES -1. To date, a total of fourteen satellites were in orbit, one ( GOES - G, which was intended as a replacement for GOES -5) was destroyed in a launch failure on May 3, 1986.

Former GOES generations

GOES GOES A to C

The first series of GOES weather satellites began in 1975 with the launch of GOES -A, which was then renamed to GOES -1. GOES 2 and 3 followed in the years 1977 and 1978. GOES -3 is still used as a radio relay station between America and the research stations at the South Pole, the other two are closed. This first generation was manufactured by Ford Aerospace.

GOES GOES - D to H

The satellites of the second series were launched 1980-1987. They were later lost to GOES -4 to 7, GOES -G went for a false start. The satellites were built by Hughes Aircraft. Today, they are all taken out of service, with the exception of GOES -7, which is used as a communications satellite for the Pacific islands.

Current generation

The satellite GOES -8 to 12 were manufactured by Space Systems / Loral. GOES -8 was launched in 1994 and has been put back from service. GOES -9 was rented after decommissioning, 2005-2009 to Japan. He served as a replacement for a worn- Japanese satellite. This could not be replaced in time by Japan itself because of a false start.

GOES -11 and 12 are the active NOAA weather satellites. GOES -11 or GOES -West is stationed over the eastern Pacific Ocean (135 ° West ) and supplied California with weather data, while GOES -12 or GOES - East (75 ° West ) is responsible for the central and eastern parts of the United States.

With the launch of GOES -N ( GOES -13) on 24 May 2006 aboard a Delta IV Medium was first developed by Boeing model started. The satellite will now serve as a reserve ( which is provided over half a year to review the functions by NASA ) and then definitely passed to the NOAA and put into service. He is eight years send weather data to Earth. It is 4.2 meters long, has a diameter of 1.9 meters and a launch mass of 3.1 tonnes.

The two main instruments of the satellites are providing a camera and a radiometer, the high-resolution images in the visible, as well as in the infrared region of the spectrum. Moreover, temperature and humidity distributions can be measured in the atmosphere.

The identical GOES -O ( GOES -14 ) was also transported on June 27, 2009 by a Delta IV into orbit, GOES -P ( GOES -15) followed on March 4, 2010.

Next generation

In August 2006, NASA announced the company Assurance Technology Corporation the contract, for $ 100 million to develop the Space Environment In-Situ Suite ( SEISSENSCHMIDT ) and build. This device is to fly on the GOES satellites in the next generation ( GOES -R) and conduct investigations in space. The unit will contain three particle sensors, a register is magnetic particle, another solar and galactic protons and another high-energy ions. The launch of GOES -R is scheduled for October 2015, an Atlas V, GOES - S should 2017Vorlage in February: Future / Follow In 2 years.