This new weather satellite is a game changer

[knocker]

Quote

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — The lid on a white, RV-size box is lifted off with painstaking care to prevent damaging the multimillion-dollar, next-generation weather satellite housed inside. Two dozen engineers and technicians in white jumpsuits surround the container in a 10-story airlock.

I watch as the specialists execute their specific jobs. One controls the crane that raises the lid inch-by-inch; another is carrying a molecular air sampler. Two attach ropes to the lid to guide it.

They are meticulous. Any disturbance — a misplaced step, exposure to the wrong air molecules, an uncontrollable sneeze — has the potential to leave the United States, and the rest of the world for that matter, without critical weather observations that save lives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/08/25/this-new-weather-satellite-is-a-game-changer-if-it-can-survive-the-journey-to-launch/

[BornFromTheVoid]

If anyone is interested, last month over on reddit.com/r/science we hosted an AMA with 2 of the main scientists involved in the GOES-R satellite mission. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/4twfcl/science_ama_series_we_are_noaa_scientist_dr_steve/
 

Science AMA Series: We are NOAA scientist Dr. Steve Goodman and Andrea Schumacher and we are excited to talk to you about NOAA’s state-of-the-art GOES-R satellite, launching November 4, 2016, which will help us predict and track hurricanes better than ever. Ask us anything!

Hi redditors! We are Steve Goodman and Andrea Schumacher and we are excited to talk to you about NOAA’s GOES-R, a state-of-the art satellite set to launch November 4, 2016 that will transform hurricane prediction for North America.

Steve, GOES-R’s Senior Scientist, will tell you all about the advanced instruments aboard GOES-R, like the Advanced Baseline Imager, which collects high-resolution data faster than ever before, and the first ever Geostationary Lightning Mapper, a revolutionary new instrument that will measure lightning over the Americas and its oceans (lightning is an important indicator of where and when a storm is likely to intensify). As the senior program scientist for the GOES-R Program, Dr. Goodman serves as the primary science authority for the GOES-R satellite series.

Andrea Schumacher, CIRA Research Associate and GOES-R/JPSS Satellite Liaison to the National Hurricane Center, will tell you about how hurricanes work and how scientists and forecasters will be using GOES-R data to predict and track these destructive and fascinating phenomena. As the GOES-R Satellite Liaison to the National Hurricane Center, Andrea assists in the evaluation of new GOES-R satellite technologies so forecasters are ready to use these new capabilities as soon as GOES-R launches.

You can learn more about the GOES-R satellite series and see the countdown to launch here.