The GOES-15 satellite

 

Changes happening soon with our main Weather Satellites
(posted by Keno on Jan 5, 2020)

 

NOAA will be closing down one if it's long time and reliable weather satellites by the end of this month. The GOES-15 satellite, which was launched back on March 4, 2010, and which the U.S. has relied on for 10 years now, will be retired by the end of this month. Here at the Crestone Weather Center, it's photos are used on 2 of our main pages, and they will be missed for sure. The GOES-17 satellite, which we also show at the moment on our Forecast Maps page, will take over for the GOES-15. While the GOES-17 is a newer and more advanced satellite, and is an upgrade, it's still sad to have to say goodbye to our old friend, the GOES-15. For more info on this change-over, you can continue reading about this below.

 

NOAA readies GOES-15 and GOES-14 for orbital storage
(message from NOAA )

 

NOAA officials have announced plans to power off the GOES-15 satellite and place it into orbital storage by January 31, 2020. Since late 2018, GOES-15 has operated in tandem with its advanced, newly launched replacement, GOES-17, as a precaution, while engineers worked on technical issues with the loop heat pipe of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), the primary instrument on the satellite. A blockage in the pipe prevented the ABI from cooling properly and hindered its ability to collect data during certain periods and hours of the year. Engineers mitigated the issue through operational changes to the ABI and mission operations, including the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques, to regain capability to collect data during a portion of the affected period. Those efforts have resulted in the GOES-17 ABI delivering more than 97 percent of expected data.

NOAA officials also announced GOES-14, which had been providing supplemental space weather instrument operations, will be powered off and placed in storage by January 31, 2020. GOES-16, perched in the GOES-East orbit, is sending more advanced space weather data to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Additionally, GOES-17 is providing products in a developmental system for space weather. Having GOES-15 in storage allows GOES-17 to operate with sole coverage of the GOES-West domain, able to see the weather, including storms, fog and wildfires, at high-resolution in the western U.S., Alaska and Hawaii and much of the Pacific Ocean.GOES-15 and GOES-14 can be called back into service if either GOES-17 or GOES-16 experience issues.

 

Snowfall Probabilities

(from the NWS for Southern Colorado only)

 

 

 

Drought Conditions for Colorado
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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