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Trilobites: Better Weather Forecasts, and These Pretty Pictures, Too

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Here’s a reminder of how beautiful our planet is.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the first batch of images taken by its recently launched GOES-16 satellite on Monday. With its high-definition camera, the satellite shows our blue marble with its wisps of white clouds and splotches of green and brown in vivid detail better than NOAA has seen with its weather satellites before.

Launched in November, GOES-16 is the first in a series of next-generation geostationary weather satellites from NOAA designed to observe Earth and provide better weather forecasts. It orbits the planet at approximately 22,300 miles above Earth, and according to NOAA can provide images of the full Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes, as well as images of the entire continental United States every five minutes.

“It’s more spectacular than we even envisioned,” said Steven Goodman, NOAA’s senior scientist for the GOES-R series. “The higher spatial resolution makes my jaw drop.”

The composite image of the Western Hemisphere was captured at 1:07 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 15, 2017. Compared to previous GOES satellites observing Earth, the tools on board GOES-16 can scan the planet five times faster, with four times the image resolution. They also have three times as many spectral channels, which will allow the satellite to collect more data in both visible and infrared wavelengths, according to NOAA.

For weather forecasters, that provides the “meteorological equivalent of going from black and white to ultrahigh definition color TV,” the agency said in a statement.

Those improved capabilities allow GOES-16 to contribute more to NOAA’s hurricane tracking efforts as well as to its severe-weather forecasting and monitoring. The satellite is also designed to observe fog, fires, dust storms, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and lightning.

“It’s more than a pretty picture,” Dr. Goodman said. “It gives us quantitative information and insight into the properties of the atmosphere and the land surface.”

Here’s a reminder of how beautiful our planet is.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the first batch of images taken by its recently launched GOES-16 satellite on Monday. With its high-definition camera, the satellite shows our blue marble with its wisps of white clouds and splotches of green and brown in vivid detail better than NOAA has seen with its weather satellites before.

Launched in November, GOES-16 is the first in a series of next-generation geostationary weather satellites from NOAA designed to observe Earth and provide better weather forecasts. It orbits the planet at approximately 22,300 miles above Earth, and according to NOAA can provide images of the full Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes, as well as images of the entire continental United States every five minutes.

“It’s more spectacular than we even envisioned,” said Steven Goodman, NOAA’s senior scientist for the GOES-R series. “The higher spatial resolution makes my jaw drop.”

The composite image of the Western Hemisphere was captured at 1:07 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 15, 2017. Compared to previous GOES satellites observing Earth, the tools on board GOES-16 can scan the planet five times faster, with four times the image resolution. They also have three times as many spectral channels, which will allow the satellite to collect more data in both visible and infrared wavelengths, according to NOAA.

For weather forecasters, that provides the “meteorological equivalent of going from black and white to ultrahigh definition color TV,” the agency said in a statement.

Those improved capabilities allow GOES-16 to contribute more to NOAA’s hurricane tracking efforts as well as to its severe-weather forecasting and monitoring. The satellite is also designed to observe fog, fires, dust storms, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and lightning.

“It’s more than a pretty picture,” Dr. Goodman said. “It gives us quantitative information and insight into the properties of the atmosphere and the land surface.”

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