A US weather satellite that will "revolutionize" forecasting was scheduled for launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Saturday, promising to deliver continuous high-definition views of hurricanes and other storms over the Western Hemisphere. The detailed view provided by the satellite is expected to sharpen hurricane forecasts, provide more advanced warning of floods and better tracking of wildfires, plumes and volcanic ash clouds.
Scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:42 pm EST (2242 GMT), the GOES-R satellite is capable of taking a complete picture of the hemisphere every five minutes while simultaneously zooming in on fires, volcanic eruptions or severe rain in specific regions. The satellite, the 17th in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, is the first to be launched since 2010. It is a step up from its predecessors, which take 30 minutes to image the hemisphere and are not capable of carrying out multiple tasks at the same time.
"This is a quantum leap," Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of Earth Sciences at NASA, said at a news conference on Thursday. "It will truly revolutionize weather forecasting." The satellite rests on top of an Atlas 5 rocket developed by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co.
The heart of the new satellite is a high-resolution camera, designed and built by Exelis Inc, a subsidiary of Harris Corp It can see in 16 wavelengths, compared with the five available with the current system. GOES-R, developed by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has four times better resolution and can take images five times faster than its predecessors, NOAA program scientist Steven Goodman said.
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