You've probably heard about space observation satellites on television. They are devices with a very high technological development and that are capable of giving us great information about what is in the universe and what is happening on our planet. In this case, we are talking about the satellite GOESThis satellite helps us enormously in weather forecasting. Predicting the weather is a very complex task. It's not something that can be intuited or that works with some algorithms. Therefore, it's well known that "the weatherman often fails." Furthermore, its precision is essential in observing phenomena such as the Hurricane Katrina.
In this article we are going to show you why GOES is the best weather satellite that has been put into orbit of all time.
Need to forecast the weather
Forecasting the weather is something we need to carry out our activities or schedule some events. Depending on the state of the weather, some events are made or not. Therefore, knowing the weather forecast is vital. However, It is not a simple task. It is very complex since atmospheric variables can constantly change in a matter of hours. Although today there are many rain apps and we can know if it will rain tomorrow in our town, this data can often fail and this is where the GOES weather satellite shows its importance.
And it is that although the weather forecast sometimes fails, it is completely normal. Time is known to be affected by multiple variables and weather elements. In order to monitor what is happening in our atmosphere, we have another flora of meteorological observation satellites. These satellites take care of power know the atmospheric systems that exist at all times and be able to predict their evolution.
The GOES satellite was launched to provide more precise and accurate weather forecasting. It not only offers that, but much more, including data on the activity of phenomena such as space hurricanes.
What is the GOES?
GOES are the acronym for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. This satellite has revolutionized all satellites of this type. There are polar-orbiting satellites and geostationary-orbiting satellites. The latter are those whose orbit coincides with the speed at which the Earth orbits. This means that it always offers us the same image of the globe. It is able to hover over specific points on our planet. This is because its main objective is to provide meteorological variations in order to predict future changes.
The GOES-R model in question is the most revolutionary since updates instruments and data processing capacity. It is capable of processing information in greater quantity and speed, so it offers us a service with more quality and precision. This is absolutely necessary if we want to obtain precision when preparing reports on weather forecasting without having the slightest margin of error.
Furthermore, has a spatial resolution 4 times greater than normal and a coverage five times fasterThe real-time mapping of lightning is impressive. This helps improve storm forecasting and improves the timing of tornado warnings. This is perfect for those who study tornadoes or those who hunt tornadoes. It also helps improve hurricane forecasting and potential intensity, better control of X-ray fluxes from the sun, and so on.
Better quality and fewer prediction errors
What is achieved with the GOES satellite is to have a better quality when obtaining meteorological data and with a lower margin of error. The question that many people asked themselves when putting it into orbit is if we had forecasts that fail less than the previous ones. It really bothers to know that it is going to rain on such a day, cancel plans because of it, and finally that it is a sunny day better than ever. Or quite the opposite, that we go out for a drink and suddenly fall showers powerful.
Weather forecasts are obtained from models that make simulations of what is going to happen. To carry out these simulations it is necessary to know the values of the meteorological variables at that moment and the tendency they have to modify these values. In other words, if the values of temperature, atmospheric pressure and wind continue to change as they are doing now, we can predict the formation of rains. However, it is possible that these values change their trend for some other variable. This is what makes the error always present.
For these models to work better and provide more accurate data, we need even more data to feed into the variables. The more accurate this data is, the better predictions the satellite can make. GOESWith its equipment, the satellite can view the Earth's surface in 16 spectral bands in real time, without errors and continuously. Furthermore, It includes the visible channels, 4 near infrared channels and a further 10 infrared channels. All of this capability gives you less room for error.
Spatial observation
The advantage of this revolutionary satellite is that it is not only attentive to the Earth and the meteorological observation. It also has liaison missions with foreign communications. It is responsible, for example, for knowing spatial patterns such as the solar wind. It also analyzes some concentrations of radiation that can harm astronauts that we have off the planet.
In addition to assessing potential risks to astronauts, this information can be used to warn of potentially dangerous events that may occur. This may help prevent some damage to telecommunications. It has a magnetometer that measures the magnetic field and the dynamics of charged particles outside.
I hope this information helps you learn more about the GOES satellite, the best one available to date.