During the late 1960s and early 1970s, many households moved from black and white to color TV.
Meteorologists are about to do the same thing for operational weather satellite imagery, with a new operational geostationary satellite: NOAA 16 (a.k.a. GOES-R).
NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) has two types of weather satellites: geostationary satellites (known as GOES), placed in an orbit at 35,000 km above the equator that allows them to rotate with the earth, and polar orbiters, located around 800 km above the surface, that follows an orbit that views ever-changing swaths of the earth's surface. Previous GOES satellites provided only black and white imagery, but the latest satellite, launched on Nov. 16, 2016 views the earth in more light wavelengths, thus providing color images.
Let me show some of the first pictures from our new (and very expensive) satellite. In geostationary orbit, the satellite views the entire planet (see below), with blue oceans and multi-color land. Beautiful.
The new GOES satellite will be tested for about 6 months before it is made fully operational.
Meteorologists are about to do the same thing for operational weather satellite imagery, with a new operational geostationary satellite: NOAA 16 (a.k.a. GOES-R).
NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) has two types of weather satellites: geostationary satellites (known as GOES), placed in an orbit at 35,000 km above the equator that allows them to rotate with the earth, and polar orbiters, located around 800 km above the surface, that follows an orbit that views ever-changing swaths of the earth's surface. Previous GOES satellites provided only black and white imagery, but the latest satellite, launched on Nov. 16, 2016 views the earth in more light wavelengths, thus providing color images.
And here is a closer view of the U.S.
And the West Coast. Not only are these images in color, but they have about twice the resolution of the old satellite imagery. At the equator, the satellite can distinguish objects as small as .5 km.
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