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Three New Satellites: SUOMI NPP, JPSS & GOES-R

GOES-R

The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI)

The Advanced Baseline Imager is the primary instrument on the GOES-R Series for imaging Earth’s weather, oceans and environment. ABI views the Earth with 16 different spectral bands (compared to five on the previous generation of GOES), including two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels. Different bands (wavelengths) are better for depicting different elements on the Earth’s surface or in the atmosphere, such as clouds, water, dust, vegetation, moisture or smoke. For example, the three visible bands on ABI employ reflected sunlight to display a storm, so aren't useful after the sun sets. Meteorologists use infrared bands to track storms at night.

ABI is mission critical for the GOES-R Series, providing a majority of data products from each satellite. It provides three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and five times faster temporal coverage than previous GOES satellites!

ABI can see the western hemisphere via 16 different wavelengths, also known as spectral bands.
These include two visible, four near-infrared, and ten infrared spectral bands.

Learn more by watching a video (below left) by the company that built the ABI instrument and then interacting with the Spectral Band web app (right).


Weather Forecasts: From Space to Ground


Spectral Bands Web App