At 15:46 UTC on 06 December 2011, GOES-15 replaced GOES-11 as the operational GOES-West satellite. GOES-11 (launched in 2000, and operational since 2006) was one of the older GOES-I/J/K/L/M series of satellites (GOES-8/9/10/11/12), while GOES-15 (launched in 2010; Read More

The normal operational GOES scanning schedule provides one complete Full Disk image every 3 hours (at 00 UTC, 03 UTC, 06 UTC, etc). However, as part of the final testing of GOES-15 the satellite was placed into a mode that provided one Full Disk scan every 30 minutes for a... Read More

GOES-15 is scheduled to replace GOES-11 as the operational GOES-West satellite on 06 December 2011. On 29 November 2011, a test was conducted by NOAA/NESDIS which briefly substituted GOES-15 data for GOES-11 data as the source of GOES-West satellite imagery in AWIPS. In the sequence of AWIPS images shown above, the first... Read More

Strong northeasterly winds created large plumes of blowing dust across parts of the Baja California region of Mexico on 27 November 2011. GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed the development of one blowing dust plume originating near the west coast of mainland Mexico, with another... Read More