With the help of NASA, private industry and others, NOAA’s GOES-2 (as GOES-B) was launched on June 16, 1977. Similar to SMS-1/2 and GOES-1/3, there were 2 spectral bands: one visible and one longwave infrared.

A still image with a map overlay is also available to provide geo-referencing for the images in the above animation. Or a similar loop is also available with the map overlay The images in the loop (mp4 | animated gif) were taken just one year after GOES-B was launched. https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2023/12/Geostationary_MetSat_History_2023update.jpg

The timelines show the periods when the satellites were operational. Yet, there were other times when they might have been operating. For example, when an on-orbit spacecraft comes out of storage once a year, often in August, for a routine check-out of several weeks. Another example was GOES-14, as it provided over 5 months of 1 min data (SRSOR) data to better prepare for the meso-scale sectors on the ABI. These campaigns were in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Some of these times were:

In addition, GOES-15 was operated several times to supplement GOES-17 operations:

Start Date	End Date
20-May-2018	09-March-2020
04-Aug-2020	04-Sep-2020
04-Feb-2021	19-Feb-2021
02-Aug-2021	05-Nov-2021
17-Feb-2022	18-April-2022

The second timeline above includes not only the U.S. GOES imagers, but also their precursors: ATS-1, 3 (including the Spin Scan Cloud Cameras) and 6 (with the 2-channel GVHRR; including an infrared band) and SMS-1/2. The GOES-R Program Office also has a more simple GOES timeline.

UW/SSEC has an interactive timeline (opens in new tab) that covers more satellites. The SSEC library (Schwerdtfeger) also has more information on the Spin-Scan Cloud Cameras on ATS-1/3.

The above image shows a color-coded transparency for cold clouds over the gray-scale visible image.

After GOES-U, NOAA is planning on the next generation U.S. geostationary imager as part of the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program.

H/T

Thanks to the many who made the GOES (and the precursors) possible. McIDAS-X software was used in generating these satellite images. The data (and many dates) was accessed by the UW/SSEC Data Services. More about GOES-16 and GOES-17 and GOES-18 (preliminary, non-operational).

Below are older versions of the timelines.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) include time-matched SPC Storm Reports — and showed the development severe thunderstorms across parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan during the afternoon and early evening hours on 15 June 2022. Boundary layer feeder band clouds could be seen flowing north-northeastward into some of the growing thunderstorms — which produced a few tornadoes and damaging straight-line winds as strong as 80 mph in Wisconsin, and hail as large as 2.75 inches in diameter in Iowa. This convection developed along and ahead of an eastward-moving cold front (surface analyses).

In the corresponding 1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below), pulsing overshooting tops exhibited cold infrared brightness temperatures in the -75 to -79ºC range (brighter white pixels embedded within areas of black).

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ProbSevere is a weather product that uses GOES-16 data to help predict the probability of any severe weather (hail, wind, or tornados) happening in the next 60 minutes. ProbSevere LightningCast predicts the probability that a GLM Lightning observation will occur in the next 60 minutes. Below are examples of these products over the Western Wisconsin area as a convective system rolls through La Crosse, Wisconsin.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product images (above) showed that the Calf Canyon Fire/Hermits Peak Fire in northeastern New Mexico produced a pair of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds on 14 June 2022. Extreme fire behavior was aided by surface wind gusts as high as 60 mph and very dry air within the boundary layer. Ths large fire burned very hot, with 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared brightness temperatures reaching 138.71ºC — the saturation temperature of ABI Band 7 detectors — for extended periods of time. Coldest 10.35 µm cloud-top brightness temperatures exhibited by the pyroCb cloud were around -46ºC (lighter blue enhancement), with the Cloud Top Temperature product showing values as cold as -61ºC (gren pixels). This was the 4th day of pyroCb production by this fire — following previous events on 14 May, 10 May and 01 May.

In a toggle between Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images valid at 2051 UTC (below), the True Color image highlighted the smoke plume while the False Color image showed the active fires (brighter shades of pink) along with the size of the burn scar (shades of brown).

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