Note: GOES-16 data shown on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing on-orbit testing.

GOES-16 ABI Flex Mode (Mode 3) scanning affords the opportunity of two moveable mesoscale sectors that are 1000×1000 km in size at the sub-satellite point. These sectors are scanned every 60 seconds. After post-launch testing is complete this summer, a National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) or a National Center (SPC, or NHC, for example), can request that the Mesoscale domain be moved to sample a region or feature of interest. If no requests are active, then default positions, shown above for GOES-16 in the Test Position at 89.5º W, are used. These defaults were selected because they overlay major air corridors.

When GOES-16 and GOES-S (operating as GOES-17) are operational, four different Mesoscale Sectors will be available. The Default positions for Mesoscale Sectors are shown below.

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Note: GOES-16 data shown on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing on-orbit testing.

GOES-16 data that flow into AWIPS for Full Disk display are not at Full Resolution; rather, they are degraded to approximately 6-km resolution. The northern boundary of the GOES-16 ‘CONUS’ domain (GOES-16 data do flow into AWIPS at full resolution for this domain) is very close to the US-Canada border (as shown in this animation of all 16 bands from this blog post, and also in the animation above). When zoomed out, there is little apparent difference in the two images. If you zoom in, however, as shown below with Band 2 (0.64 µm) imagery, the seam between the two resolutions is very noticeable.

The change in resolution occurs for all bands. The 10.3 µm imagery, below, shows the change north of Montana, Idaho and Washington.

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The first imagery from the Chinese Satellite FY-4A has been released. The true-color composite, above, was generated from two visible and one near-infrared channel. The image below shows all 14 Bands on the satellite.

In addition to the 14-channel Advanced Geostationary Radiation Imagery (AGRI), from which the imagery above was derived, FY-4A also carries a Lightning Mapper Imager, The Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) and a Space Environment Package. For more information and imagery, click here or here.

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Note: GOES-16 data shown on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing on-orbit testing.

GOES-16 Data started flowing into the National Weather Service’s AWIPS system via NOAAPORT at 1800 UTC on 2 March 2017. At present, all 16 bands from the ABI, as well as select band differences and RGB products, are available. The animation above shows the 16 bands (Click here for a faster animation) in the GOES-16 CONUS Sector displayed over the predefined AWIPS CONUS Domain. Two RGBs (Red-Green-Blue Composites) are shown below: The ‘Icing’ RGB and the Daytime Composite are shown. The Icing RGB makes use of the Snow/Ice Channel from GOES-16, at 1.61 µm, that is in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum where ice strongly absorbs radiation. Thus regions including ice appear red or violet.

The predefined AWIPS CONUS domain and the GOES-R CONUS Sector do not overlap. The toggle below shows GOES-R CONUS Sector data displayed on a Full Disk Image, along with the same image over the AWIPS CONUS domain. The southern and eastern parts of the GOES-R CONUS Domain do not show up in the pre-defined AWIPS CONUS domain. Note also that the GOES-16 CONUS Domain does not extend very far northward from the US-Canada border. Forecast Offices over the northern United States will have to rely on Full Disk imagery (at 6-km resolution in AWIPS) when looking into Canada for features slipping southward in northwest flow.

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