Paul
New NOAA satellite to track storms like no other before it
Data could help hurricane forecasters
By CHRIS KRIDLER
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Published by news-press.com on June 3, 2005
TITUSVILLE — Technicians at Titusville's Astrotech are putting the finishing touches on the first of a new generation of weather satellites that could enhance hurricane forecasts.
The satellite is expected to be encased today in its fairing, which will protect it atop the Boeing Delta 4 rocket during launch, scheduled for June 23.
The NASA mission for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will cost $475 million. The satellite is GOES-N, or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite; N, O and P are the new satellites.
It will be able to locate storms about 50 percent more accurately, said Tom Wrublewski, a physical scientist for NOAA and technical acquisition manager for the new satellites.
"The weather and being able to locate where it is, is very personal to me," Wrublewski said, describing his proximity to two Maryland tornadoes in recent years. During one in his neighborhood, he had to crawl into his house to avoid being blown away.
The new satellite also won't have data "blackouts" — like some missing images of Hurricane Ivan during the storm's landfall last year — which occur with current satellites when sunlight isn't hitting their solar panels. This satellite manages energy better, Wrublewski said.
It also has a longer lifetime, a more user-friendly computer and a solar X-ray imager built by Lockheed Martin that can look at solar flares and other phenomena.
This satellite won't be put into use right away. When other weather satellites in orbit start to degrade in the next year or so, then GOES-N could be activated.
"We can store it for a reasonable amount of time in orbit with no degradation," said Marty Davis, GOES program manager with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 30445/1075
I am eagered to see the first pics from the new Goes-N and without those blackouts that lose some hours in the overnight of pics but that wont occur right away as the information says.
