Almost one year ago, the Washington, D.C., region took cover from the storm known as Snowzilla. Buried by 3 feet of snow in some places, roads and schools closed. More than 6 million people hunkered down, waiting for the blizzard to pass.
Most were safely at home when it happened, with a stocked fridge and flashlights in case of a power outage. They knew about the storm days before because of forecasters such as Chris Strong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service who alerts public officials and the media whenever a tornado, hurricane or other natural disaster is likely to strike.
“We try to get the notice out there as early as possible to give people time to prepare,” Strong says. Soon, he adds, he’ll be able to alert people earlier than ever.
On Nov. 19, one of the most advanced weather satellites ever built rocketed into space, where it will allow Strong and other forecasters to monitor the weather with increased precision.
By the time testing finishes — hopefully later this year — the satellite known as GOES-16 will be able to train its camera-like eyes on hurricanes brewing in the Atlantic Ocean or snowstorms bearing down on Washington.
Already, the satellite has taken its first images of the Earth’s atmosphere. The images are far more detailed than those taken by the previous generation of weather satellites. “It’s like going from black-and-white to high-definition television,” says Michael Stringer, who oversees the new, nearly $11 billion satellite program.
GOES-16 is part of a constellation of satellites that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to keep the Weather Service informed about the latest changes in Earth’s atmosphere. By 2025, it will be joined by three other new GOES satellites (the name stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite), providing forecasters with a comprehensive view of weather in the Western Hemisphere and especially the United States.
Hovering at a single point some 22,200 miles above the Earth’s surface, GOES-16 will monitor lightning strikes and gather images that show volcanic ash, dust, clouds and water vapor in the atmosphere. The images will be gathered five times as fast as on the old satellites (GOES-16 will be able to take a new image of an individual storm every 30 seconds) and at four times the resolution. That will allow forecasters to calculate such details as wind speed and direction with greater accuracy than ever.
