GOES-12 Comes Back to Send Images to Every 15 Minutes

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published in english on the day (11/06) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) emphasising that the CPTEC/INPE returned to receive images of South America to every 15 minutes of the american satellite GOES-12.

Duda Falcão

GOES-12 Satellite Restart the Creation of Images at

Every 15 Minutes of the South America Continent

Jun 11, 2010

The Weather Forecast and Climate Studies Center from the National Institute for Space Research (CPTEC / INPE) has just started as before to receive images of the South America Continent every 15 minutes and from the entire globe every three hours. In December last year with the end of GOES-10 lifetime satellite those images had been interrupted, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), from the United States, therefore the service has been restored last month.

The generation of images at this frequency have been restored with another U.S. satellite displacement, the GOES-12, to the orbit prior occupied by GOES-10 (Longitude 60 º - West), which focuses on the region coverage. With this change, the satellite services will not be interrupted even if hurricanes over the North Atlantic happens, off the coast of the United States, as usual in the second half of the year.

Since May 18th the GOES-12 has been creating images, with some interruptions occurred to set some adjustments in the processing of data received from the satellite. Among the improvements, include the higher spatial resolution of the water vapor channel (band 3), which went from 8 to 4 km, as highlighted by Carlos Frederico Angelis, Head of the Environmental Systems Satellites Division and CPTEC/INPE. The weather images from GOES-12 is available on http://www.cptec.inpe.br.

The orbital shift of these two satellites is part of NOAA's plan to improve the South America’s coverage "We are grateful to NOAA for the effort in providing this service to South America," said Luiz Augusto Machado, coordinator of the simulation. "It was thanks to this plan that it became possible for the first time, the use of meteorological satellites dedicated entirely to the South America’s coverage," said Machado.

Since the beginning of these operations, the image frequency and volume of meteorological data over the continent have increased a lot, resulting in greater quality of environmental, weather and climate forecasts of CPTEC, and better monitoring of the short period extreme meteorological phenomena.

However, the concession, should not last for so long. The NOAA stated that there will not be another satellite replacement after the end of GOES-12 lifetime, whose operation might last up to three years maximum. During this period, there is a probability to occur a series of problems with the satellite sensors, as the GOES-12 was launched in 2001.

The CPTEC’s coordinator stresses that the country needs to search for new solutions to supply the necessity of such images and data. One of these initiatives still in feasible studies is to develop a national geostationary satellite. Another good alternative would be the effective Brazilian participation in the new programme of the NOAA’s geostationary satellites, GOES-R Series.

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)

Comment: The more than ten years that Brazilian meteorologists come saying to the government that is necessary to invest in an own meteorological satellite. They are voices that they do not shut up, but that unfortunately are not heard by the government and thus the same one does not get around to solve the problem. That just is acontecer when to happen a catastrophe of large proportions where it finishes enveloping dear entities of that people.