GOES Real Time Products

CIMSS scientists routinely create meteorological products from an operational satellite series in geostationary orbit, called the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (or GOES). Derived atmospheric products from the Sounder instruments on the current GOES series (begun in 1994 with GOES-8) include moisture and stability, cloud information, and ozone concentration. These sounding data are often shown and animated as Derived Product Images (DPI), which help to emphasize the characteristic observing strengths of the current geostationary sounders: frequency (hourly or better) and horizontal resolution (to a nominal 10 km). This information is provided to forecasters to augment other data sources that are used in building forecasts, such as in-situ surface observations and balloon profiles, as well as to assess the validity of numerically modeled forecast fields.

Currently, three GOES satellites are in operation: one over the eastern U.S. (GOES-12), one over the western U.S. (GOES-10), and one over the western Pacific Ocean (GOES-9, on loan to Japan), resulting in unprecedented geographic coverage, ranging from larger scale composites (including Japan eastward through Maine) to local scale focus regions (e.g., Wisconsin). Such coverage allows greater opportunity to examine trends and patterns in moisture, stability, cloud, and ozone products, which are provided as additional and/or unique information to use in improving the weather forecasting process. These products are also displayed in near-real time on the Web, for collaborators and the public to use and evaluate.