GOES-R

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites–R Series (GOES-R) is NOAA’s current generation of weather satellites in geostationary orbit. The program is a collaboration between NOAA and NASA: NASA builds and launches the satellites for NOAA, which operates them and distributes their data to users worldwide.

GOES satellites orbit 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth’s equator at the speed of Earth’s rotation, so each stays over the same region. Four GOES-R Series satellites launched between 2016 and 2024. GOES-19, launched as GOES-U in 2024, operates as GOES East and GOES-18 as GOES West; together they watch more than half the globe, from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand. GOES-16 and GOES-17 serve as on-orbit backups.

The series’ imager scans Earth five times faster than earlier GOES, with four times the resolution and three times the number of channels, and can image severe storms as often as every 30 seconds. The satellites also carry the first operational lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit and instruments that monitor the Sun and space weather.

Read more about GOES-R

• Why the station, Landsat, GPS, GOES and Webb fly where they doHeight sets a satellite’s speed; tilt and shape set what it sees. Five neighborhoods, from the station about 400 km up to Webb 1.5 million km away, and the work each one makes possible.
• NOAA’s weather satellites: how they watch storms, and what replaces themTwo GOES satellites stare at the Americas from 22,236 miles up while polar orbiters circle the globe. NASA builds them, NOAA flies them, and Congress is deciding how much of the next generation to pay for.