On this page: GOES-17/Wast operational | GOES-17 pre-operational
GOES-17 (GOES-West) monitored extreme wildfire activity on the West Coast in this GeoColor and fire temperature imagery from Sept. 8, 2020. This imagery shows hot spots and thick smoke plumes from multiple wildfires burning in Oregon and northern California. Although the traditional fire season hasn’t begun yet, more than 70 wildfires are burning in six states. Dry vegetation, record heat, and high winds are fueling wildfire activity across the region, blanketing the area with smoke. A record 2.2 million acres have burned in California this year. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
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While monitoring the Creek Fire burning in California’s Sierra National Forest on Sept. 6, 2020, GOES-17 (GOES-West) captured lightning in a storm produced by the wildfire. Fires can get so hot that they create a “fire thunderstorm.” If the fire is big enough, it will form a pyrocumulonimbus, or a "fire storm cloud,” which can produce lightning. The Creek Fire has burned nearly 80,000 acres and was 0% contained as of Sept. 7, 2020. California is experiencing a record-breaking fire season, with the most acres burned in a single wildfire season – more than 2 million acres to date. Download Video Credit: weathernerds.org
GOES-17 (GOES-West) is monitoring a number of fires in California. In this imagery from August 19, 2020, which combines GeoColor imagery with the fire temperature data product, both the fires' hotspots and smoke plumes are visible. Lightning strikes ignited more than 367 new fires across the state in the last few days, and 23 fires are considered major wildfires. California officials say there have been 6,754 fires across California this year. At this time last year, the state had seen around 4,000 fires. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES-West) monitored Hurricane Douglas at it approached Hawaii on July 25, 2020, in this GeoColor imagery. Douglas became the first hurricane of the 2020 Eastern Pacific season on July 22. Douglas strengthened to a major hurricane (Category 3) on July 23, and was upgraded to a Category 4 storm as it entered the Central Pacific on July 24. Douglas passed north of Maui, Oahu and Kauai on July 26 as a Category 1 hurricane. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
On June 29, 2020, GOES-17 (GOES-West) watched a particularly intense dust cloud race across Nevada’s Mojave Desert while the Brown and Twin fires released long plumes of grayish smoke to the east. These types of dust storms are known as haboobs, and occur in dry regions throughout the world. The word itself is derived from the Arabic word, habb, which means “to blow” or “strong wind.” Haboobs tend to form as a result of thunderstorms—in particular, the thunderstorms’ downdrafts—which are relatively common in the southwestern U.S. during the North American Monsoon Season. This period of increased thunderstorms and rainfall in the region typically occurs from July through September. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
On May 27, 2020, GOES-17 (GOES-West) spied this donut-shaped low-pressure system spinning off of the West Coast via water vapor imagery. This is currently pumping up very hot temperatures into the Southwestern U.S. and will set up a weather pattern known as an Omega Block across the continental United States later in the week. An Omega Block happens when areas of low pressure (around the omega edges) gradually transition to areas of higher pressure in the middle, mimicking the shape of an omega symbol (Ω). Lower pressure usually means cooler, wetter conditions; higher pressure usually produces drier, warmer weather. Download Video Credit: NOAA
GOES-17 (GOES-West) spied these marine stratocumulus clouds (MSCs) off the West Coast on April 10, 2020. They typically form over water and have either closed-cell (~100% cloud cover) or open-cell (broken) forms. Here we can see both. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES-West) viewed Kona low that stalled near Hawaii on March 16, 2020. A Kona storm is a type of seasonal cyclone in the Hawaiian Islands, usually formed in the winter from winds coming from the westerly "kona” direction. This storm produced heavy rainfall, flash flood warnings, and the first tornado warnings for the island since 2008. This air mass RGB (red-green-blue) imagery combines water vapor and infrared imagery from the satellite’s imager and is used to monitor the evolution of cyclones and jet streaks. Lightning data from the satellite is overlaid showing lightning activity in the storm. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured von Kármán vortices produced by Guadalupe Island (off the west coast of Mexico’s Baja California) in this imagery from January 29, 2020. Von Kármán vortices typically form long straight lines over large flat areas of the ocean. However, geological features, like islands and volcanoes, can disrupt the flow of the wind and create spiral patterns, not dissimilar to the way large boulders create downstream eddies in rivers. Also, some of the waves are called "Kelvin ship waves." They form in the wake of boats, ducks, etc. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Can you spot the snow on Hawaii's Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in this GOES-17 (GOES West) day land cloud RGB (red-green-blue) imagery from January 15, 2020? Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on Earth and one of the most active. It covers half the island of Hawaii. Nearby Mauna Kea is dormant and is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. This type of RGB imagery helps meteorologists discern high ice clouds from low water clouds, snow/ice RGB imagery combines multiple channels from the satellite’s imager to enhance meteorological features of interest. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) viewed dense smoke from the Australian bushfires over the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand on January 2, 2020. Australia is fighting one of its worst bushfire seasons, fueled by record-breaking temperatures and months of severe drought. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured a powerful volcanic eruption on White Island, a small uninhabited islet off the coast of New Zealand, on Dec. 9, 2019, at 2:11 p.m. NZST (8:11 p.m. on Dec. 8, EST). The islet, also known by its Māori name, Whakaari, is just 1.5 miles across at its widest and located in the Bay of Plenty, roughly 30 miles off the coast of the country’s North Island. The explosion occurred with little warning as a group of tourists ventured to the crater’s edge, leaving five confirmed dead, at least a dozen more injured, and more than 20 missing. The eruption was an impulsive, short-lived event that affected the crater floor and generated an ash plume about 12,000 feet above the vent, according to GeoNet, an official scientific initiative that’s a collaboration between the New Zealand government’s Earthquake Commission and the New Zealand-based geoscience institute, GNS Science. They explained that ash fall appears confined to the island and that only a minor amount is expected to reach East Cape. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) continued to monitor the Kindcade Fire in northern California on October 27, 2019. This RGB (red-green-blue) imagery allows forecasters to see a fire’s hot spots, smoke, and burn scar in one image. In this type of imagery, hot spots (active wildfire) appears as red, the smoke plume as faded blue or cyan, clouds a bright cyan, and burned area as a locally dark area. Highly vegetated areas appear as bright green, and bodies of water very dark. The active large fire is readily apparent, with the associated burn scar extending north of the ongoing fire. The smoke plume extends well to the southwest of the fire. The heavily forested region of northern California is obvious to the west and northwest of the fire. What appears to be lofted dust is also apparent in this example in the southeast part of the scene. Download Video Credit: NOAA/Satellite Liaison Blog
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured a hurricane-force low (the remnants of Super Typhoon Hagibis) over the Bering Sea and a storm-force low over the Gulf of Alaska in this air mass RGB (red-green-blue) imagery from October 15, 2019. This type of imagery combines data from water vapor and infrared bands on the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager and is used to monitor the evolution of cyclones and jet streaks and provides information on the middle and upper levels of the troposphere. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured rare thunderstorms on the very arid, leeward side of Hawaii’s “Big Island” on August 7, 2019. This day cloud phase distinction RGB (red-green-blue) imagery combines three of the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager channels to evaluate the phase of cooling cloud tops to monitor convective initiation, storm growth and decay. Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) imagery is overlaid. Rapid increases in total lightning (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground) activity often precede severe thunderstorms. Characterizing lightning activity in storms allows forecasters on intensifying storms before they produce damaging winds, hail or tornadoes. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured this nighttime imagery of Hurricane Erick on July 31, 2019. Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data is overlaid, showing lightning activity in the storm. Major hurricane Erick continued to slowly weaken on July 31. Moisture associated with Erick will spread over the Hawaiian Islands by the afternoon of August 1 and produce heavy rainfall. Rainfall is expected to be heaviest over the east and southeast slopes of the Big Island of Hawaii. Download Video Credit: NOAA
GOES-17 (GOES West) sees the eye of Hurricane Barbara as the storm continues strengthening in the Eastern Pacific Basin. Barbara is forecast to become a major hurricane soon, according to the NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center. As of 5 a.m. ET on July 2 2019, Barbara was located about 1,055 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California and was packing winds of 110 mph. Download Video Credit: NOAA
On June 27, 2019, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Juneau, Alaska, issued its first-ever severe thunderstorm warning – based on GOES-17 imagery. There are many challenges to issuing weather forecasts in southeast Alaska, including sparse surface observations, large forecast area, poor/no radar coverage, complex terrain, and until GOES-17 arrived, poor geostationary satellite imagery. On this day, they had one-minute ABI imagery that showed the development of thunderstorms over the far southern end of the Alaska Panhandle. Visible imagery showed the presence of overshooting tops, and infrared imagery indicated very cold cloud tops. The colder the cloud top, the more likely it is to produce rain and severe storms. This GOES-17 infrared imagery of the storm revealed very cold clop tops. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
For the first time since 1924, a major eruption of the Raikoke volcano occurred on June 21, 2019. Raikoke is an uninhabited volcanic island near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. GOES-17 (GOES West) captured imagery of the eruption, which is on the limb of the satellite’s coverage. This multi-day red-green-blue (RGB) imagery loop from June 21-24 shows sulfur dioxide (SO2) from the eruption. The Advanced Baseline Imager on GOES-17 has new infrared channels that are sensitive to SO2, which weren’t available from previous GOES. RGB imagery combines multiple ABI channels to make features like SO2 readily apparent. SO2 is a noxious gas often released by volcanic eruptions and is toxic in high concentrations. It also has considerable environmental effects, including volcanic smog and acid rain, and is harmful to vegetation downwind of the eruption. Download Video Credit: NOAA
How many islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago can you spot in this GOES17 (GOES West) GeoColor imagery from June 5-6, 2019? The Tuamotu are a chain of almost 80 islands and atolls (ring-shaped coral reefs, islands, or series of islets, surrounding a lagoon) in French Polynesia, forming the largest chain of atolls in the world. Located in the southern Pacific Ocean, the archipelago (group of islands) covers an area roughly the size of Western Europe. All of the islands of the Tuamotus are coral "low islands” (high sand bars built upon coral reefs). Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
In this GOES-17 (GOES West) GeoColor view from June 3-4, 2019, fog and low clouds in the marine layer dissipate along the California coast due to daytime heating. There are also a few swirls (low-level circulations) interacting with the islands near the coastline. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES-West) visible imagery revealed the mesoscale cyclonic circulations of actinoform clouds within the marine boundary layer stratocumulus cloud field over the central Pacific Ocean on May 30, 2019. Actinoform clouds are a collection of marine low clouds with a radial structure. In satellite imagery, they look like distinct leaf-like or spokes-on-a-wheel patterns that stand out from the rest of the low-lying cloud field. This type of cloud feature was originally identified in TIROS-V imagery over the Pacific Ocean in 1962 and was featured in the first Monthly Weather Review “Picture of the Month” series in January 1963. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured 30-second visible imagery of thunderstorms developing over southeastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho and northern Nevada on May 29, 2019. Some of the thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall and small hail in southwestern Idaho, and a cold air funnel was spotted in northern Nevada. The new Advanced Baseline Imager instrument allows forecasters to track a storm in near-real time and utilize high-definition views to discern meteorological features like never before. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
Fog and low stratus circulation is seen off the coast of Southern California in this GOES-17 (GOES West) day cloud phase distinction RGB (red-green-blue) imagery from May 13, 2019. This type of imagery is generally used to evaluate the phase of cooling cloud tops to monitor convective initiation, storm growth, and decay but it also allows for easy detection and tracking of fog during the day. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured a variety of deep convection in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the Eastern Pacific in this Day cloud phase distinction red-green-blue (RGB) imagery from May 8-9, 2019. Day cloud phase distinction RGB imagery is used to evaluate the phase of cooling cloud tops to monitor convective initiation, storm growth, and decay. It provides contrast for distinguishing between ice and water clouds and background surfaces. The ITCZ is a region where the northeasterly and southeasterly trade winds converge, forming an often continuous band of clouds or thunderstorms near the equator. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Daytime heating creates clouds over all but the highest mountain peaks in Hawaii in this stunning GOES-17 (GOES West) GeoColor imagery captured May 7-8, 2019. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Fog spills over from the San Francisco Bay area into the central valley of California in this one-minute GeoColor imagery from GOES-17 (GOES West) on May 6, 2019. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES West (GOES-17) spotted eddy circulations (circular currents of water) among the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California in this visible imagery from April 24, 2019. Download Video Credit: NOAA
Can you see it? GOES-17 (GOES West) spotted Easter Island in this day land cloud RGB (red-green-blue) imagery from April 19, 2019. Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world and is home to the famous moai statues. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Convection over the Yukon Territory and ice on the Arctic Ocean are seen in this GOES West (GOES-17) visible imagery from April 16-17, 2019. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES West split window infrared, split cloud top phase infrared, and visible imagery showed a plume of blowing dust on April 9, 2019. The source of the dust was a dry lake bed along the California-Nevada border, which developed in advance of an approaching cold front and moved northeastward across far southern Nevada. Wind gusts of 50-65 mph were reported across the region. Reduced visibility was observed at several airports. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
GOES-17 is providing unprecedented views of Alaska. In this visible imagery from April 3, 2019, we clearly see the north coast of Alaska and multiple meteorological and topographical features. Sea ice movement, the Brooks Range, high clouds, and the frozen Arctic Ocean with a few thin clouds are seen. Barrow is the northernmost city in in the U.S. The previous generation of GOES did not have sufficient resolution at the limb of coverage to provide clear detail of northern Alaska. Download Video Credit: NOAA
Denali, the highest peak in North America, stands above the clouds surrounding the Alaska Range in this GOES West day land cloud RGB (red-green-blue) imagery from March 29, 2019. GOES-17, now in operation as GOES West, is giving forecasters unprecedented views of Alaska. Day land cloud RGB imagery is created by combining two visible and one near-infrared band from the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager. This RGB imagery is useful for identifying low/high clouds and is also used to assess vegetation and detect land surface changes. High ice clouds, snow, and sea ice appear cyan, while low water clouds appear dull gray or white. Vegetation appears green while soil and rock appear brown to dark gray. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES West monitors an extratropical cyclone moving toward the U.S. West Coast on March 4, 2019, in this infrared water vapor imagery. Information from the satellite’s band 10, or lower-level water vapor channel, is used to track lower-tropospheric winds, identify jet streaks, monitor severe weather potential, estimate lower-level moisture, and identify regions of potential turbulence. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
On February 27, 2019, GOES West provided one-minute imagery of American Samoa to monitor heavy rainfall in the region brought by Tropical Cyclone Pola. This GeoColor imagery includes a lightning data overlay from the satellite’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument. This was the first one-minute imagery of American Samoa provided by GOES-17 (GOES West). Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES West captured this RGB (red-green-blue) air mass imagery of a hurricane-force low affecting the Aleutian Islands on February 25, 2019. This type of imagery, which combines data from water vapor and infrared bands on the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager, is used to monitor the evolution of cyclones and jet streaks and provides information on the middle and upper levels of the troposphere. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 (GOES West) captured well-defined ship tracks in the North Pacific Ocean on February 21, 2019, in this GeoColor Imagery. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Convective clouds in this GOES-17 satellite loop show parts of California and Nevada getting heavy rain and mountain snow on February 14, 2019. Some areas in the Sierra Nevada have even reported thundersnow. Thunder and lightning can occur during a snowstorm if there is strong instability in the atmosphere combined with abundant moisture. GOES-17 satellite began operating as NOAA’s GOES West satellite on February 12, 2019, and is helping forecasters better predict major storms that affect the West Coast. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17, now operational as GOES West, monitored an atmospheric river bringing heavy rain and snow to California in this RGB (red-green-blue) air mass imagery from February 13, 2019. The RBG air mass product is used to monitor the evolution of cyclones and jet streaks and provides information on the middle and upper levels of the troposphere. It uses water vapor and infrared imagery from the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Like "rivers in the sky," atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – about 250 to 375 miles wide – and can carry huge amounts of water vapor over thousands of miles, from the tropics to the mid-latitudes. Atmospheric rivers can cause serious flooding and mudslides in places like California, but they’re also a critical water supply for much of the U.S. West Coast. On average, between 30 and 50 percent of annual precipitation in the west coast states occurs during just a few of these events. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
A note to the weather community about using GOES-17 data:
This section contains imagery prior to GOES-17 being declared operational. Users assume all risk related to their use of pre-operational GOES-17 data and NOAA disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Even out near the edge of its coverage area, GOES-17 clearly detects the hot spot and smoke from the Pigeon Valley Fire near Nelson, New Zealand, in this imagery from February 6-7, 2019. The smoke is visible in the GeoColor imagery on the left and the hot spot in the fire temperature imagery on the right. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 captured a complex mid-latitude cyclone on January 25, 2019. In this RGB (red-green-blue) air mass imagery, the cyclone shears apart over Alaska. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 sees spectacular detail in the cloud evolution around Hawaii on January 15, 2019 in this GeoColor imagery. Download Video Credit: NOAA
GOES-17 captured a massive rope cloud over the eastern Pacific Ocean on January 16, 2019. A rope cloud is a very narrow, long, sometimes meandering, cumulus cloud formation that is frequently visible in satellite imagery that is associated with a cold front or a land–sea breeze front. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
This imagery from GOES-17 on January 16, 2019, shows another storm poised to hit the U.S. West Coast This red-green-blue (RGB) air mass imagery with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) overlay shows the storm already producing lightning. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 captured the strong winter storm that battered southeast Alaska with a combination of gusty winds, rain and snow on December 19, 2018. This loop shows one-minute natural color day land cloud RGB (red-green-blue) imagery. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
Full(er) disk imagery from GOES East (GOES-16) and GOES-17 (soon to be GOES West)! This animation shows the Western Hemisphere in a Mollweide map projection, combining GOES-16 and GOES-17 water vapor imagery from December 10-17, 2018. Download Video Credit: CIMSS
GOES-17 captured this mid-latitude cyclone on November 29, 2018, which brought heavy rain and snow to California. This imagery utilizes the RGB (red-green-blue) Airmass product, which is used to monitor the evolution of cyclones and jet streaks and provides information on the middle and upper levels of the troposphere. It uses water vapor and infrared imagery from the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
There's a reason they call New Zealand the Land of the Long White Cloud. Check out this beautiful view of clouds streaming over the North and South Island, seen from GOES-17 on November 22, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
GOES-17 captured this view of Denali's shadow sweeping over the interior of Alaska on November 16, 2018. Towering 20,310 feet above sea level, Denali is the highest peak in North America. The mountain casts a very long shadow when the sun is low in the sky this time of year. This visible satellite imagery is from Band 2 on the GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager. GOES-17 has significantly improved satellite coverage of Alaska with new spectral channels, increased resolution, and faster scanning ability than the previous generation of GOES. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
GOES-17 arrived at its final operational position of 137.2 degrees west longitude on November 13, 2018. This full disk imagery from November 15 shows views from each of the satellite's 16 Advanced Baseline Imager channels. The satellite will go into operations as NOAA's GOES West on December 10, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
GOES-17 is sharing is first images from its new vantage point over the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian Islands are seen in stunning detail in this GeoColor imagery from November 13, 2018. In this animation, high-level clouds are moving over low clouds and convective clouds form on the windward side of the mountain slopes of the islands. GOES-17 will undergo additional testing in its new location before entering into operational service as NOAA’s GOES West satellite on December 10, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
This GOES-17 GeoColor imagery shows an area of clouds streaming over a thick plume of brown smoke from the Woolsey Fire in southern California, on November 13, 2018. This imagery was captured from GOES-17’s new vantage point of 137.2 degrees west longitude. GOES-17 undergo additional testing in its new location before entering into operational service as NOAA’s GOES West satellite on December 10, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIRA
17 views of Earth from GOES-17, one from each of the 16 channels of the satellite's Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and a view in "natural color," an approximation of how we see Earth from space. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA/CIMSS
A comparison of visible imagery from three GOES satellites, left to right, GOES-15 (GOES West) scanning every 30 minutes, GOES-17 (preliminary/non-operational) every 5 minutes and GOES-16 (GOES East) generating 1-minute imagery. This comparison loop clearly shows how ABI advancements help monitor severe weather. The imagery shows a severe thunderstorm that developed ahead of an advancing cold front in central South Dakota late in the day on August 26, 2018. This storm produced hail as large as 4 inches in diameter and also exhibited an above anvil cirrus plume (AACP) which is a signature often associated with severe thunderstorms. Download Video Credit: NOAA/CIMSS
This color-enhanced imagery from one of the GOES-17’s longwave infrared bands shows convective activity in the western U.S. on July 29, 2018. Band 14 is used to characterize atmospheric processes associated with thunderstorms and convective complexes. The cold clouds in this animation (colored red and black) are associated with a storm system that included reports of tornadoes, hail and strong wind. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
This 16-panel imagery shows an animated snapshot of the continental U.S. and surrounding oceans from each of the Advanced Baseline Imager’s channels on July 29, 2018. This includes, from top left to bottom right, two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels. Each channel has a specific purpose in discerning meteorological and environmental features. A number of features can be seen in this imagery, including clouds over the mid-Mississippi region and off both coasts, the warm land temperatures over the Western U.S., and atmospheric moisture. This imagery was captured during a “cool” season, when all 16 channels are available 24 hours per day. During “warm” seasons, it’s estimated that there will some data outages for 9 of the channels to varying degrees during the night. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
GOES-17 shares its first wildfire imagery showing the deadly Ferguson Fire burning near Yosemite National Park. The Fire has burned over 12,000 acres and is only 5% contained as of July 17, 2018. This loop is from 2:46 pm to 7:06 pm PDT on July 16, 2017. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA/CIRA
Can you see this animation in 3D? Test your depth perception with this stereoscopic view of storms over the Tennessee River Valley on July 11, 2018. GOES East (GOES-16) is on the left, GOES17 on the right. The GOES-17 satellite (launched March 1, 2018), is currently in a test position, viewing Earth from 22,000 miles above the equator at 89.5 degrees west longitude. Meanwhile, GOES East is positioned at 75.2 degrees west longitude. The relative proximity of these two satellites means that we can create stereoscopic, or three-dimensional, imagery by placing views from each satellite next to one another. To view the animation in three dimensions, cross your eyes so that three separate images are present, then focus on the image in the middle. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA/CIMSS
GOES-17 captured sunset over Earth’s Western Hemisphere on May 20, 2018, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument. This view from over 22,000 miles out in space is presented in GeoColor, which captures features of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere in vivid detail and colors intuitive to human vision. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
GOES-17 monitors clouds in our atmosphere with amazing detail and clarity. These dynamic marine stratocumulus cloud patterns off the western coast of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean are revealed by the Advanced Baseline Imager on May 20, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
The GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager captured a deck of low level stratus clouds covering the southern California coast on May 20, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
The Advanced Baseline Imager on GOES-17 detects smoke plumes as shown in this imagery of wildfires in central and northern Saskatchewan, Canada, observed on May 20, 2018. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA
NOAA’s GOES-17 satellite has transmitted its first Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data. This GLM data in this animation shows storms quickly intensifying and forming into an impressive line across the U.S. Plains on May 9, 2018. These storms quickly grew into an impressive line of storms that persisted into the evening and overnight hours, producing large hail, high winds, and a few tornadoes. Experience from the initial GOES East GLM is helping scientists and engineers tune this new instrument, which eventually will extend GLM coverage over most of the Pacific Ocean. Data from GLM helps inform forecasters when a storm is forming, intensifying and becoming more dangerous. Download Video Credit: NOAA/NASA