NOAA Satellite and Information Service GOES Constellation Status Chris Wheeler GOES Team Lead Office of Satellite Operations National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service

Agenda GOES On-Orbit Configuration On-Orbit Configuration GOES Spacecraft Overview GOES Spacecraft Status GOES-10 Decommission Plan GOES East Transition Imager Stray Light Effects GVAR Changes for GOES-14 and GOES-15

GOES On-Orbit Configuration Current as of 11/2/09 Launched: 4/1997 Located: 60°W South America Launched: 5/2000 Located: 135°W GOES-WEST Launched: 7/2001 Located: 75°W GOES-EAST Launched: 5/2006 Located: 105°W SPARE Launched: 6/2009 Located: 89.5°W Post-Launch Test

GOES Spacecraft Overview GOES I-M Series: Built by Space Systems / Loral in Palo Alto, CA Based on Loral 1300 bus series Design Life: 5yrs GOES N-P Series: Built by Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, CA Based on Boeing 601 series Design Life: 10yrs (bus) / 5yrs (instruments)

Key Differences between GOES I-M and GOES N-P Enhancement Earth Sensor Attitude Determination Star Tracker Attitude Determination Star Trackers more accurate, less noisy, not immune to diurnal/seasonal thermal variations Simplifies INR Operations, reduces image outage times Improved INR performance Includes Solar Sail Eliminates Solar Sail Elimination of solar sail reduces instrument cooler backloading Improves detector performance Ground-based image schedule Flight-based image schedule On-board schedule protects against intermittent uplink outages Analog WEFAX Digital LRIT Analog to digital conversion 2 x 12 Amp-hour, NiCd batteries 123 Ah NiMH battery GOES N-P design supports full operations during eclipse

GOES Spacecraft Status

GOES-O/14 Status Launched June 27, 2009 Currently in on-orbit test at 89.5°W All systems operating nominally MAGPD Telescope 5 noisy detector Drift to 105°W planned for 11/4/09 – 11/20/09 NOAA Science Test planned for 11/30/09 – 1/4/10 Plan to continue operating XRS while in earth-pointed “storage”

GOES-N/13 Status Solar X-Ray Imager CCD detector partial Launch Date: May 24, 2006 Orbital Location: 105°W longitude Designation: On-Orbit Spare Solar X-Ray Imager CCD detector partial damage during X9 solar flare and cosmic particle hit. N2 thruster anomalous thrust level. Thruster use restricted. No user impact. XRS capacitor short

GOES-M/12 Status Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS) channels noisy. Launch Date: July 23, 2001 Orbital Location: 75°W longitude Designation: Operational East Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS) channels noisy. X-ray positioner electronics failed. XRS cannot track Sun. Solar X-Ray Imager high voltage power supply failed. Thruster 2B oxidizer valve leak. “B” side thrusters isolated.

GOES-L/11 Status X-ray positioner electronics failed. XRS Launch Date: May 3, 2000 Orbital Location: 135°W longitude Designation: Operational West X-ray positioner electronics failed. XRS cannot track Sun. Reduced battery 1 capacity. Potential impact to user services during eclipse Imager/Sounder primary sensor data transmitter failed. Switched to redundant transmitter Command receiver B failed; Receiver A operating nominally

GOES-K/10 Status Sounder Filter Wheel stalled Launch Date: April 25, 1997 Orbital Location: 60°W longitude Designation: Operational Atlantic/South America Sounder Filter Wheel stalled Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS) channels noisy. No fuel remaining for stationkeeping Solar array forward mode failed. Spacecraft Inverted and solar array run in reverse. Data Collection Platform Interrogate (DCPI) Primary transmitter failed. Switched to Redundant transmitter.

GOES-10 Decommission Plan GOES-10 has reached end of fuel life Remaining fuel reserved for de-orbit maneuvers De-commission activities scheduled for December 1-2, 2009 GOES-10 instruments and communication services will be de-activated Dec. 1 at approx. 12:30z (7:30am EST) Dedicated South America imaging operations will be interrupted Series of maneuvers will be performed to boost GOES-10 300km above geosynchronous orbit De-commission objectives: Boost orbit 300km above geosynchronous altitude Deplete remaining fuel Power off electro-mechanical systems Disable battery charging Turn off all transmitters to prevent RF interference Following decommission, GOES-10 is not recoverable

South America Coverage NOAA/NESDIS operating GOES-10 at 60 degrees West since December 2006. Provides continuous GOES coverage of South America during GOES EAST rapid scan operations. Positive impact to South American severe storm and flash flood forecast and warnings. GOES-10 at end of fuel life and must be de-orbited. NOAA has received requests to continue South American support through multiple international organizations. NESDIS recommendation to utilize GOES-12 for South America coverage by June 2010 Can provide dedicated South America coverage in time for the North Atlantic hurricane season GOES-12 east-west fuel available for 3 years of operation No fuel remaining for inclination control Awaiting approval from NOAA Headquarters

Proposed GOES East Transition Draft Proposed GOES East Transition GOES-13 replaces GOES-12 in April 2010 Minimum impact to GOES constellation fly-out scenarios Goal is to complete transition prior to 2010 hurricane season Similar sequence to GOES-8/12 transition Provides significant test period for OSDPD and direct users to evaluate ingest systems Does not require users to re-point antenna systems during drift period Incorporates a single GVAR switch from GOES-12 to GOES-13 If approved, GOES-12 would be available for South America coverage beginning in May 2010 GOES-12 Drift from 75 to 60 GOES-13 Drift from 105 to 75

GOES East Transition Timeline 1/19 GOES-13 Return to Normal Mode Imager, Sounder, SEM activated SXI remains off 1/21 Image Navigation Start-up (4 days) 1/25 Begin GOES-13 execution of GOES East Schedule 2/9 Perform GOES-13 Annual inclination maneuver 2/17 Conduct GOES-13 Operations Readiness Review 2/23 Start GOES-13 Eastward Drift from 105°W to 75°W 3/8 Near 99°W; Activate GOES-13 SXI/MDL 4/14 Near 81°W; GOES-13 becomes GOES-East Stop GOES-12 GVAR GOES-13 GVAR relayed through GOES-12 Users do not re-point antenna 4/26 Stop GOES-13 Drift at 75°W GOES-13 GVAR relayed through GOES-13 Switch ancillary COMM services from GOES-12 to GOES-13

Imager Stray Light Effects GOES I-M series instruments had a solar keep-out-zone restriction when the sun was < 7° from scan frame Imager/Sounder frames cancelled to prevent overheating of the secondary mirror assemblies GOES N-P instrument modifications eliminate solar keep-out-zone effects GOES N-P design allows for continuous imaging operations through eclipse Verified through post-launch testing and GOES-13 operational periods However….. Solar stray light contamination is observed when the sun is <10-15 degrees from the image frame. Comparative tests performed on GOES 11-13 in April 2009 show that stray light performance is the same for GOES 11-13 Subsequent testing on GOES-14 during Fall 2009 eclipse season show similar performance on GOES-14

Imager Stray Light Mitigation Why not scan away from contaminated data? Options include: Take all images regardless of Sun position. Let users decide which images to use Considered undesirable Cancel image when the Sun is close to the frame boundary Re-introduces keep-out-zone Results in a lot of frame cancellations Undesirable Scan away from the Sun Scan partial or shifted frames Short-term approach Apply an L1b algorithmic correction to remove stray light prior to GVAR broadcast NASA/NOAA/ITT study underway Long-Term approach Original Image Corrected Image See poster presentation for more info

GVAR Changes for GOES-O/P Background GOES-O/P Imagers have additional 8th IR detector Imager factory coefficients (including instrument nadir positions) previously copied from Block 0 to Block 11 for GOES-12 and beyond Beginning with GOES-O, factory coefficients were removed from Block 0. Issues Instrument offsets are important for image navigation Block 11 is transmitted infrequently User ingest systems were not updated to reflect GVAR changes Resolution Instrument offsets are being copied back to previously spare locations in Block 0 Effective early November 2009

GOES Calibration Information GOES Calibration Website http://www.oso.noaa.gov/goes/goes-calibration/index.htm For Imagers and Sounders of current and previous operational satellites, contains up-to-date (from instrument developer) Calibration parameters, and Spectral response functions Recent update for GOES-13 Imager channel-6 Spectral response functions A shifted and current operational version approved by NOAA/NESDIS Calibration Oversight Panel (CalPOP) Recent addition GOES-O calibration parameters and spectral response functions Pending addition GOES-P calibration parameters and spectral response functions