The next generation of U.S. weather satellites is launching Saturday and it's set to revolutionize the way you get your daily forecast.
It will be like going from analog to ultra HD resolution with one simple flip of a switch.
Weather satellite imagery used to be grainy, black and white and difficult to read. Now it will be in super-high resolution.
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The first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was small and circular with two television cameras that polar-orbited the earth.
By the 1970s, NASA began the GOES-R missions -- geostationary satellites that continuously monitor the U.S. instead of circling the earth.
Today's GOES-R satellite will also have an even more advanced sensor that will record images simultaneously in 16 different wave-lengths -- 11 more than our current goes satellites.
"In six months, it will return more data than all the other U.S. geostationary weather satellites have downloaded in the past 40 years," Tim Gasparrini, GOES-R project manager.
For several years it has been like we upgraded our forecast models in high-definition but we're still shooting with standard definition cameras.
But now -- by starting with a high-definition image with more detail -- the global prediction models meteorologists use will instantly improve.
"If there's a severe storm somewhere in the United States -- over a 1,000 by 1,000 kilometer area -- it can take a picture every 30 seconds. and so that means as you string those together -- you can have almost a not quite real time movie of a storm that's developing," said Gasparrini.
But it's not just earthly disasters this satellite is protecting us from -- this spacecraft also has a solar ultra-violet imager that will monitor what is called space weather -- or rather -- eruptions from the sun that can impact earth.
"Trillions of dollars of our economy is weather related or can be impacted by weather and the goes satellite helps to provide warning," said Gasparrini.
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