JACKSONVILLE, Fla – The nations most advanced weather satellite sent back first images and they look sharp! The timing couldn't be better capturing the sweeping ice storm in mid January with 4x greater resolution.
The Weather Authority is marveling at the crisp detailed images that came down from a satellite positioned more than 23 thousand miles in space.
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Not only are the images high resolution but the capture process is rapid fire snapping a photo every 30 seconds at times. Animated sequences will reveal clouds formations in fluid detail. This will help the weather team spot developing severe weather quicker.
The satellite called GOES-16 has an the Advanced Baseline Imager onboard that acts like a camera than can handle 3 times more data. Cloud surveillance will be accomplished using more techniques and lightning will be mapped across the western hemisphere from space.
GOES-16 was launched on Nov. 19, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. While operational images are not streaming back continuously during the calibration period, full operation is expected later in the year.