GOES Satellites “See” The World in a Kaleidoscope of Colors

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The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) onboard NOAA’s GOES-R series of geostationary satellites utilizes 16 different wavelengths (or spectral bands) to monitor the Earth in different ways. These satellites also stay more than 22,000 miles above specific areas of the planet as it rotates, so they can see how weather patterns change over time.

As NOAA’s GOES-East satellite watched Hurricane Laura this week, this is how the storm looked via the different spectral bands, which include two visible, four near-infrared, and ten infrared.

The most recent iteration of the ABI sensor can scan both routine “full disk” imagery and more localized areas as often as every 30 seconds to help deliver more accurate short-term weather forecasts. The ABI provides three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage than the previous models. All of these data and imagery provide researchers and forecasters with better information on hurricane development, intensification, and landfall.

Learn more about each of the various spectral bands on the ABI and what they can tell us as well as other types of satellite products here.

The GOES-East geostationary satellite, also known as GOES-16, keeps watch over most of North America, including the continental United States and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa. The satellite's high-resolution imagery provides optimal viewing of severe weather events, including thunderstorms, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

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