Making a Weather Forecast with a GOES-R Series Weather Satellite

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music and opening credits


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Whoa!

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Things are looking pretty bad down there,

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but don't worry. I'm going to give

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weather forecasters a heads up and help

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you stay safe.

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I'm a GOES-R series weather satellite,

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and one of my jobs is to keep an eye on

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Earth's weather as I orbit above. But I'm

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22,000 miles above Earth. How does your

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local weather forecaster know what I see

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all the way up here? First I have to

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figure out what's going on.

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I point my special camera at the Earth and take

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pictures of the clouds i see below. My

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pictures show where the clouds are, but I

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also take lots of other notes about the

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clouds. For example how high they reach

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into the atmosphere, how much rain they

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might cause and when a severe storm

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may be forming. But I can't keep all of

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this information to myself. I have to

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share it with weather forecasters down

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on Earth.

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A big antenna is waiting for my call.

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Since I'm a satellite, I send my pictures

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and notes in a computer language of ones

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and zeroes.

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Luckily the antenna speaks my language.

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Computers connected to the antenna

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organize my notes and combine all of the

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pictures and cloud information and

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translate them into weather maps. They

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send a version of the maps back up to me.

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I'll hold onto these for later. Another

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copy of the maps is split into smaller

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pieces.

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This helps the maps move faster from one

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place to another.

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The map pieces are then sent for

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processing before being sent back up in

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the sky to a communications satellite.

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From there the maps are picked up by antennas

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at the National Weather Service

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forecast offices in each region. There

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are more than 100 offices! I also take

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the maps that I received and send them

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out to companies that specialize in

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making the maps more colorful and better

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for viewing on TVs and computers. The

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colorful maps and the maps from the

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forecast offices then go to your local

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weather forecaster. The forecaster

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combines the information from these maps

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with lots of other information like

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model forecast data and radar data to

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make predictions about the upcoming

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weather in your area. And that's how I

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help you find out if bad weather is

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going to ruin your afternoon plans.

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You're welcome!