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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama – NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has new equipment that will improve weather forecasts and help keep you and your family safe in extreme weather conditions.
The new antennas receive satellite information 25,000 miles above the surface of the earth.
Geostationary operational environmental satellites, or GOES systems, produce the weather images you see on television and can even map the lightning. This is a big improvement over previous satellites.
"Collects data in three times more channels or spectral bands, at four times the resolution, at five times the data rate," said Gary Jedlovec, head of the Earth Sciences Division at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
As a result, there is approximately 20 times more data to come. Newer larger antenna systems are needed to handle everything. Each has a diameter of more than 22 feet and can receive satellite data every 30 seconds.
"In order to be able to track the rapidly changing weather patterns, so that we can understand these weather processes, forecasters can use it to improve their weather forecasts and communicate that information to the public," Jedlovec said.
He said it would help with heavy rains, tornadoes and severe weather. One of the satellites helped track the recent hurricane Florence.
"We make all the data available, not only to scientific researchers in this community, but also to the United States and the world, and we make all our data available to the public," he said.
The satellites and antenna should be operational over the next 20 years. They say that the information provided by the space will greatly improve our lives here on Earth.
The facility and antennas will become a tour stop for the US Space and Rocket Center to show people how NASA is helping to improve weather forecasts.
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