Informations : Scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Nov. 19, the nation’s newest weather satellite, GOES-R, promises to revolutionize how researchers and forecasters see the Earth from space. Scientists at Colorado State University are at the forefront of developing new tools and products in support of the upcoming mission.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program, a joint venture of NASA and NOAA, constitutes the most commonly used, and arguably most important instruments for observing and forecasting weather. Currently, two GOES spacecraft are orbiting the planet from about 22,000 miles away, a carefully selected distance at which the spacecraft’s orbital velocity matches the rotation of the Earth. From the perspective of a viewer on Earth, the satellite appears to hover, giving it a stationary (hence "geostationary") view of our ever-changing weather.

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