GOES 11 Becomes Primary Electron Satellite, GOES 10 Secondary Satellite

December 1, 2008 --On Friday, 28 November, the GOES 12 Electron sensor began experiencing periods of noisy data. Therefore, GOES 11 has been designated the SWPC GOES Electron Satellite and GOES 10 the Secondary.

The electron detector provides three energetic particle channels: >0.6 MeV electrons, >2 MeV electrons, and 15-40 MeV protons. These data are the basis for alerts and warnings that help to mitigate satellite failures due to spacecraft charging and to mitigate the radiation hazard encountered by astronauts during space walks.

GOES 11 Proton, Electron, and Magnetometer Outages Through Eclipse Season

April 14 , 2008 -- Beginning March 12, GOES 11 Proton, Electron and Magnetometer instruments was turned off during eclipse periods. Maximum eclipse times were March 18 0835 to 0945 UT. GOES 11 eclipse seasonended April 10.

GOES 10 X-ray Outages During Eclipse Season

April 14 , 2008 -- GOES 10 X-ray outages due to spacecraft eclipse season started Feb 20 and ended April 5. Maximum eclipse duration reached about 65 minutes on March 11. X-ray sensors (XRS) are not operational on other GOES satellites to fill in for the GOES-10 eclipses.

GOES 10 Becomes Primary X-ray Satellite, no Secondary Satellite

February 11, 2008 -- GOES 11 X-ray data has been unavailable since Feb. 10. The expectation is that GOES 11 X-rays will remain unavailable. Other GOES 11 data is still available.

GOES 10 has been moved to the primary SWPC X-rays data. There is no secondary GOES X-ray data at this time. GOES 10 data resumed at 1630 UT Feb 10 and will continue indefinitely.

No GOES 10 Data Beginning December 17, 2007

December 18, 2007 -- GOES-10, the SWPC secondary GOES Satellite for X-ray and Proton data, is again not being tracked at SWPC due to antenna problems. SWPC GOES-10 tracking is expected to resume in early February. GOES-10 data products continue to be created, but with missing data values.

December 5-17, 2007 -- GOES 10 tracking was restarted during the GOES 12 outage.
November 21 - Dec 5, 2007 -- GOES-10, the SWPC secondary GOES Satellite for X-ray and Proton data, was not tracked at SWPC due to an antenna problem.

GOES 12 Data Resumes After December 5-17, 2007 Outage

December 18, 2007 -- GOES 12 was unavailable at SWPC from 1010UT December 5 until 2040UT December 17, 2007 due to antenna problems at SWPC.

GOES-12 SXI and XRS Out of Commission Indefinitely

Impact: on XRS: GOES 11 designated Primary GOES satellite and GOES 10 Secondary. Routine GOES-12 XRS observations suspended indefinitely.

Impact on SXI: Routine GOES-12 SXI observations suspended indefinitely.

August 24, 2007 -- On 12 April 2007 the ability to point the SXI and XRS solar sensors aboard the GOES-12 spacecraft was lost due to the failure of a component in the electronics box that controls the north-south motion of both instruments. Although the SXI and XRS instruments continue to function, the Sun now enters the field of view only for a brief period twice a year at the equinoxes.

Since it appears highly unlikely that the pointing functionality can be ever be recovered, routine GOES-12 SXI and XRS observations have been suspended indefinitely. Some limited imaging may be attempted for engineering purposes during the equinoxes, but there is no plan at present to reactivate SXI and XRS in operational mode.