The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will hold a conference for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites data users on May 22 - 24 in Boulder, Colo. The meeting will seek input on the next generation of environmental satellites.

GOES satellites are a mainstay of weather forecasting in the United States. Their images of the clouds are seen daily on television weather forecasts. The third generation of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites will provide a burst of new data in the next decade unlike anything seen before in the history of Earth observations. With its first launch planned for 2010, this new GOES will scan the Earth nearly five times faster than the current GOES. The satellites will provide the user community (television meteorologists, foreign governments and private weather companies) with about eight times the amount of data currently provided.

"Advanced planning is taking place for the development of the future GOES," said NOAA's James Gurka, who is organizing the conference. "So now is the time for the user community to assist NOAA in fine-tuning the details of GOES requirements, products, communications, and distribution of data."

The conference is designed to provide two-way communication between NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service and the GOES user community; to inform GOES data users of plans for the next generation of satellites; provide information on potential applications; determine user needs for new products; and assess potential user and societal benefits of GOES capabilities.

The conference will consist of two days of invited presentations followed by one day of breakout sessions with professional facilitators. Speakers include Greg Withee, NOAA assistant administrator for satellite and information services; Elbert W. (Joe) Friday, of the National Research Council; and Ray Ban, senior vice president of The Weather Channel.

The conference is sponsored by NOAA, in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the American Meteorological Society, the National Weather Association, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the World Meteorological Organization.

For more information on the conference, see: http://www.osd.noaa.gov/conference/

Online registration is available at: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/confpage/conffutr.htm

For questions, please contact Wendy Ortega Henderson at ortegaw@boulder.nist.gov or call (303) 497-3693.