NOAA ISSUES CALL FOR PAPERS FOR FUTURE GOES MISSION

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today issued a call for papers for the Third GOES Users’ Conference. The conference, which will be held in Boulder, Colo., May 10-13, 2004, is designed to help users of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite prepare to acquire, apply and distribute data from the upcoming GOES-R spacecraft. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In the United States, GOES are a mainstay of weather and space weather forecasting, and ocean and climate monitoring. The third generation of GOES will provide new data unlike anything seen before in the history of Earth observations. This new GOES will scan the Earth nearly five times faster than the current GOES.

GOES-R — set for launch in 2012 — will provide critical atmospheric, oceanic, climatic, solar and space data. The satellite will house an advanced imager, hyper-spectral sounder, coastal water sensor, lightning mapper, solar imager and space environment monitor.

The conference will consist of speaker presentations, poster sessions, and facilitated breakout sessions. Abstracts are welcome for poster papers focusing on GOES-R potential applications, GOES-R as part of the Global Observing System and the smooth transition to GOES-R. The deadline for abstracts is Jan. 28, 2004.

The satellites will provide the user community (television meteorologists, private weather companies, the aviation and agriculture communities, and national and international government agencies) 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. “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. We are defining the future GOES-R today.”

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

NOAA’s National Environmental Satellites, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) is the nation’s primary provider of space-based environmental and climate data. It operates the nation’s environmental satellites, which are used for weather and ocean observation and forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications, including sea-surface temperature, fire detection and ozone monitoring.

NESDIS operates three data centers, which house global databases in climatology, oceanography, solid Earth geophysics, marine geology and geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics and paleoclimatology.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department.

On the Web:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

NOAA Satellites and Information: http//www.nesdis.noaa.gov

Third GOES Users’ Conference: http://www.osd.noaa.gov/announcement/index.htm