September, 2012
GOES-14 Online as Secondary X-ray Sensor and Imager

GOES-14 has been brought online to provide additional operational coverage during the GOES eclipse season, the period where Earth comes between the GOES spacecraft and the Sun, obscuring the measurement for a brief period each day. After the eclipse season (on or around October 16th), GOES-14 will become the primary, and only, operational X-ray measurement platform (both XRS and SXI) during planned maintenance for GOES-15. After the GOES-15 maintenance (on or around October 30th), GOES-14 will return to storage and GOES-15 will once again be the primary, and only, operational X-ray measurement platform.

Late February 2011
GOES 15 will Replace GOES 11 as
Secondary SWPC GOES Proton, Electron and Magnetometer Satellite

January 10, 2011 -- GOES-11 is the SWPC Secondary GOES satellite for particle and magnetometer measurements. Due to resource constraints, SWPC will stop collecting and processing GOES 11 space weather data on February 28, 2011 at 1800 UT. This is eight months prior to the currently scheduled official September 2011 replacement of the GOES 11 spacecraft, . In February, GOES 15, at 90 degrees longitude, will become the SWPC Secondary GOES particle and magnetometer satellite.

The primary impact will be on the longitudinal spacing of the in situ Magnetometer and Energetic Particle data which currently come from the two geosynchronous locations GOES-13 at 75 degrees longitude (GOES East) and GOES-11 at 135 degrees longitude (GOES West). From February to September 2011, SWPC will provide particle and magnetometer data from GOES-13, the primary satellite at 75 degrees longitude and GOES 15, the secondary satellite, at 90 degrees longitude. This change effectively decreases longitude spatial separation between observations from 60 degrees to 15 degrees.

This situation will exist until around September 2011 when a new GOES satellite is brought from the storage location near 100 degrees longitude to the GOES West position at 135 degrees longitude, and will become the SWPC Secondary GOES satellite for particle and magnetometer data. From that point forward, it is anticipated that the nominal magnetometer and particle data will once again be available from the two operational GOES satellites; GOES-13 located at 75 and GOES-14 at 135 degrees.

The GOES 11 X-Ray Sensor on was turned off several years ago.

The following SWPC products will be effected:

• Data lists: GOES Proton Channel -- GOES Energetic Proton and Electron --GOES Magnetometer

• Data Plots: 3-day GOES Proton Flux -- 3-day GOES Electron Flux -- 3-day Satellite Environment -- 3-day GOES Magnetometer H-component

Comments and questions are welcome: SWPC.CustomerSupport@noaa.gov

GOES 15 Designated Primary Satellite for X-ray and SXI data
No Secondary Satellite for X-rays or SXI

October 28, 2010 -- GOES 15 became the Primary SWPC GOES X-ray and SXI satellite replacing GOES 14. GOES 14 will be put into storage mode. There are only minor differences in the appearance of the GOES 14 and GOES 15 X-ray data at the lowest flux levels.

There is no SWPC Secondary GOES X-ray or SXI satellite.

GOES 13 Designated Primary SWPC GOES Satellite
for Protons, Electrons and Magnetometer

April 14 , 2010 -- GOES 13 became the Primary SWPC GOES Satellite for the Proton, Electron and Magnetometer instruments and GOES 11 is designated the Secondary Satellite.
GOES 12 is being decommissioned.

GOES 13 HEPAD data -- channels P8 - P11 are temporarily unavailable until calibration issues are resolved.

Revised Geometrical Factors for GOES 13, 14 and 15 EPEAD Electron Channels

Starting with GOES 13, SWPC is using new geometrical factors for processing two of the three Energetic Proton, Electron and Alpha Detectors (EPEAD) electron channels (E1 and E3) and a new energy threshold for one of the electron channels (E1). The processing of the most heavily used channel (E2) remains unchanged. The changes are summarized as follows:

	GOES 8-12 EPS		GOES 13-15 EPEAD
Channel	Energy (MeV)	Geom. Fact. (cm^2 sr)	Energy (MeV)	Geom. Fact. (cm^2 sr)
E1	>0.6	0.078	>0.8	0.75 (9.6x increase)
E2	>2.0	0.05	>2.0	0.05
E3	>4.0	0.0175	>4.0	0.056 (3.2x increase)

These changes represent reevaluations of the instrument performance, not design changes.  There are currently no plans to reprocess the GOES 8-12 electron data.

Background: On GOES 13, 14 and 15, the Energetic Proton, Electron and Alpha Detectors (EPEAD) are essentially the same as the Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS) on GOES 8-12.  There are two EPEADs on each satellite, one looking east and one looking west.  Of the three electron channels, E1 and E2 are derived from the D3 Dome detector and E3 is derived from the D4 Dome detector.  For more information, please see T. G. Onsager et al. (1996), Operational uses of the GOES energetic particle detectors, in GOES-8 and Beyond, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 2812, edited by E. R. Washwell, pp. 281-290, Bellingham, WA.
For operational processing at SWPC, a single geometrical factor is applied to the count rates for each channel regardless of the shape of the electron spectrum.  Based in part on recharacterizations of the EPEAD performed for GOES 13, 14 and 15, the instrument contractor recommended effective single geometrical factors and energy thresholds for the three electron channels.  SWPC has adopted the recommended changes for E1 and E3. (For E2, the most heavily used electron channel, the recommended geometrical factor was only 10% lower than the old factor; therefore, for consistency, the old factor has been kept in use for GOES 13-15.) The new factors result in lower fluxes for E1 and E3.
The old geometrical factors for E1 and E3 were derived by SWPC, not by the contractor.  The difference between the old and new energy thresholds for E1 reflects a gradual “turn-on” of the channel response to electrons.  The new factors do not account for inter-calibration between units on the same spacecraft or on different spacecraft.

There is currently no Secondary satellite for X-rays. GOES 14 Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) On Orbit Checkout images are available at SWPC.

Product Changes

Data plots: Satellite Environment, Electron Flux, Proton Flux, and Magnetometer. See Today's Space Weather, SWPC Real-time Monitor Displays. Plus Plots of Solar-Geophysical Data accessible via the web or anonymous FTP

Data Lists: GOES Proton and Electron, Proton Channel, and Magnetometer
accessible via the web or anonymous FTP

GOES 13 data appears in Daily Particle Data, Current Space Weather
values, and Yesterday's Space Weather Values.
See http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/latest.html and
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/indices.html

In 'The WEEKLY', the Daily Particle Data table and the 7-day Proton and Electron plots show GOES 13 data beginning in PRF 1807.

Starting March 19, 2012, 'The WEEKLY' is issued on Monday, not Tuesday.

Older notices about GOES data

GOES Satellite Data at SWPC

GOES data in SWPC Products