The first image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new space-based lightning tracker has been released, and it’s a mystery. The GOES-19 weather satellite began testing its Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument as two powerful storms hit parts of the United States in quick succession.
The latest addition to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite family, GOES-19, is designed, in part, to monitor all types of lightning. While you may be most familiar with ground-to-ground lightning, other types of lightning are trapped in the sky. As hurricanes Helene and Milton formed, NOAA and its partner agency, NASA, were able to watch it unfold thanks to the GLM with unprecedented detail and accuracy. In a statement, NOAA said future data collected by GOES-19 could be important in developing new types of storm analysis and forecasting, and could play a major role in helping chart safe flight paths as future storms develop, especially in certain parts of the airspace. seas without radar.
In contrast to the damage done on the ground, the picture from space is amazingly beautiful. While the images of both storms show lightning flashing like fireflies in the storm clouds, they also show how storms form in different ways. Images from September 24 show several thunderstorms turning into Hurricane Helene, which made landfall two days later, hitting six counties. In contrast, as Milton begins to build, strong, continuous eyewall lightning can be seen in the center of the storm. The storm eventually became a Category 5 hurricane that caused extensive damage across Florida.
In a statement, NOAA said the images and data collected so far are the first. The satellite, which was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in June, is currently in post-launch testing—the phase where its instruments and systems are adjusted for full functionality.
The fourth and final satellite in the series launched in 2016, is designed to monitor heavy rain and snow storms, wildfires, floods, lightning, dense fog, and other weather events. Once fully operational, which NOAA said should happen in April 2025, it will replace GOES-16’s predecessor as GOES-East. The term is somewhat confusing, since the satellite orbits the western hemisphere, but it is all related. GOES-East orbits the 75th Meridian West, which is east of GOES-West’s orbit over the 132nd Meridian West. Smack dab between the two is the 100th Meridian, where the great plains begin. Do you see? It all makes sense.
As good as the image from GOES-19 is, there is a much improved weather picture on the horizon. NASA and NOAA are teaming up again to build the next generation of monitoring satellites, which they call the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) program. Those will be equipped with more advanced tools to observe and map lightning, as well as track air quality, severe weather events, algae blooms, water quality, oil spills, and a host of other potentially hazardous events. GeoXO is currently scheduled to become operational in the early 2030s.
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