Message from Dr. Sullivan

2023-03-03T18:34:54Z

Greetings:
Last week, NOAA launched the country's newest and most sophisticated Earth-observing weather satellite, GOES-R. I joined Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness this historic moment and congratulate the NOAA and NASA teams that worked tirelessly for more than a decade to design, build and launch our nation's newest eye in the sky.

The GOES-R satellite - now called GOES-16 - is the meteorological equivalent of moving from black and white to ultra-high definition television. Capable of scanning the skies five times faster and at four times the resolution of any other satellite in our fleet, this technological marvel will provide sharper and more informative views of every weather system crossing the U.S. and environmental anomalies throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Too often in recent history we have seen how extreme weather can change a life, or an entire community in seconds. Likely, it isn't until we find ourselves in weather's way that we realize how valuable an extra minute, an extra hour, or an extra day could have been in our decisionmaking. GOES-16 will help us reach NOAA's goal of increasing watch and warning lead times. Not only that, it will provide better quality data more often, allowing forecasters to issue detailed and timely information about storm systems, ultimately helping us build more resilient communities and a Weather-Ready Nation.

Once GOES-16 is in operation, likely sometime next year, NOAA's National Weather Service forecasters will more quickly and with more confidence be able to detect and understand weather, water, climate, and environmental threats to our communities and businesses. With this critical investment in the next generation of satellites, America will continue to be backed by a National Weather Service that is second to none.

Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator