GOES 13 Placed in Standby Mode
On Sept. 23, GOES 13, the east based stationary weather satellite experienced what NOAA is calling an "anomaly," causing NOAA to place the satellite in "standby" mode, basically rendering the satellite inoperable for all practical purposes. Until engineers and and scientist can determine what has actually happened and what can be done to correct the issue, it will remain in standby.
If you go to my satellite page you'll notice some east based images and loops will not display any images. The GOES-15 (GOES-West) satellite was then placed into Full Disk scan mode, supplying images to cover as much of the eastern US and adjacent offshore waters as possible at 30-minute intervals.
GOES 14 has been taken out of standby and moved eastward in the meantime, in order to help cover both the east and west sides of the country, although it is still located at 105 degrees west (the normal GOES East view is normally located at 75 degrees west). The latest message from NOAA is below:
"GOES-14 product processing and distribution continues to be nominal. No new impacts due to the GOES-13 anomaly and GOES-14 activation. Routine and rapid scan (RSO) imaging schedules are available for GOES-14. GOES-14 is stationary at 105 degrees West with no current plans to drift east. GOES-13 remains in an Earth pointing nominal attitude with the Imager and Sounder in Standby modes while the September 23 anomaly is being investigated. No estimate on return to operations at this time. Cause and corrective actions are under investigation. Engineers and managers are also discussing the results from the test data analysis and future way forward."
Here is a summary of what happened as written up on Monday from a NOAA engineer:
- GOES-13 sounder fault tripped early Sunday morning, shutting down the sounder (recall... it was getting noisy)
- In consultation with ITT, and Boeing, engineers turned off GOES-13 imager last evening in order to prevent any damage.
- GOES-15 was put in full disk mode for more geographic coverage (not sure if the GINI's are handling this as designed with the GINILOOKEAST/WEST commands... I have email out to our AWIPS GINI folks to check...)
- GOES-14, which is out of storage and has been imaging for GOES-R research, will be put in a GOES-East type of scan (looks like that is getting close as of this morning - see http://www.ssec.wisc...goes14&file=jpg We are working on getting GOES-14 data into N-AWIPS, it is on McIDAS ADDE)
- GOES-15 data is being broadcast via GOES-13 GVAR... so products, remappers, etc... that look at GOES-East sectors and are making products, are making them off of GOES-15... this may be an issue... especially with NCEP data assimilation
- Depending on status later, there may be decisions to put GOES-14 imager and sounder data through the GOES-13 GVAR stream to get users more east coast looking data, and putting GOES-15 back in normal scans. If this happens, there may be product creation challenges with new satellite? (science test worked out ok, I just don't know all the hoops that may be needed to use a new satellite this quickly)
- GOES-12 is available via SSEC data servers, and SAB is using this for some volcano work since the data are covering South America
- I sent email to NCEP NCO and EMC folks to discuss assimilation issues of GOES-14 or GOES-15 via the GOES-East data flows.
In essence GOES 14 will be the temporary fix.
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North Georgia Weather
8:16 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
Here's the latest update from NOAA. Looks like it was more serious than thought.
"NOAA’s geostationary satellites are typically centered over 75 degrees west longitude (GOES East) and 135 degrees (GOES West). However, when the satellite in the GOES East position began having data quality issues, the backup satellite GOES-14 was called into service. From its position at 105 degrees west longitude, it has been acting as GOES East for the past week. NOAA has decided that it is time to move GOES-14 into the traditional GOES East spot in space, replacing GOES-13. The maneuver began on October 1, 2012 and will take 33 days. At that time, GOES-13 will be moved into a storage spot where work to diagnose and fix the data quality issues from the imager and sounder instruments will continue."
R++ - One of the famous "Dacula Crew"
9:46 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
Hope they brought the service contract, that trip fees a killer...
Kristi Reed
7:07 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
@R - LOL!
North Georgia Weather
2:10 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012
GOES-13 coming back online Thursday as GOES-East. For the record it was the scan motor that was having the problem and apparently the problem has been resolved.
North Georgia Weather
6:41 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012
From NASA
--------------------------
Details/Specifics of Change:
Tests of GOES-13 instrumentation have demonstrated the imager and
sounder are ready to return to GOES-East operational service. GOES-13
Imager data are nominal and thanks to outgassing activities the
noise in GOES-13 Sounder shortwave data has been reduced compared to pre-anomaly levels. The return of GOES-13 to operational service also optimizes
the long term continuity of the GOES constellation.
On October 18, 2012 at 1444 UTC GOES-13 data will be inserted back into
the GOES-13 GVAR data stream, replacing the current GOES-14 data
stream.
Users do not need to repoint their antennas as the switch of GVAR data
streams will be transparent. Users will notice the immediate shift of
Earth coverage from the current GOES-14 drifting position to the
GOES-13 position at 75 degrees West longitude. GOES-East products will be
generated using GOES-13 and will receive nominal 24x7 monitoring. GINI
and Remapper output will be monitored to ensure nominal GOES-East
coverage of the CONUS for users of AWIPS and for users of the
SATEPSDIST servers within ESPC.
... continued
North Georgia Weather
6:42 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012
... continued
Products requiring a climatology of 30 days will not be generated until the requisite number of fixed satellite location days have passed:
- ASDTA SMOKE (Automated Smoke Detection and Tracking Algorithm)
- GASP (GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product)
- GEO-SST (No NETCDF format)
- GSIP-FD (GOES Surface Insolation Product-Full Disk)
RSO and SRSO schedules from GOES-13 will be available to the NWS
immediately after the switch is completed. A final stop maneuver of
GOES-14 will occur on October 19, 2012 at 1356 UTC placing it at a
position of 89.5 degrees West longitude where it will remain in standby
until further notice.
North Georgia Weather
12:31 pm on Wednesday, October 17, 2012
More...
"Tests of GOES-13 instrumentation have demonstrated the Imager and Sounder are ready to return to GOES-East operational service. The root cause of the GOES-13 anomaly was a motor vibration in the sounder filter wheel subsystem that was transmitted on to the imager and sounder optical bench. Mitigating steps have been taken to suppress the vibration and in addition, outgassing of the sounder has improved the sounder detector performance. The noise in the Sounder shortwave data has been reduced compared to pre-anomaly levels. The return of GOES-13 to operational service also optimizes the long term continuity of the GOES constellation."
Info on outgassing:
http://mwexpert.typepad.com/rog_blog/2010/11/what-is-outgassing-and-when-does-it-matter.html