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NOAA’s satellite provides images of Hawaii from new vantage point

COURTESY NOAA

GOES-17’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) captured this GeoColor view of high-level clouds moving over low clouds above the Hawaiian Islands on Tuesday. Convective clouds can be seen forming on the windward side of the mountain slopes of the islands.

The first, spectacular images of Hawaii from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new GOES-17 satellite, with a new vantage point over the Pacific Ocean, are now available for weather forecasters.

The satellite on Tuesday began transmitting its first high-definition images of Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Ocean, shortly after GOES-17 finished moving to its new orbital position at 137.2 degrees west longitude, where it will become NOAA’s operational GOES West satellite on Dec. 10.

Launched March 1 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, GOES-17 is the second in a series of NOAA’s next-generation geostationary weather satellites. It is designed to provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth from 22,300 miles above the equator.

The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on board GOES-17 will help NOAA to track and monitor cloud formation, atmospheric motion, convection, land surface temperatures, fire and smoke, volcanic ash, sea ice, and more.

“GOES-17 will significantly enhance our ability to forecast the weather in the western United States, especially in Alaska and Hawaii,” said NOAA. “With its expanded satellite coverage at high latitudes, GOES-17 will provide a significantly clearer view of the state of Alaska, where it will improve our ability to track environmental conditions, such as sea ice, volcanic ash, snow cover and wildfires. GOES-17 will also provide more and better data over the northeastern Pacific Ocean, where many weather systems that affect the continental U.S. begin.”

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