Satellite Operations Updates - Total Operational Weather Readiness - Satellites (TOWR-S)
GOES-17 Cooling System Impacts Update
January 2019
2 minute read
As you know, the GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) has an issue with its cooling system (called the Loop Heat Pipe, [LHP]) that causes the longwave IR channels (channels 8-16) to become saturated at certain times of the year. During those times, satellite imagery in those channels will become brighter and eventually become unusable in AWIPS for short periods of time each day. Below is a graph representing the estimated temperature of the GOES-17 ABI throughout the year.
The ABI usually operates at an ambient temperature of 81K. Near the latter half of January, that temperature begins to rise during specific time intervals throughout the day due to the LHP issue. This will begin to manifest itself in “striping” of the satellite imagery. As January progresses into February, the graph shows the peak ABI temperature continues to increase. This will result in striping and then complete saturation in most IR bands of the ABI.
The water vapor bands, channels 8-10, are some of the first channel to fully saturate. As a forecaster, you can expect to lose these channels entirely, for a maximum of 4-5 hours per day during peak saturation periods. Below is a photo of what saturation for channel 8, the 6.19um channel, looks like in AWIPS. This is a full disk image taken at 8:00 UTC on 10/26/18. Note that in cases of extreme saturation, some imagery looks essentially blank in AWIPS.
The “Clean IR” band (channel 13) and the “Legacy IR” band (channel 14) will never fully saturate, however there will be some striping evident when the sensor reaches its peak heating near the end of February.
After peak heating near the end of February, the saturation of the IR channels will rapidly improve to low amounts around the Vernal Equinox. Following that period, they will rapidly degrade again until about mid-April. From there, you can expect gradual improvement until all the channels have completely recovered near the end of May.
As you may be aware, last Fall the NWS Operations Proving Ground (OPG) created a short video that addresses the LHP issue and also provides an overall GOES-17 orientation. In addition, you can get a preview of what you may expect to see in AWIPS when these infrared satellite channels degrade and improve on a daily basis. This video can be downloaded here.
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- 2020 Satellite Operation Communications
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Bands 11 & 15 [October 15, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Band 9 [October 13, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Bands 8, 10, 12 & 16 [October 9, 2020]
- GOES-17 ABI Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Fall Season Preview [October 7, 2020]
- GOES-17 Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Summer Season Concludes [September 1, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES ABI Bands 13 & 14 [August 26, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES ABI Band 15 [August 14, 2020]
- GOES-17 Mode 3 Cooling Timeline Operations [August 10, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES ABI Band 11 [August 10, 2020]
- GOES-17 Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts Update [August 4, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Band 8 [July 30, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Band 10 [July 29, 2020]
- Loop Heat Pipe Anomaly Impacts on GOES-17 ABI Bands 12 & 16 [July 24, 2020]
- GOES-17 Cooling System Impacts Update [July 22, 2020]
- GOES-17 Mode 3 Cooling Timeline Operations [April 3, 2020]
- GOES-17 Cooling System Impacts Update [April 3, 2020]
- Upcoming Deactivation of GOES-15 Operations and Products [February 27, 2020]
- GOES-W Scan Strategy Testing [February 18, 2020]
- GOES-17 Cooling System Impacts Update [February 5, 2020]
- 2019 Satellite Operation Communications
- GOES-W Scan Strategy Testing [December 9, 2019]
- Mode 6: GOES-E/W ABI Operational Flex Mode Transition to 10 Minute Cycle [March 29, 2019]
- GOES-W Yaw Flip Data Outage [March 27, 2019]
- GOES-R Satellite Series: Upcoming ABI Mode 6 Testing [February 19, 2019]
- GOES-R Satellite Series Mode 6 Testing and GOES-17 Imagery Anomalies [February 7, 2019]
- GOES-17 ABI Mode 6 Testing [January 25, 2019]
- GOES-17 Cooling System Impacts Update [January 17, 2019]
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