Upcoming Deactivation of GOES-15 Operations and Products

February 27, 2020 

4 minute read

The purpose of this message is to describe upcoming changes associated with the GOES-15 deactivation, as described in Service Change Notice (SCN) 20-08. 

When will GOES-15 turn off?

GOES-15 data will stop flowing across the Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN, also known as NOAAPORT) beginning on or after 16Z on March 2, 2020. GOES-15 will be placed in standby and will remain at 128 degrees west with the Imager, Sounder and other instruments in non-operational modes. These changes are associated with the end of GOES-15 tandem supplemental operations.  GOES-17 and GOES-15 have operated in tandem from their respective locations of 137.2 degrees west and 128 degrees west. GOES-17 was declared GOES-West on February 12, 2019.

GOES-15 is the older of the two satellites, and it was the GOES-West satellite until February 12, 2019.  This transition involves the deactivation of GOES-15 products. More specifics, including implications for which AWIPS menu buttons will stop updating, are discussed below.

What products will stop flowing when GOES-15 is turned off?

Below is the summary of the GOES-15 products that will be modified or stop flowing.  Refer to SCN 20-08 for additional details, including WMO headers, channels and additional links:

  • Dissemination of GOES-15 GOES Ingest NoaaPort Interface (GINI) format imagery will cease.  This includes the following sectors:

    • West CONUS

    • Alaska Regional

    • Alaska National

    • Hawaii Regional

    • Hawaii National

The GOES-17 ABI Satellite Cloud Moisture Imagery, described in SCN 18-106 are replacements for these products.

  • Dissemination of the following GOES-15 satellite imagery composites will cease:

    • Supernational Two-GOES Composites

    • Northern Hemisphere Two-GOES Composites

  • Inclusion of GOES-15 in the multi-satellite imagery composites will cease.  This product will continue to flow as before, and appear in the same location in the AWIPS satellite dropdown (see Figure 1, below), but GOES-17 has replaced GOES-15 in the composites as of January 22, 2020 at 17Z.  A new version of the multi-satellite composite will become available during the next few months and may be added to the SBN to replace this legacy product. In the event of that, an SCN will publicize this in advance. 

  • Dissemination of GOES-15 visible, infrared, and water vapor sounder imagery will cease. Affected sectors include:

    • West CONUS

    • Hawaii National

  • Dissemination of GOES-15 derived products will cease. Affected products and sectors include:

    • Supernational sector Lifted Index, Total Precipitable Water, Skin Temperature, Cloud Top Height, and Cloud Amount

    • GOES-West Low Cloud Base

A number of AWIPS Satellite menu items will, therefore, stop updating.  An example of baseline AWIPS menu items that are affected by the turn-off are shown below in Figure 1.  

Figure 1:  Sample AWIPS Satellite menu buttons for an AWIPS D2D session (site LCH)

Under the Satellite menu, the solid/red boxes outline GOES-15 products that will stop updating once GOES-15 is deactivated.  The multi-satellite composites (blue/dash-dot box) will continue to flow with GOES-17 as the replacement for GOES-15. The GOES-16 and GOES-17 imagery and product menus are also highlighted (green/dashed boxes).  These will remain unchanged except GOES-15 will no longer display with GOES-16 under the “Conus with Legacy” section (outlined with a red/solid box).

  • Dissemination of GOES-15 High-Density Winds will cease. GOES-17 derived motion winds (PACUS Sector) are planned for addition to the SBN on March 10, 2020, as described in SCN 20-22.  The affected sub-menus are shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2:  Sample AWIPS menu for site LCH. 

Similar to Figure 1, this sample AWIPS menu for site LCH highlights the Satellite Derived Product Plots sub-menus where the GOES-15 winds and soundings appear.  The red/solid boxes highlight GOES-15 sub-menus that will stop updating when GOES-15 is turned off.

  • Transmission of GOES-15 derived Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) Satellite Cloud Products (SCPs) will cease.  Since January 2018, the GOES-15 Imager has provided a subset of ASOS SCP coverage in locations previously generated by GOES-13.  The loss of ASOS SCP product coverage will continue until GOES-16 and GOES-17 SCP products reach a level of maturity such that they can once again be disseminated on an operational basis.  Future SCNs will describe the GOES-16 and GOES-17 SCP activations.

Critical weather day or other factors may delay the phase-out of these GOES-15 products from the SBN.  In the event that GOES-14 or GOES-15 is called into operational service at a later date, imagery and products from those satellites may again be transmitted as described in SCN 20-08. Therefore, baseline AWIPS Satellite configurations for GOES-15 will remain in place in the near term in the event an operational service change is required.   

Additional Details from OSPO

More information on the transition from GOES-15 to GOES-17 (GOES-West) operations are provided on the Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) webpage here.

In the event of a Critical Weather Day or other relative factors, the March 2, 2020 GOES-15 deactivation will be postponed. The TOWR-S Team will keep you updated on the new schedule should this occur. 

Questions?

If you have any questions about what to expect during this transition, the fastest way to contact us is through NWS Chat by joining the “towr-s” group.