NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite proves mettle during Sandy

November 2, 2012

Suitland, Md. - During its run as a sprawling hurricane and when it morphed into a powerful, hybrid superstorm, NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured more than 1,200 images of Hurricane Sandy as it approached and impacted the East Coast.

The images from GOES-13, taken from October 20–31, were critical in helping forecasters at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami accurately predict Sandy’s speed and direction, along with its onslaught of heavy rains, high winds and even snowfall.

“In any land-falling storm, satellites play a critical role in our operations, and Sandy was no exception,” said James Franklin, branch chief of the NOAA National Hurricane Center’s Hurricane Specialist Unit. “GOES-13 provided continuous coverage of the storm structure and unusual weather systems in the storm environment that transformed Sandy into a winter storm.”

When a tropical cyclone appears headed for the United States, at the request of the National Weather Service, engineers at NOAA’s Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md., ramp up the GOES spacecraft to “rapid scan mode,” where it sends an image of the continental United States and nearby oceans eight times an hour, instead of the usual four times an hour under normal weather conditions.

“The rapid scan feature of our satellites is so important because it helps NOAA forecasters stay on top on any changes these storms take as they get closer to the coast, and even after they make landfall,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

NOAA scientists also generated special products from the satellite data during Hurricane Sandy’s lifetime that were helpful to forecasters. For example, the Ensemble Tropical Rainfall Potential, or eTRaP, projected how much rainfall Sandy would bring based on information collected by instruments onboard various polar-orbiting satellites.

“When hurricanes are still out at sea, beyond the range of land-based radar, satellites can make estimates of the rainfall rates and the amount of that will accumulate during landfall. This helps with making more accurate rainfall and flood forecasts,” said Tom Renkevens, a NOAA satellite meteorologist.

He added that satellites also provide information on wind speed, direction, temperature and humidity throughout the atmosphere, all details that are key ingredients for weather forecast models.

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