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Here’s One Way Satellite Observations Can Alert Farmers and Ranchers to Impending Flash Droughts
Farmers and ranchers rely on the land to make a living, and while there are many ways to prepare for natural disasters, a newly-defined type of drought can certainly throw a wrench in their best-laid plans. 
NOAA Satellite Images Show Major Flooding Along Rivers in the Southeast U.S.
The severe storms that brought tornadoes, damaging winds, rain, and hail to the Southeast over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands without power, were the result of a “meteorological battle zone” between warm and cold air, said Walt Zaleski, warning coordination meteorologist for NOAA’s National Weather Service Regional Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. A low-pressure system over the Southern Plains pushed warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico over the southeastern United States, while cold, drier air dropped from Canada into the Northern and Central Plains and the Midwest and Great Lakes regions.  
Goes 17 Photo
GOES-17 Is Now Operational. Here’s What It Means for Weather Forecasts in the Western U.S.
It’s official: GOES-17 is now operational as NOAA’s GOES West satellite. 
NESDIS Reflects on 2018
Although we've already started another trip around the sun, we’d like to take a moment to look back on 2018. Last year, the NOAA Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) came together to work through challenges with our newest geostationary satellite, GOES-17, provided data on a series of natural disasters, and improved the nation’s access to secure and timely global environmental data.
Five Things You Didn't Know About the North Pole
Around this time of year, we hear a lot about Santa and his elves working hard at the North Pole to make sure all the toys are ready for Christmas. However, we don’t always hear a lot about the place where all the magic happens. Here are just a few fun, scientific facts you should know about the North Pole: 
12 Datasets of Christmas
The 12 Datasets of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas the scientists gave to me...the World Magnetic Model? OK, fair warning, this isn’t your typical “12 Days of Christmas” song. We’ve compiled this list of NOAA's most interesting datasets so you can nerd out before the holidays. 
Metop-C launched on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Nov. 7, carrying four POES-legacy instruments. Image by ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique du CSG - JM. Guillon
Metop-C Launch Closes Final Chapter On Historic POES Program
The Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) project can claim a number of firsts in its 40-year history. It was the nation’s first to provide global search and rescue capabilities from space. Its NOAA-10 and NOAA-11 satellites captured the first cloudless photograph of the entire planet Earth, pieced together using thousands of images. And its advanced data collection system, which pulled environmental data from buoys, balloons, tagged sea animals and streams, inspired a major citizen science effort on the ground and in classrooms around the country. 
Clouds or Snow? Here Are a Few Ways to Tell the Difference
At first glance, satellite imagery of the Earth can make it look like a giant blue and green marble with swirls of white. For many of us, that makes it hard to imagine how researchers and forecasters are able to determine whether those swirls of white are clouds or snow. However, being able to pinpoint snow cover is important because it can be used for search and rescue missions, water supply resource monitoring and management, as well as short-term forecasting. 
NOAA Targets January 2019 to Declare GOES-17 Operational
A recent software error on the GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager will delay the satellite from becoming operational until early 2019.