Powerful Weather Satellite Worth $7.6 Billion To Be Launched By NOAA In 2015

October 24, 2008 7:09 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will launch in 2015 a new and powerful weather satellite that could help the agency identify better which areas would be hit by hurricanes and tornadoes.

The NOAA is slated to award in December the contract for the $7.6 billion Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite. The $7.6 billion budget for the project includes ground support and two satellites.

The GOES-R has technologies not available in existing weather satellite systems such as the ability to take photos of hurricane storm tracks every 30 seconds and capture images of cloud-to-cloud lightning that usually strikes ahead of tornadoes.

Mike Ruggles, program director of the GOES at Raytheon, told USA Today, "If you tighten the error associated with the storm track, that means fewer people you have to evacuate, which saves money and getting the timing right saves lives."

Raytheon is one of the two bidders to process the data generated by the satellite.

NASA had launched weather satellites since the 1950s. The satellites it sent to outer space in the early 1980s orbit at an altitude of 22,300 miles over the same spot, but must soon be retired due to old age.

The GOES-R could scan mainland USA every five minutes, which is a third of the capability of existing weather satellites at 15 minutes interval.

On Thursday, NOAA administrator Conrad Lautenbacher announced the agency will modernize its marine operations with the planned replacement of nine research vessels and the refurbishing of a tenth ship in the next 15 years. He said a modern and more capable fleet will ensure the NOAA could meet the higher demands of the science community.

With the refleeting program, the average age of NOAA's vessels is down to 27 years from 32 seven years ago. After 2023, the average will further drop to 17, Lautenbacher said.