NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have been monitoring the Earth since 1975, providing advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s Western Hemisphere. In celebration of the launch of GOES-U, the final satellite in the GOES-R series, we’ve gathered some awe-inspiring images from through the years.
An artist's rendering of the GOES-U satellite in space, with the Earth to its left and the Sun to its right. (Image credit: Artist's rendering of the GOES-U satellite in space)
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GOES-U will be renamed GOES-19 once in orbit. All GOES satellites are designated with a letter until they have reached geostationary orbit, at which point they are renamed with a number. After a complete checkout of its instruments, systems, and data, GOES-U will replace GOES-16 in the GOES East operational position. GOES-16 will then serve as an on-orbit standby.
First image from GOES-1, 1975
This is the first image of Earth taken on October 25, 1975, by the first GOES series satellite, GOES-1. South America dominates the lower half of the globe and the southern part of the United States can be seen in the upper left.
GOES-1’s Visible Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer provided day and night imagery of cloud conditions and took radiance-derived temperatures of Earth’s atmosphere.
Mount St. Helens, 1980
GOES-3 recorded the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. A blast on the north face of the mountain removed the upper 1,306.8 ft of the volcano. It was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the U.S., severely damaging 229 square miles of land.
Storm of the Century, 1993
The Storm of the Century, also known as the Blizzard of ‘93, swept from Texas up through the entire East Coast from March 11-14, 1993. GOES-7 captured the storm’s path as it wreaked devastation, producing more than four feet of snow in some places, a destructive derecho (fast-moving bands of thunderstorms with destructive winds), and 11 tornadoes in the state of Florida. The storm caused nearly $5.5 billion in damages.
One of the first images from GOES-16 (GOES-R), 2017
GOES-16 sent back its first high-resolution images, including this image of the Western Hemisphere with the moon hanging above it, on January 15, 2017.
Created using several of the Advanced Baseline Imager’s (ABI) 16 spectral channels, the composite color full-disk image offers an example of the satellite’s advanced technology. The pictures show a view of the Western Hemisphere in high detail — at three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage of previous generation GOES spacecraft.
Longest single flash of lightning, 2020
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GOES-16 caught the world’s longest lightning flash, or megaflash, on April 29, 2020. It was certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the world’s longest flash on record at 477 miles across horizontally. The bolt stretched from the central coast of Texas to southern Mississippi, beating the previous record of 440.6 miles for a lightning strike across southern Brazil in 2018.
Runaway iceberg time-lapse, 2020
When the massive iceberg, A-68A, broke off (calved) from the Larsen-C Ice Shelf in Antarctica on July 12, 2017, GOES-16 monitored it as it floated through the South Atlantic Ocean towards the island of South Georgia, one of the world's largest marine conservation areas and important fishing grounds. At the time, it was larger than the state of Delaware, and was one of the largest icebergs in the world. Luckily, as the iceberg approached the island (top right), it rotated clockwise and followed the current parallel to the island.
Northern California Wildfires, 2021
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GOES-17 captured several large wildfires in Northern California on August 3-4, 2021. The GeoColor image has a Fire Temperature overlay, which helps to identify the heat signatures, or hot spots, of where the most intense fires are burning.
Atmospheric River 2021
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On December 1, 2021, GOES-17 tracked an atmospheric river heading from the Pacific (near Hawaii) toward the West Coast In this infrared water vapor imagery, the darker blue-ish/green areas are more moisture-rich clouds, while the orange areas are drier air. Atmospheric rivers tend to bring large amounts of precipitation to the area.
Satellite Launch, 2022
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This is a view of the GOES-T (GOES-18) launch on March 1, 2022, via its sister satellites, GOES West (GOES-17) and GOES East (GOES-16). GOES-T became GOES-18 once it reached orbit and replaced GOES-17 in the operational GOES West position in early 2023. GOES-17 became an on-orbit standby.
Hunga Tonga Eruption, 2022
GOES-17 captured the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on January 15, 2022, which produced the largest underwater explosion ever recorded by modern scientific instruments.
It recorded images much more rapidly and in far higher definition than GOES-3 did when it recorded the Mount St. Helen eruption.
Solar Flare, 2023
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GOES-16 witnessed this magnificent X5 solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) on December 31, 2023, via its Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument. It was the most powerful solar explosion seen since 2017. Solar flares can cause radio blackouts at the Earth’s poles, as well as radiation storms.
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