Future set of GeoXO environmental satellites promise new societal benefits
By Theresa Barosh
Researchers at Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere buzz with anticipation for a new set of weather satellites scheduled to start launching in the early 2030s. Watching over the Western Hemisphere, GeoXO satellites will support short-term forecasting, extreme weather warnings and long-term planning.
“CIRA has been collaborating with NOAA for decades and across several generations of geostationary satellites,” said Atmospheric Science Professor Steven Miller, Director of CIRA. “We look forward to working with the new array of instruments on GeoXO, which promise to change the game in terms of timely, detailed, and accurate weather information for the operational forecaster.”
Why so much excitement years out from mission launch?
The project recently moved into a critical design phase. The final decisions about the technology and spacecraft are coming into place, and CIRA researchers use their expertise in satellite technology to support NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system long before launch. GeoXO will provide important satellite information for weather researchers and forecasters until the late 2050s.
Preparations for GeoXO started in 2019 with determining requirements for instruments and spacecraft. As a cooperative agreement between NOAA and CSU’s Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, CIRA plays an important role in each new GOES satellite. Housing one of the primary test sites for initial transmissions and sensor verification, CSU researchers have been supporting weather satellites since CIRA’s establishment 45 years ago.
CIRA operates a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Earth Station. The CIRA GOES Earth Station includes satellite dishes, an online archive and high-performance computing resources. Basically, it is a radio station on earth to communicate with weather satellites in space. The large satellite dishes strike an impressive image when visiting the foothills campus, home to CIRA and CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Science.
With a variety of instruments and sensors, the information coming from satellites needs to be processed to be most useful for forecasters and researchers. In preparation for GeoXO, CIRA researchers are conducting simulations and planning for updating systems. Simulations allow researchers to predict what the new satellite information will bring, including benefits and areas for product improvements.
Promise of New Measurements
Researchers will use information from GeoXO for sophisticated forecasting models related to tornadoes, wildfires, flooding, snowstorms and other events. Providing advanced warning of environmental hazards to policy- and decision-makers improves risk management and public safety.
GeoXO plans include a constellation of three satellites. The satellites will match the Earth’s rotation to stay above North America with western, central and eastern locations.
CIRA researchers are excited about a slew of new and improved instruments planned for placement on GeoXO satellites. BAE Systems out of Boulder, Colorado will be responsible for building an air quality instrument, an instrument to analyze ocean data, and the GeoXO Sounder instrument, which the National Weather Service will use to improve weather forecasts.
Some instruments will provide measurements at new angles or more consistently compared to current satellite technology. For example, while current weather satellites already allow for visualization of lightning flashes, the planned GeoXO instruments promise improved, finer resolution and an expanded field of view to include Alaska. Lockhead Martin, out of Littleton Colorado, is developing the lighting mapper flight instruments, in addition to at least three spacecraft for the mission.
Student Research
A new instrument, the GeoXO Imager, will also bring improvements over current weather satellites in terms of resolution. GeoXO Imager will be on the eastern and western satellites of the planned trio. To better measure water vapor in the atmosphere, GeoXO Imager will contain two new channels, one infrared and one straddling the visible to infrared. Longer than visible light, infrared wavelengths are undetectable by the human eye and require specialized technology for monitoring from space.
Department of Atmospheric Science graduate student Katurah Zahler researches quantitative analysis of satellite imagery using the new near-infrared satellite band and advised by CIRA researchers Miller and John Haynes. This new band will offer valuable information to forecasters regarding features relevant to storm forecasting. The GeoXO Imager will especially boost detection of vapor close to the ground, where the highest concentration of water vapor occurs in the atmosphere. The importance of water vapor in the atmosphere extends to many weather phenomena, including advancing cold fronts in Ohio, snowstorms in Colorado and sea breezes in North Carolina.
Conducting measurements at different depths within the atmosphere functions like probing vertically. When an atmospheric river, a concentration of water vapor carried mostly from the tropics, brings a downpour to the U.S., satellite imagery catches the path of vapor across the Earth. Being able to detect the depth of an atmospheric river helps with understanding it and forecasting potential hazardous weather. Residents from Alaska to California commonly deal with flooding and landslides resulting from atmospheric rivers.
“These so-called rivers of moisture in the sky can result in catastrophic weather hazards, even blizzards or ice storms, not just in the U.S. but all around the world,” said CIRA researcher Sheldon Kusselson. “If it wasn’t for satellites, we wouldn’t be talking about atmospheric rivers. You can see the moisture in the model.”
Zahler’s research often keeps her at a desk and viewing storms from space using models like Kusselson mentioned on CIRA’s interactive data explorer. The online tool allows anyone access to satellite imagery, including a multitude of CIRA products sharing specific information.
“I wish people knew how much went into making a satellite image,” said Zahler. “I think there’s just kind of this broad idea that it’s like a big camera in the sky that takes a picture. It is not. There is a lot of data and algorithms, and all of that takes science and scientists who understand not just the physics of the instrument, but also the physics of the atmospheric phenomena.”
Field Trips and Storm Chasing
Stepping away from her computer, Zahler got to travel to check out a geostationary satellite through a class field trip and subsequently watch the satellite launch.
“Since my research is satellite focused, I don’t get many opportunities to participate in field campaigns. But these trips fulfilled that desire for ‘field’ experience as well as a lifelong dream of seeing a launch,” said Zahler. “It was a full-circle moment for me getting to see GOES-U, now GOES-19, being assembled here in Colorado and then a year later getting to see its launch in Florida.”
In her free time, Zahler also chases storms on the ground. She might be found chasing a tornado in Nebraska, viewing the northern lights near Horsetooth Reservoir or photographing lightning on an impromptu detour from a grocery store trip.
“A lot of tornado reports to the National Weather Service come from chasers,” said Zahler, recalling the first tornado she ever reported to the NWS. In places with the most tornados in the U.S., like Texas and Oklahoma, storm chasers can make a big difference by providing reports. “The goal is to preserve life.”
Zahler plans her storm chasing trips days in advance, using satellite information to determine where to go down to specifics such as which cornfield in Eastern Colorado.
“I can’t imagine [weather] forecasting, and even chasing, before satellites,” said Zahler. “It’s really exciting — all of the improvements that the GeoXO program is going to bring — as someone who loves satellites and satellite imagery, getting to use all of those new products. It helps us stay on the forefront of technology compared to other countries.”
Zahler’s research stems from the partnership between CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Science and CIRA. Multiple students in the department work with CIRA researchers.
“Connecting the brightest young minds of our field to the state-of-the-art in satellite technology is one important and effective way that the CIRA-Atmospheric Science partnership at CSU helps to fulfill NOAA’s societal benefit mission,” said Miller. “Thanks in part to Katurah’s research, National Weather Service forecasters will be able to ‘hit the ground running’ on day one and turn the new flavors of information from GeoXO into time-critical guidance to the public, keeping us all one step ahead of the ever-changing weather.”
