Successful checkout continues towards a GOES-K launch on Thursday, April 24, 1997, at 1:51 EDT. GOES-K will become GOES-10 on May 6, 1997, after launch and orbit circularization. All image and sounder systems will be tested before the satellite enters a storage mode on July 21, 1997. GOES 10 will replace GOES 8 or GOES 9 when systems on one of those geostationary satellites fails. The expected lifetime of this generation of satellites is five years.
NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS 44, "Operational Calibration of the Imagers and Sounders on the GOES-8 and GOES-9 Satellites" has recently been published. This paper presents calibration documentation with emphasis on special techniques in real-time processing to mitigate the effects of instrument problems. Data users can also derive procedures and associated coefficients to derive radiances, brightness temperatures, and standard eight-bit (mode A) counts from the contents of the GOES variable data stream. Copies of this Technical Memorandum are available from the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Sills Building, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161, phone (703) 487-4650.
An all-inclusive homepage that provides a link to everything from products on the Family of Services (FOS) to NOAA Weather Radio frequencies resides at the NWS "Weather Topics and Link" URL: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/links.shtml.
Other topics referenced on this page include sunrise/sunset times, meteorological conversions, a station information directory, and product identifier descriptions including WMO heading descriptions for data received from the Family of Services telecommunication gateway.
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