Main US Weather Satellite Fails As Hurricane Season Looms

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Main US Weather Satellite Fails As Hurricane Season Looms

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 23, 2013 @05:34AM from the ok-fellas-let's-just-stick-to-the-tornadoes dept.

First time accepted submitter Rebecka writes with bad news, quoting an IB Times report: "Just as the 2013 hurricane season is about to begin, one of the U.S.' main weather satellites failed this week. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, also known as GOES-13, reportedly ceased to operate as of Tuesday, making it impossible to predict weather patterns on the East Coast." A note at NOAA's page for the GOES family of satellites says "GOES-13 imaging and sounding operations suspended. Recovery efforts for GOES-13 continue and the spacecraft health and safety are nominal. GOES-14 is being activated." You can follow the progress on the agency's page of General Satellite Messages.

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They saw this coming for ages... by benjfowler · 2013-05-23 05:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

Unfortunately, because of Republican intransigence in Congress, they haven't been able to build and launch a new bird.
Everyone will now be screaming blue murder because of the huge negative economic impact this is going to have. Reliable weather prediction is critical for many businesses, including the ones responsible for the food supply.
I hope the wingnuts are happy.
1. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by jaymz666 · 2013-05-23 05:40 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  we don't need it, god will look after us
2. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Sparticus789 · 2013-05-23 05:45 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  And how many satellites could have been built with the $535 MILLION that the Obama Administration gave to Solyndra?
  
  --
  sudo make me a sandwich
3. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-23 05:46 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I actually work on one of the teams that is building the GOES-R satellite. Say what you will about funding and scheduling, but we have not been cancelled.
4. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by jaymz666 · 2013-05-23 05:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What are you doing here? get back to work
5. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Sparticus789 · 2013-05-23 05:50 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  From your own source:
  "In 2009, the Obama administration approved a $535 million loan guarantee that helped the company build a new factory in Fremont, Calif."
  Your attempt at spin away from blame is sad. Especially when the above statement is in the 4th paragraph.
  
  --
  sudo make me a sandwich
6. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Sponge+Bath · 2013-05-23 05:51 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Magic 8 Ball to the rescue: Outlook not so good.
7. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-23 05:52 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Or the trillion-plus dollars they've spent on a war in Iraq for which absolutely none of the stated reasons turned out to be true.
8. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by h4rr4r · 2013-05-23 05:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  No spin, just that was not all the money they got.
  Personally both of those presidents have not been the greatest.
9. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Bacon+Bits · 2013-05-23 05:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Well, Lotus Notes is worse.
  
  --
  The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
10. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Kasamir · 2013-05-23 06:06 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You're working on Gozer? Does that make you the Keymaster or the Gatekeeper?
11. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by dietdew7 · 2013-05-23 06:09 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I think you're gonna have to come in on Saturday.
12. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by t4ng* · 2013-05-23 06:09 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually, Democrats only kind of had a super majority for about 4 months starting at the end of 2009. But only if you count 2 independents and the blue dog Democrats as voting with them, which they don't. So instead, you had the Republicans using the filibuster more than any Congress in history. Oh, but wait, the only way they've been able to filibuster so often is because they just expressed their intent to filibuster without actually doing the time consuming work of a filibuster. That way they can quickly get on with the business of expressing intent to filibuster even more.
13. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Archangel+Michael · 2013-05-23 06:13 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Personally, both presidents are(were) awful. Both have eroded Liberties in such a way that short of tossing out both (D) and (R) congress critters and replacing them with (L) and (G) people, they (Liberties) won't come back any time soon. It seems like the American People love their nanny state, and being protected by the evil boogie men.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
14. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by MightyYar · 2013-05-23 06:16 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Personally both of those presidents have not been the greatest.
  They are almost indistinguishable, based on most policy of any real import. Obama followed the Bush Iraq timeline, implemented a "surge" in Afghanistan, massively expanded Medicare, extended the Bush tax cuts for 4 years (and most are still in place), kept 'Gitmo open, continued the Bush bailout policies, extended the Patriot Act, invaded a country in the Middle East, uses drones to conduct targeted killing, and has presided over a massive increase in debt. That's just off the top of my head, so my apologies if I've missed anything. I'm sure I'm subject to some confirmation bias, but yes I am aware that our military is slightly more gay. However, I'm also aware that the Democratic party had a majority for two full years and they did not repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, or any of the other things that they later blamed on Republican obstructionism.
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
15. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by CrimsonAvenger · 2013-05-23 06:21 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Unfortunately, because of Republican intransigence in Congress, they haven't been able to build and launch a new bird.
  Didn't read even TFS, I see.
  They've already activated the back-up satellite (GOES-14), which has been in orbit waiting for this for four years now (launched in 2009).
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
16. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by TwineLogic · 2013-05-23 06:22 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  GOES-R looks really cool.
  
  Here is a trailer/teaser video about it, excellent production values. It could be titled: "GOES-R : Into Fog"
  
  The page that has links to all these videos is at a special U.S. government website about GOES-R
  
  This is a much longer video which details all of the instruments.
  
  Finally, you may enjoy this video on the overall NOAA project and system, and how GOES-R fits into that system. Of note in this video is the statement that currently three (3) GOES satellites provide redundant coverage of the U.S.
  
  At the moment, GOES-15 is the west coast satellite, at longitude 135 West. GOES-13 was imaging from 75W. GOES-14 is presently located at 105W.
17. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-23 06:36 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Actually, we've seen hints of this for a bit, so it's not a tremendous shock, but it is quite possible that some of the farther-reaching instruments might get cancelled in order to have an early launch.
18. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-05-23 06:56 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  > It's just a ploy for more money. They could take money from other useless parts
  Your logic is the same as any conspiracy theorist - it can't be disproved. You'll always be able to pull up some government program that you personally don't think is worthwhile as "proof" that teh government is just holding people hostage for funding.
  While I am sure that within the tens of thousands of different budgets internal to the us federal government there is funny business going on, it is specious to claim that is what is going on every time something serious breaks. The government is just not that well organized.
  
  --
  When information is power, privacy is freedom.
19. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by ebno-10db · 2013-05-23 06:57 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  And how many satellites could have been built with the $535 MILLION that the Obama Administration gave to Solyndra?
  I'm not sure, but you could have built at least 7000x as many satellites for the cost of the Iraq War. Bonus points for a lot fewer Americans killed.
20. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by MachineShedFred · 2013-05-23 06:59 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yeah, it was "impossible to predict weather patterns on the US East Coast" for like 15 minutes until they took the backup satellite off standby.
  Whew, that was close! Those hurricanes come out of nowhere!
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
21. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by R3d+M3rcury · 2013-05-23 07:02 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  They could take money from other useless parts (like the website that the private sector has entirely covered
  Uh, where do you think "the private sector" is getting their data from?
22. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by cayenne8 · 2013-05-23 07:19 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Aww. $500 million. Just imagine how many satellites could have been built from a fraction of the military budget.
  Or, even by cutting off welfare for people that ARE able bodied and can work. Or by cutting the waste from Medicare and SS, which are about the other 2/3 of the main budget chunks along with military.
  You know, if we shrunk the Federal Govt back down to more resemble what it is Constitutionally mandated to do, we could easily afford a lot more stuff.
  Hell, why don't we quit sending so much fucking money out for Foreign Aid, and spend it on satellites? Who objects to that one?
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
23. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by tipo159 · 2013-05-23 07:27 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  "OK, we choose to cut weather forecasting for the northeast, rather than ... that $200 million supercomputer to beat out the EU (despite the EU supercomputer being less than half as powerful as our current system while still being more accurate)."
  That's odd. Cliff Mass, a well-respected climatologist at University of Washington, expressed concern about deficiencies in the NWS computing resources here and here. He was very positive on the NWS computer upgrades.
  But, I guess that you know more about this than he does, right?
24. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Lumpy · 2013-05-23 07:32 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Or, even by cutting off welfare for people that ARE able bodied and can work. "
  Ageed, When do we start cutting the pay to Congress?
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
25. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by pixelpusher220 · 2013-05-23 07:32 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  We're actually going to be quite short of weather sats in the next decade or so. That we had a backup this time is nice, but hardly indicative that everything is going well.
  
  --
  People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
26. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-23 08:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  we don't need it, god will look after us
  Don't you mean The Free Market? Anthropocentric religions are SOOOO last-millenium.
27. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-23 09:01 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The Iraq War Resolution, which Congress approved, included 22 reasons for invading Iraq (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_Iraq_War#Iraq_War_Resolution). Plenty of which were true (* on #2 which I suspect is your greatest contention, but note that it doesn't just cite existence of WMD but programs to develop such, which he clearly had)
  That's a pretty far cry from your [quote]absolutely none of the stated reasons turned out to be true[/quote]
  True: Iraq's noncompliance with the conditions of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, including interference with U.N. weapons inspectors.
  True*: Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and programs to develop such weapons, posed a "threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region."
  True: Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population."
  True: Iraq's "capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people".
  True: Iraq's hostility towards the United States as demonstrated by the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and firing on coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones following the 1991 Gulf War.
  True: Members of Al-Qaeda, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq.
  True: Iraq's "continuing to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations," including anti-United States terrorist organizations.
  True: Iraq paid bounty to families of suicide bombers.
  True: The efforts by the Congress and the President to fight terrorists, including the September 11th, 2001 terrorists and those who aided or harbored them.
  True: The authorization by the Constitution and the Congress for the President to fight anti-United States terrorism.
  True: The governments in Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia feared Saddam and wanted him removed from power.
  Citing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the resolution reiterated that it should be the policy of the United States to remove the Saddam Hussein regime and promote a democratic replacement.
  The fact that you don't like or agree with any/all of them isn't an excuse for lying about it.
  Hope the shoe tastes good, you should be chewing on it for quite a while.
28. Re:They saw this coming for ages... by sopwath · 2013-05-23 10:13 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Are you a wizard?
  How do you know the physical and mental condition of "them" simply by driving by? What type of education do "they" have?
  You mention "them" having different fathers, have you done genetic testing on "them"?
  I have a strong suspicion that you don't actually know any of the information above and are simply stereotyping, falling into the same type of ignorance, bigotry, and hatred that continues to keep "them" from having the same opportunities you've had. I also suspect that you've never had to live on welfare, never had to make the types of choices people in the projects make, never had to go through the failing education system of the inner-city and so you cannot fathom how "they" live, how "they" make the choices they make.
Re:check the weather out west by brian1078 · 2013-05-23 05:43 · Score: 5, Informative

in the USA weather moves west to east
Generally, yes. But many tropical systems that affect the eastern US start their formation off the coast of Africa and move East to West.
Another link to IBTIMES?? with their video ad? by qubezz · 2013-05-23 05:47 · Score: 4, Informative

Try the source at http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/05/22/weather-satellite-fails/2351927/

Satellite logs are at http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/messages.html, it looks like the satellite failed to return imaging two days ago and is now being put into a storage mode.
Nothing to worry about by Minwee · 2013-05-23 05:51 · Score: 5, Funny

If the weather satellite fails, we can just get our weather from the Internet like everybody else.
More Information by PineHall · 2013-05-23 06:10 · Score: 5, Informative

The satellite blog at University of Wisconsin has more information including some images from GOES 14, now turned on.
Re:Jokes by the+eric+conspiracy · 2013-05-23 06:29 · Score: 4, Insightful

Were you even alive before weather satellites? I remember what it was like 40 years ago, and the accuracy of prediction is now far superior to what it used to be.
The prediction of storm tracks in particular has gotten to be really good. For example the Sandy track prediction was excellent despite the complexity of the situation.
Forecasting practices by maddog42 · 2013-05-23 07:28 · Score: 5, Informative

Most forecasting is done by meteorologists viewing the predicted conditions based on a numerical model that normally gets run every 12 hours. The model's forecast is usually pretty good out to 72 hours or so. What happens is that an experienced weather-guesser (ex-Navy, here) will look at the model's output (which lags realtime to some degree) and compare the prediction to the actual conditions for the timeframe in question. If the correlation is high, he/she will put more faith into the model's longer term predictions. If the model isn't tracking reality very well, the forecaster will rely on experience rather than the numerical prediction for the longer-range forecast.
Sounder data from the available weather satellites is used to seed the modelling software as close to its run time as possible, to set up starting conditions for the observable areas. If that data is lacking, the previous model run data closest to the time of the new run is used. (GIGO applies...)
The realtime data can also come from radiosondes, official observations stations, buoys, or what have you. Losing a bird doesn't mean the forecasting infrastructure will fall apart; it just means that imagery will come from a different source (= different angle, with attendant distortion), and some loss of realtime input for the model run.