Overview
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) operates the US civilian weather satellite fleet — the backbone of American weather forecasting. NOAA runs two systems: GOES (geostationary) for continuous hemispheric monitoring and JPSS (polar-orbiting) for global atmospheric profiling, plus DSCOVR at the Sun-Earth L1 point for space weather monitoring.
GOES (Geostationary)
GOES-16 (East) and GOES-18 (West) monitor the Western Hemisphere from GEO. Full-disk imagery every 10 minutes, severe weather rapid-scan every 60 seconds, and real-time lightning detection via GLM. GOES data powers hurricane tracking, tornado warnings, wildfire detection, and TV weather reports. The 16-channel ABI imager is among the most advanced GEO instruments ever flown.
JPSS (Polar Orbiting)
NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 orbit in sun-synchronous polar orbit at ~824 km. JPSS data is the single most important input into numerical weather prediction models — improving 3–7 day accuracy by ~25%. Instruments include VIIRS (imagery), CrIS (temperature/moisture), ATMS (microwave), and OMPS (ozone).
DSCOVR & Space Weather
DSCOVR orbits the Sun-Earth L1 point (~1.5M km away), monitoring solar wind in real time. Gives 15–60 min warning of incoming geomagnetic storms — critical for GPS, power grids, and LEO constellations. DSCOVR detected the 2022 storm that destroyed 40 Starlink satellites.
Impact on Commercial Operators
NOAA's space weather data is critical for commercial satellite operators. The 2022 geomagnetic storm detected by DSCOVR destroyed 40 Starlink satellites — demonstrating how solar storms affect mega-constellations. OneWeb, Iridium, and Amazon Leo all depend on NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center for geomagnetic storm warnings. NOAA's weather data also benefits Earth observation operators like Planet Labs and Spire Global, which use atmospheric conditions to calibrate and plan imaging. See all operators ranked for the commercial landscape.
Future & Open Data
GeoXO will succeed GOES with ocean colour and atmospheric composition sensors. NOAA participates in global data sharing with Eumetsat and other agencies. All NOAA satellite data is freely and openly available worldwide — one of the most widely used Earth observation data sources globally.