NOAA GOES West (GOES 11) Satellite Imagery
We have an archive of GOES West images in the visible and 4 infrared (IR) bands, including water vapor. Imagery may be viewed via our satellite animation image viewer.
The U.S. NOAA GOES West geosynchronous weather satellite is located 35,800 km (22,3000 statute miles) above the equator at 135°W, over the Pacific Ocean. The current GOES West satellite, before launch was designated GOES 11, and when launched in May 2000, became GOES L. When GOES L became operational it was designated GOES West. Although its primary mission is coverage of continental U.S., Hawaii and Alaska, it also provides coverage of most of North America, the Pacific Ocean, and western portions of South America and the Atlantic Ocean..
NOAA GOES West Bands
The following NOAA GOES West spectral band images are available in our archive.
| Band | Visible | IR2 | IR3 (water vapor) | IR4 | IR5 |
| Spectral range | 0.55 - 0.75 µm | 3.80 - 4.00 µm | 6.50 - 7.00 µm | 10.20 - 11.20 µm | 11.50 - 12.50 µm |
Our Coverage
International Weather Archive maintains an archive of images that go back 2 months. Our image data interval is every 1 hour, with the exception of full disk images which have an interval of 3 hours.
Three sectors are available:
- Full disk
- North - includes western regions of North America, and the North Pacific Ocean. Note, that U.S. priorities such as regional storms can shrink the area of coverage.
- South - includes South Pacific Ocean including New Zealand and Hawaii. It is important to note that number of southern regional images is sometimes limited, or they are even unavailable, when NOAA switches to rapid or super rapid acquisition modes. These modes direct the satellite to gather U.S. weather imagery more frequently.
External sources for information
- Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_Operational_Environmental_Satellite - NOAA
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/
| Other International Weather Archive Satellites | ||||
| NOAA GOES West | NOAA GOES East | EUMETSAT Meteosat-9 | EUMETSAT Meteosat-7 | JMA MTSAT-1R |
| Pacific, Americas | Americas, Atlantic | Atlantic, Europe, Africa | Europe, Africa, Asia | Asia, Pacific |