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[slate]

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[slate]

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So a geostationary satellite

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is one that is 22,000 miles above the Earth and it basically

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stays in a constant position so it keeps track of the current weather

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watches what's going on today over the continental United States. A polar

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orbiter is much closer in. 500 miles above the Earth

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and actually rotates and continues or

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continues to orbit as the Earth rotates so it covers the entire globe twice

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a day. That actually gives us a snapshot of all the weather around the world

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temperature and humidity and we feed that into global weather models in order to

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to provide a forecast out 3-7 days.

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[slate]

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So we're trying improve our capabilities

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to forecast the weather out 3-7 days

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because it's very important for emergency weather managers

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for folks to be able to predict what's going to happen and then

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stage for severe weather or plan marine

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routing for marine transportation that brings in goods or services to and

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from the country. Agriculture, do you irrigate

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a particular area or is it going to rain. All those types of things

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forecasts or predictive capabilities that polar satellites bring.

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[slate]

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So geostationary

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satellites as you asked in your first question provide

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that now-casting capability - watching what's happening now

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where is the severe weather. But the polar satellites compliment that by saying

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what's going on around the world overall

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there might be weather out off of China today, but that moisture

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may be in the Pacific northwest of the United States in just several days.

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So getting that picture with those polar satellites is also key

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to the overall forecast process.

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[slate]

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So this new satellite actually helps to predict

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the potential for these types of outbreaks

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but then we would be tracking them with the geostationary satellites or even with ground

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radars, when we're talking about minute by minute

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because minutes count for tornados. But in order

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to be prepared and have folks aware and ready to monitor

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those the polar satellite is very key for that forecast

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capability.

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[slate] I'm excited

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that this will join our latest geostationary satellite

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in orbit. The United States will have two

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newest generation of technology - geostationary and polar satellites

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at the same time. So that really brings a great

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capability to the National Weather Service and the nation for protecting lives and property

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[slate]

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So the data

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for this with this predictive capability and with the monitor actually affects us

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a whole host of economic activities from

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the aviation sector making sure folks can fly safely across the country.

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That you don't find out about your delay at the airport, you find out well in advance

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marine transportation can

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go around storms to make sure goods come in and out of the country

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Irrigation for agriculture we

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will know when to turn it on if it's going to rain we don't necessarily

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have to. Those sorts of things are areas where we'll have economic impact

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[slate]

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Please follow our Twitter

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feed @noaa satellites to get updates on launch.