The most advanced weather satellite ever built rocketed into space on Saturday night, part of an $11bn effort to revolutionise forecasting and save lives. This new GOES-R spacecraft will track US weather as never before: hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, lightning storms, even solar flares. “If we can give people another 10, 15, 20 minutes [with tornadoes], we’re talking about lives being saved,” Roker said. The satellite valued by NOAA at $1bn will join three ageing spacecraft with 40-year-old technology. A similar imager is also flying on a Japanese weather satellite.

Source: The Guardian November 20, 2016 02:51 UTC