Topic: GOES-17 and GOES-15 Drift and Transition Plan

Date/Time Issued: September 26, 2018 1940 UTC

Product(s) or Data Impacted: All GOES-17 ABI, GLM, SUVI, SEISS, MAG, and EXIS products

Date/Time of Initial Impact: October 23, 2018 2015 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End: Sometime after December 10, 2018 TBD UTC

Length of Event/Outage: See details below.

Details/Specifics of Change: The GOES-17 and GOES-15 drift and transition plan is now available.

GOES-15 will begin drifting from its present location of 135 degrees west on October 23, 2018 at 2015 UTC until November 1, 2018 at 1900 UTC when GOES-15 reaches its new operating location of 128 degrees west. It will drift east at a rate of 0.88 degrees per day allowing all instruments and services to remain on with nominal GVAR and LRIT distribution. Beginning one day prior to drift on October 22, 2018 at 1500 UTC, GOES-15 GVAR will begin relay through GOES-14 a nd will be available through both GOES-15 and GOES-14 satellites during the drift period. One day after drift stops on November 2, 2018 at 1500 UTC, GOES-15 GVAR relay through GOES-14 ends and the GOES-15 GVAR direct broadcast continues.

GOES-17 will begin drifti ng from its present location of 89.5 degrees west on October 24, 2018 at 1740 UTC. It will drift west at a rate of 2.5 degrees per day. It will complete drift on November 13, 2018 when it reaches its final operational location of 137 degrees west. M-B

During the drift period from October 24th-November 13th, five instruments (ABI, GLM, SUVI, SEISS, and EXIS) will be placed in safe or diagnostic modes and will not be capturing or distributing data. GRB, DCS, HRIT/EMWIN, and SARSAT will be disabled during drift. This is due to X-band radio frequency downlink interference. Only MAG will continue to collect data but with data outages during spacecraft maneuvers on October 24 and 25, 2018 and November 12 and 13, 2018.

Following two days of calibration activity after GOES-17 reaches 137 degrees west, all instruments will resume data collection on November 15, 2018 with data distribution to test participants via GRB and PDA. GOES-17 will remain non-operational for an additional 3 weeks to allow for operational testing at the 137 degrees West position. M-BAfter successful test completion, the satellite will go into operations as the GOES-West satellite sometime after December 10, 2018.

There will be a six month period of overlap with GOES-15, which will remain at 128 degrees west and operate nominally until a date is specified for disabling the GVAR. Additional information will be communicated as needed.

Key points:

- October 22, 2018: GOES-15 GVAR relay through GOES-14 begins at 1500 UTC

- October 23, 2018: GOES-15 drift begins 2015 UTC M-B

- All instruments and services remain on with nominal GVAR and LRIT distribution

- GOES-15 GVAR also be relayed through GOES-14 GVAR during the GOES-15 drift period

- October 24, 2018: GOES-17 drift begins 1740 UTC

- During drift, no instrument data will be captured or distributed from ABI, GLM, EXIS, SUVI, and SEISS. MAG data will still be collected but with data outages on days of drift start (10/24 and 10/25) and drift stop (11/12 and 11/13)

- During drift, GRB, DCS, HRIT/EMWIN, and SARSAT will be disabled

- November 1, 2018: GOES-15 drift ends 1900 UTC

- November 2, 2018: GOES-15 GVAR relay through GOES-14 ends at 1500 UTC

- GOES-15 GVAR direct broadcast continues and satellite continues operating for six months at 128 degrees west

- November 13, 2018: GOES-17 drift ends and calibration activities begin

- November 15, 2018: GOES-17 resumes test operations but will remain non-operational for an additional 3 weeks of operational testing at 137 degrees west

- GOES-17 GRB, DCS, HRIT/EMWIN and SARSAT are activated

- GOES-17 products continue validation towards Provisional and Full Maturity levels

- No maneuvers / special operations during Thanksgiving holidays

- Sometime after December 10, 2018: GOES-17 will be declared the Operational GOES-West satellite

- Simultaneous GOES-West (GOES-17) and GOES-15 operations for six months M-B

Contact Information for Further Information: Kathryn Mozer at Kathryn.Mozer@noaa.gov

Web Site(s) for applicable information:

See https://www.goes-r.gov/users/transitionToOperations17.html for additional information.

This message was sent to ESPC.Notification@noaa.gov. You have been sent this and other notifications because you have opted in to receive it. If for any reason, you wish to unsubscribe, please contact ESPC Help Desk at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov or (301) 817-3880. Please note: it may take up to two business days to process your unsubscribe request.