The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorology research.

The GOES system uses geosynchronous equatorial satellites that, since the launch of SMS-1 in 1974, have been a basic element of U.S. weather monitoring and forecasting.

The SMS-derived satellites were spin-stabilized spacecraft, which provided imagery through a Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer, or VISSR.

[21][22] GOES-15 was temporarily returned to operational status in August 2020 to fill a gap in the sensor capabilities of GOES-17 due to a hardware issue.

Although GOES-3 ceased to be used for weather operations in 1989, it spent over 20 years as a critical part of communications between the U.S. and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station before being decommissioned in 2016.

When that fuel is depleted, solar and lunar perturbations increase the satellite's inclination so that its ground track begins to describe an analemma (a figure-8 in the north–south direction).

[21][22] GOES-15 was temporarily returned to operational status in August 2020 to fill a gap in the sensor capabilities of GOES-17 due to a hardware issue.

The evolution of atmospheric phenomena can be followed, ensuring real-time coverage of meteorological events such as severe local storms and tropical cyclones.

The GOES spacecraft also enhance operational services and improve support for atmospheric science research, numerical weather prediction models, and environmental sensor design and development.

During significant weather or other events, the normal schedules can be altered to provide the coverage requested by the NWS and other agencies.

GOES-12 and above also have provided a platform for the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI) and space environment monitoring (SEM) instruments.

The SXI provides high-cadence monitoring of large scale solar structures to support the Space Environment Services Center's (SESC) mission.

The SESC, as the nation's "space weather" service, receives, monitors, and interprets a wide variety of solar-terrestrial data.

It also issues reports, alerts, and forecasts for special events such as solar flares or geomagnetic storms.

This information is important to the operation of military and civilian radio wave and satellite communication and navigation systems.

The information also is important to electric power networks, the missions of geophysical explorers, Space Station astronauts, high-altitude aviators, and scientific researchers.

The SEM measures the effect of the Sun on the near-Earth solar-terrestrial electromagnetic environment, providing real-time data to the SESC.

The main mission of a GOES satellite is carried out by the primary payload instruments, which are the Imager and the Sounder.

In addition, the GOES satellites carry a search and rescue repeater that collects data from Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons and Emergency Locator Transmitter beacons, which are used during search-and-rescue operations by the U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

The proposed instrument package for the GOES-R series initially included the following:[34][35] In September 2006, the HES was cancelled.

Before the GOES-R series became operational, unless a satellite was dedicated to this continent, imagery of South America was updated every 3 hours instead of every 30 minutes.

In September 2006, NOAA reduced the planned number of GOES-R satellites from four to two because of cost overrun concerns.

[39] The contract for constructing the satellites and manufacturing the magnetometer, SUVI, and GLM was awarded to Lockheed Martin.

XRS and EUVS are being combined into the Extreme Ultra Violet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), which was delivered by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics of the University of Colorado.

[42] The contract for the ground system, including data processing, was awarded to a team led by the Weather Systems division of L3Harris, including subcontracts to Boeing, Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), Honeywell, Carr Astronautics, Wyle Laboratories, and Ares.

[45] Boeing would have built and launched GOES-Q only if GOES-O or GOES-P had failed to be delivered on-orbit in good working order.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.