File:GOES-18 Goes West- Satellite Continues Post-Launch Testing to Prepare for Operations (NESDIS 2022-06-14 GOES-18-ABI-Image).gif

English: NOAA’s newest weather satellite, GOES-18, is now sending back data from its new post-launch testing position at 136.8 degrees west longitude over the Pacific Ocean. GOES-18, which launched on March 1, 2022, was initially delivered to 89.5 degrees west over the Central U.S. and began post-launch testing and calibration of its instruments and systems in that location. On May 16, GOES-18 began drifting west, arriving at 136.8 degrees west on June 6. Post-launch testing restarted on June 7. From its new vantage point, GOES-18 can now see Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Ocean all the way to New Zealand. It is ideally located to monitor the northeastern Pacific, where many of the weather systems affecting the continental United States originate, and to keep watch over the eastern Pacific hurricane basin. Once operational, the satellite will also provide critical data for forecasters, emergency managers, first responders, and the aviation industry on environmental hazards like turbulence, fires, smoke and dust, coastal fog, and volcanic eruptions.