INTRODUCING THE NEXT-GENERATION ADVANCED BASELINE IMAGER ON GOES-R

Abstract

The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), designated to be one of the instruments on a future Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, will introduce a new era for U.S. geostationary environmental remote sensing. ABI is slated to be launched on GOES-R in 2012 and will be used for a wide range of weather, oceanographic, climate, and environmental applications. ABI will have more spectral bands (16), faster imaging (enabling more geographical areas to be scanned), and higher spatial resolution (2 km in the infrared and 1–0.5 km in the visible) than the current GOES Imager. The purposes of the selected spectral bands are summarized in this paper. There will also be improved performance with regard to radiometrics and image navigation/registration. ABI will improve all current GOES Imager products and introduce a host of new products. New capabilities will include detecting upper-level SO2 plumes, monitoring plant health on a diurnal time scale, inferring cloud-top phase and particle size and other microphysical properties, and quantifying air quality with improved aerosol and smoke detection. ABI will be operating in concert with the GOES-R high spectral resolution sounder, part of the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES); several products will be improved through the combination of high spatial resolution imager data with collocated high spectral resolution measurements. This paper introduces the proposed ABI spectral bands, discusses the rationale for their selection, and presents simulated ABI examples gleaned from current airborne and satellite instrument data.