The Department
of Commerce‘s National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration will hold a conference for
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites data users
on May 22 – 24 in Boulder, Colo. The meeting will seek input
on the next generation of environmental satellites.

GOES
satellites are a mainstay of weather
forecasting in the United States. Their images of the clouds
are seen daily on television weather forecasts. The third generation
of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites will
provide a burst of new data in the next decade unlike anything
seen before in the history of Earth observations. With its first
launch planned for 2010, this new GOES will scan the Earth nearly
five times faster than the current GOES.
The satellites will provide the user community (television meteorologists,
foreign governments and private weather companies) with about
eight times the amount of data currently provided.

"Advanced planning is taking place
for the development of the future GOES," said NOAA’s James
Gurka, who is organizing the conference. "So now is the
time for the user community to assist NOAA in fine-tuning the
details of GOES requirements, products, communications, and distribution
of data."

The conference is designed to provide two-way
communication between NOAA’s National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service and
the GOES user community; to inform GOES data users of plans for
the next generation of satellites; provide information on potential
applications; determine user needs for new products; and assess
potential user and societal benefits of GOES capabilities.

The conference will consist of two days
of invited presentations followed by one day of breakout sessions
with professional facilitators. Speakers include Greg Withee,
NOAA assistant administrator for satellite and information services;
Elbert W. (Joe) Friday, of the National
Research Council; and Ray Ban, senior vice president of The Weather Channel.

The conference is sponsored by NOAA, in
cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
the American Meteorological Society, the National Weather Association,
the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the World
Meteorological Organization.

For more information on the conference,
see: http://www.osd.noaa.gov/conference/

Online registration is available at: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/confpage/conffutr.htm

For questions, please contact Wendy Ortega
Henderson at ortegaw@boulder.nist.gov
or call (303) 497-3693.