Main U.S. Weather Satellite Fails

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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Just in time for the start of what has been predicted as a very active hurricane season for the East Coast, the weather satellite positioned to give accurate tracking information and imaging has gone dark. A backup satellite has been activated, but does not have the view range of the failed satellite due to its particular geostationary orbit.

The satellite fleets that meteorologists use to monitor severe weather and generate forecasts are aging. Replacements are scheduled to launch beginning in 2015, but between now and then there is growing concern "that we are going to end up with gaps in our coverage"
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Drats! I suppose people will have to look outside to see what the weather is like. :mad: Oh the huge manatee of having to glance out a window!
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Drats! I suppose people will have to look outside to see what the weather is like. :mad: Oh the huge manatee of having to glance out a window!
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What's a window? Is that one of those old fashioned monitors that only displays 1 live background?
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Drats! I suppose people will have to look outside to see what the weather is like. :mad: Oh the huge manatee of having to glance out a window!
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That's a pretty bad situation if the first you know of a hurricane is by looking out your window.
 
MajorDomo said:
Good solution. Let's move half of the population of the US from the East Coast to the Midwest into Tornado Alley instead of building new weather satellites.;)
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I'm all for it! PODS would probably like the increase in business, the Midwest needs more people as an excuse to modernize their road system, and tornadoes would help bring more people to Oz to drench evil witches with random, precariously balanced cauldrons of battery acid they leave laying around despite OSHA recommendations against doing so. It's a win for everyone!
 
Aging satellites? Looks like it's time to start a war with someone. I'm looking at you, Syria. We need something to occupy people's attention while things fall apart around them, and I'm afraid you're the best option right now. Please don't take it personally.
 
The headline of that article almost reads like The Onion :p

But it seems we still have full coverage at least, but if more satellites start dropping then I'll be worried.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
True, but no one forces anyone to live where there are hurricanes.
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so I am guessing where you live has no tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards or wild fires then?

I'll take hurricanes any day of the week, they give you several days notice... none of those other disasters do
 
It's too bad we don't have any active space shuttles so we could go up and fix it. Now we will have to hire some foreign space program to help us fix it?
 
savagepagan said:
It's too bad we don't have any active space shuttles so we could go up and fix it. Now we will have to hire some foreign space program to help us fix it?
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There is usually no "fix" for this type of satellite. Usual answer is to give it a shove towards the planet.
 
welcome to the usa the land where every thing is falling apart because its past its replacement date
 
savagepagan said:
It's too bad we don't have any active space shuttles so we could go up and fix it.
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GOES-13 sits in geostationary orbit, far beyond(over 50x) the highest orbit the Shuttle ever went to. It's a nice idea, but the Shuttle wouldn't even come close to being able to do the job even if you were still launching them.
 
So their consistently incorrect weather guessing is going to become even more consistently incorrect?
 
KarsusTG said:
So their consistently incorrect weather guessing is going to become even more consistently incorrect?
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I know it's been cool to rip on the weatherman for decades (or centuries), but I think they do a pretty damn good job nowadays considering the complexity of the systems they're trying to predict.
 
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