At a Glance

The nation's most advanced weather satellite, GOES-R, launched Saturday at sunset. It will produce the sharpest and fastest images yet of the nation's weather events. Eventually it will become part of $11 billion system that will ultimately include four satellites

Saturday night, NASA launched the nation’s most advanced weather satellite ever.

The $1 billion Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R) satellite was created for the purpose of churning out the sharpest and fastest pictures yet of hurricanes, tornadoes and other U.S. weather events. The technologicalupgrade has been likened to the jump from black-and-white to super high-definition television.

The photo above shows the NOAA GOES-R weather satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

(Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

According to NASA, and will significantly improve detecting and observing weather events that directly impact public safety.

"Really a quantum leap above any satellite NOAA has ever flown," said Stephen Volz, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's director of satellites.

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Airline passengers also stand to benefit, as do rocket launch teams. Improved forecasting will help pilots avoid bad weather and help rocket scientists know when to call off a launch. The first in a series of four high-tech satellites, GOES-R hitched a ride on an Atlas V rocket, delayed an hour by rocket and other problems. NOAA teamed up with NASA for the mission.

Created for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), GOES-R will aim for a 22,300-mile high orbit. The government agency expects it to revolutionize forecasting and has made it part of a new $11 billion system that will ultimately include four satellites.GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. The first was launched in 1975.

GOES-R's premier imager — one of six science instruments — will offer three times as many channels as the existing system, four times the resolution and five times the scan speed, said NOAA program director Greg Mandt. A similar imager is also flying on a Japanese weather satellite. Typically, it will churn out full images of the Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes and the continental United States every five minutes. Specific storm regions will be updated every 30 seconds. Forecasters will get pictures "like they've never seen before," Mandt promised. A first-of-its-kind lightning mapper, meanwhile, will take 500 snapshots a second.

Nearly 50 TV meteorologists from around the country converged on the launch site along with8,000 space program workers and guests.

GOES-R will eventually become known as GOES-16 when it becomes part of the satellite system, also according to NASA.

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