Spotlight Space: A Weather Forecast Game-Changer 00:00 did you check to see what the weather 00:01 would be like today? for me it looks like 00:04 I'll have sunny skies. now where do you 00:06 think these forecasts come from? to find 00:09 out we'll have to put our bunny suits on. 00:14 every day people rely on weather 00:16 forecasts to know what to wear, what 00:19 route to take, whether to expect delays 00:21 and in extreme cases whether they'll 00:23 need to evacuate out of a risky area. we 00:26 know where and when this weather will be 00:28 thanks to in part weather satellites 00:30 orbiting our planets. the better these 00:32 satellites get the better the weather 00:34 forecasts can be. for example NASA and 00:37 NOAA the National Oceanic and 00:38 Atmospheric Administration recently 00:40 launched the most advanced weather 00:42 satellite of its kind GOES-R, which later 00:45 became known as GOES-16. that satellite was 00:48 designed built and tested right here at 00:50 Lockheed Martin. it's part of a model of 00:52 communication satellites known as the LM 00:54 2100 series which Lockheed Martin has 00:57 been building and perfecting since the 00:59 1990s. 01:00 now GOES-16 is part of the larger GOES 01:03 program which stands for geostationary 01:06 operational environmental satellite. this 01:09 program started way back in 1966 and GOES- 01:12 16 is the newest addition to the 01:14 team 01:15 and an impressive addition at that. GOES-16 01:19 is a game-changer for weather 01:21 forecasting with six different 01:22 scientific instruments. it collects three 01:25 times more data, provides four times 01:27 better resolution and more than five 01:29 times faster coverage than the 01:30 satellites before it. to be in this room 01:33 you must wear a full cleanroom suit or 01:35 bunny suit. one of the ways it's 01:38 accomplished this is with one of its new 01:40 instruments also built by Lockheed 01:41 Martin the Geostationary Lightning 01:43 Mapper, the first of its kind, is giving 01:46 meteorologists a nearly real-time look 01:48 at lightning. during a thunderstorm rapid 01:51 increases in the lightning mean that a 01:53 storm is strengthening quickly and 01:55 severe weather may be coming. more 01:58 detailed and faster weather forecasts 02:00 mean that we can better protect people 02:01 and property from extreme weather events. 02:04 it also means we can save money by 02:07 efficiently directing traffic and goods 02:09 around areas that might experience 02:11 weather delays. because knowing what the 02:13 weather will be like today is just good 02:15 business. but GOES-16 doesn't just keep 02:18 a watchful eye on our changing planet it 02:20 also watches the sun 24/7 with Lockheed 02:24 Martin's Solar Ultraviolet Imager or 02:26 SUVI, GOES-16 can tell us if a solar 02:29 explosion is headed our way. the sun is 02:32 constantly active and every so often it 02:35 spews out high-energy radiation in the 02:37 form of solar flares or the even more 02:40 intense coronal mass ejections. sometimes 02:43 these energetic particles take a 93 02:46 million miles 02:47 - our planet. when they reach us they 02:50 cause beautiful events like the aurora 02:52 borealis or the Northern Lights 02:54 but they can also do some damage if 02:57 we're not prepared. for say a coronal 02:59 mass ejection it can hurt our satellites 03:02 and things like communication systems 03:04 GPS navigation it can even hurt our 03:07 electrical grid and cause massive 03:09 blackouts. SUVI helps keep a watchful eye 03:12 on our active sun so that we can protect 03:14 our technology and our way of life. GOES-16 03:18 is just the first satellite in the new 03:20 GOES series. ultimately there will be four 03:22 total. the next three are currently being 03:24 designed, built and tested for the rigors 03:26 of space right 03:28 here at Lockheed Martin's facilities in 03:29 Denver, Colorado. together these 03:31 next-generation satellites will keep an 03:33 eye on our local and solar weather. right 03:36 now we can't precisely predict what our 03:39 planet or our sun will do each day but 03:42 with state of the art satellites like GOES- 03:44 16 we have our best technology on the 03:46 case. I'm Emily Calandrelli and this 03:48 has been your spotlight on space 03:50 [Music]