A Second Life for a Defunct Billion-Dollar Weather Satellite

The GOES series of weather satellites (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites) were first launched in 1974 with GOES-1. In addition to pictures of the clouds, they provide critical inputs into the computer weather models that help forecast the weather around the globe. These variables include snow cover, water vapor, sunspot activity, even upper-air wind data to help hurricane forecasts. More

(Source: Bay News 9 - Oct 13)