Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI)

The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is a satellite imager on the GOES-R satellites. It detects visible and infrared light using 16 spectral bands, with each band capturing a different set of data. Two visible channels track dust, haze, fog, and clouds, as well as snow cover and volcanic ash. These channels work during the day by capturing sunlight that reflects off the Earth. Four of the channels are near-infrared, tracking plant life, water vapor, ice, snow, clouds, and fires. The remaining ten are infrared channels that track temperature, clouds, volcanic ash, water vapor, ozone, and wind. These channels are like night-vision goggles that can detect all available light, both day and night.

The ABI also has a diverse set of focus areas and data frequency. It can capture a full disk image every 10 minutes, an image of the US mainland every five minutes, and images from one to two smaller areas of the hemisphere every 30-60 seconds. Scientists and forecasters use this data to feed into computer models for more accurate predictions and to assist in everyday forecasting, including hurricane and severe weather warnings.

Improvements Over Previous Capabilities

The ABI is a big leap forward in technology. It provides three times more spectral data with four times the resolution, and delivers it five times faster than the previous GOES-N series, which launched its final satellite in 2010. That’s the difference between identifying cloud cover and identifying the differences between clouds, water vapor, smoke, ice, and volcanic ash. These capabilities make the ABI mission-critical to the GOES-R Series, providing more than 65 percent of all GOES-R data.

Monitoring Our Planet to Improve Safety and Forecasting

The ABI provides data that meteorologists and emergency response officials use to warn the public about dangerous situations such as fires, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, and storms that may produce tornadoes.

Severe Weather

The ABI monitors environmental conditions in great detail, which helps identify storms as they develop. Since storm data is updated every 30-60 seconds, warnings can be issued more quickly. Early warnings provide the public and emergency responders with more time to prepare for severe weather.

Thunderstorm and Hurricane Forecasting

The ABI tracks storms in near real-time, identifying cloud features like overshooting tops, gravity waves, and above-anvil cirrus plumes—signs that a storm may be severe. It is also used to detect small, growing cumulus clouds, which sometimes grow into thunderstorms. Some of these storms become supercells, meaning they have a rotating updraft, and supercells sometimes produce tornadoes.

The ABI is the primary tool forecasters use to identify a developing tropical cyclone, such as a hurricane. They use its high-resolution imagery to track the storm and estimate its intensity. They can also track features such as dry air and wind shear, which can limit a storm’s ability to strengthen, as well as cloud top temperatures, which are predictors of rainfall intensity and flash flooding. Since the ABI can scan a targeted area every 30-60 seconds, it allows forecasters to see what’s happening in real-time.  This data is used to locate the storm’s center of circulation, which helps guide reconnaissance aircraft, like NOAA Hurricane Hunters. The ABI’s rapid, detailed imagery, both before and during landfall, provides insight into changes in the storm’s intensity and convective structure during a critical part of the warning process.

Wildfires

The ABI detects heat signatures from fires by measuring energy at different wavelengths. Even small fires, which represent a small fraction of the satellite pixel, can be seen and measured by size, temperature and radiative power.

The shortwave infrared band (3.9 µm ABI band) is particularly useful for fire detection, because the shorter wavelength is sensitive to the hottest part of a fire pixel. Fires are often detected by the ABI before they are spotted on the ground. It is also used to pinpoint the exact location of a fire after reports of smoke. First responders and fire dispatchers use this data to effectively fight wildfires.

Air Quality

The ABI’s multiple channels can distinguish between dust, clouds, ash and smoke. The data is used to create “false-color” images, which display each aerosol in a different color. Since ABI data informs forecasters faster than previous technology, it enables them to issue earlier warnings. This is especially useful to the aviation industry, since planes can’t fly through even small amounts of volcanic ash. Doing so runs the risk of severe damage to the outside of an aircraft or engine failure. Early warnings enable better planning, reducing the costs associated with flight delays and last-minute diversions.