GOES-15 (GOES-West) began drifting from 135W on 10/29 to its new location at 128W, where it arrived today, 11/7, at 1910 UTC. During the drift, GOES-15 continued to transmit data in order to support NWS operations. Figure 1 shows 3-hourly GOES-15 Full Disk sector IR imagery from 10/29 – 11/7. The slow eastward shift of the sector is apparent in the imagery.

Figure 1: 29 Oct – 7 Nov 2018 GOES-15 (GOES-West) 3-hourly full disk IR imagery. Full res

GOES-17 continues to drift toward 137.2W, where it is expected to arrive on 11/13, and resume dataflow on 11/15. It is scheduled to become operational GOES-West on Dec 10. Thereafter, GOES-15 and GOES-17 will operate in tandem for at least 6 months.

Bill Line, NWS