GOES-18

GOES-18 (originally GOES-T) is a NOAA geostationary meteorological satellite, the third of the GOES-R Series, launched on 2022-03-01 and placed into geostationary orbit on 2022-03-14.^[1][2] GOES-18 replaced GOES-17 as the operational GOES West satellite on 2023-01-04 and is stationed at 137.0 degrees West, providing continuous coverage of the western contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand.^[3][1] The spacecraft carries six instruments: the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a 16-channel visible and infrared imager; the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) for optical lightning transient detection across the Americas; and solar and space-weather instruments including the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI), Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), Space Environment In Situ Suite (SEISS), and a magnetometer (MAG).^[4] GOES-18 data products include atmospheric motion vectors, sea surface temperature, fire and thermal anomaly detection for wildfire monitoring in the western United States, and lightning mapping.^[5][3]