Despite losing state funding, and staff, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is staying at the top of national, cutting-edge scientific research.
Scientists from UW-Madison watched their weather satellite launch into orbit. The satellite, GOES-16 or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite has been being worked on since 1999. The satellite has been called a game-changer in weather forecasting. It can hone in on hurricanes, volcanoes, and storms, providing forecasters the information they need quickly.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports
“It was a ‘wow,’ ” said Tim Schmit, a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration satellite research scientist who has worked on GOES-16 with researchers at UW’s Space Science and Engineering Center since 1999.
“For years we’ve been working and saying this is going to be great, we’ll have more spectral bands and more spatial resolution. But when I finally saw it, it was definitely a ‘wow’ factor for me,” Schmit said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon from the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in Seattle.
For more on UW-Madison’s contribution to this satellite, visit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
