Topic: GOES Spring 2022 Eclipse and Keep Out Zone/Stray Light Exclusion Schedules and Impacts

Date/Time Issued: February 16, 2022 1610 UTC

Product(s) or Data Impacted: GOES-16 (GOES-East) ABI, GOES-17 (GOES-West) and GLM data and GOES-15 (GOES-West) Imager

Date/Time of Initial Impact: February 26, 2022 0522 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End: April 30, 2022 1614 UTC

Length of Outage:  See details below

Details/Specifics of Change:

The Spring 2022 Eclipse and Keep Out Zone (KOZ)/Stray Light Exclusion (SLZ) schedules are now available on our web page at http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/eclipse.html

During eclipse season with the GOES-R satellite series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), stray light contamination is visible approximately 45 minutes before and after satellite local midnight (~0500 UTC for GOES-East) which is approximately 45 days before and after the vernal (March 20, 2022) and autumnal (September 22, 2022) equinox, in the form of a vertical beam of light that is more intense at the end closer to the Sun. Stray light contamination is often prominent in the images of visible and near infrared bands (bands 1–6), although it can also be discerned in band 7 images. This is a normal occurrence for the ABI. 

Contact Information for Further Information: ESPC Operations at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov or 301-817-3880 or SPSD User Services at SPSD.UserServices.noaa.gov 

Web Site(s) for applicable information:

See http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/eclipse.html for full eclipse schedules.

See http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/schedules.html for full GOES scanning schedules and scan sectors.

See https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/messages.html for this and other satellite related messages.