The U.S. Space Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have begun to jointly operate a weather satellite that has been reassigned for military use. The Electro-optical Infrared Weather System Geostationary (EWS-G1) satellite will collect space-based environmental data under a partnership between USSF and NOAA, Peterson Air Force Base said.
The satellite originally functioned to gather weather data over the country's East Coast under the former name Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-13). This original assignment ran over 10 years beginning in 2006.
EWS-G1 now works to characterize clouds and produce weather imagery for the U.S. military's operations in the Indian Ocean area.
"This effort demonstrates speed by allowing the spacecraft to be moved and operated in the Indian Ocean region far earlier than a new satellite could be produced and fielded,” said Charlotte Gerhart, low Earth orbit division chief at the production corps of USSF's Space and Missile Systems Center.
