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Intersatellite Comparisons of GOES Magnetic Field Measurements
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  • Frederick Rich,
  • Samuel T Califf,
  • Paul T.M. Loto'aniu,
  • Monica Coakley,
  • Alexander Krimchansky,
  • Howard J. Singer
Frederick Rich
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Samuel T Califf
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
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Paul T.M. Loto'aniu
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Monica Coakley
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
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Alexander Krimchansky
NASA Space Flight Center
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Howard J. Singer
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Abstract

GOES-16 and GOES-17 are the first of NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R series of satellites. Each GOES-R satellite has a magnetometer mounted on the end (outboard) and one part-way down a long boom (inboard). This paper demonstrates the relative accuracy and stability of the measurements on a daily and long-term basis. The GOES-16 and GOES-17 magnetic field observations from 2017 to 2020 have been compared to simultaneous magnetic field observations from each other and from the previous GOES-NOP series satellites (GOES-13, GOES-14 and GOES-15). These comparisons provide assessments of relative accuracy and stability. We use a field model to facilitate the inter-satellite comparisons at different longitudes. GOES-16 inboard and outboard magnetometers data suffer daily variations which cannot be explained by natural phenomena. Long-term averaged GOES-16 outboard (OB) data has daily variations of ± 3 nT which are stable within ± 1.5 nT. Long-term averaged GOES-17OB magnetometer data have minimal daily variations (less than ± 1 nT). Daily average of the difference between the GOES-16 outboard or GOES-17 outboard measurements and the measurements made by another GOES satellite are computed. The long-term averaged results show the GOES-16OB and GOES-17OB measurements have long-term stability (± 2 nT or less) and match measurements from magnetometers on other GOES within limits stated herein. The GOES-17OB operational offset (zero field value) was refined using the GOES-17 satellite rotated 180° about the Earth pointing axis (known as a yaw flip).
27 Sep 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
29 Sep 2023Published in ESS Open Archive