After Thursday’s launch of the GOES 17 weather satellite, we can now keep an eye on storms in HD from New Zealand to Africa

America has a new weather satellite—the second of a new generation of high-definition weather observation spacecraft. The GOES-S spacecraft lifted off from Florida on Thursday evening, launched aboard an Atlas V rocket. It will reach its target geostationary orbit in two weeks, about 36,000km above the Earth's surface.

The GOES-R series of satellites scan the planet five times faster than previous US geostationary weather satellites, and they do so with four times the resolution. For weather events of high interest, such as hurricanes and the frequently changing conditions within the eye of the storm, this new generation of satellite can provide new images and data every 30 seconds. The spacecraft also carry the first operational lightning mappers flown in geostationary orbit.

The satellite that was launched Thursday, which will take the name GOES-17 when it becomes operational, will take up station at 137 degrees west, approximately half way between California and Hawaii. With these two satellites in geostationary orbit, an orbit that allows them to maintain a stationary position relative to the surface of the Earth, NOAA will have advanced satellite coverage of an area stretching from New Zealand to the west coast of Africa.

From its vantage point over the western half of the Western Hemisphere, GOES-17 will collect more data about conditions in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, where many of the storm systems that ultimately affect the continental United States originate from. This should provide more lead time for severe storm forecasting and better predictions for storms' timing and intensity.