Image of Hurricane Milton from NOAA's GOES-16 satellite on Oct. 8, 2024.
The 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially begins June 1, and NOAA’s eyes in the sky are ready for whatever the season may bring.
Since the early days of the United States’ satellite program, Earth-observing satellites have played a vital role in detecting, monitoring and predicting tropical cyclones. In 1961, the TIROS III satellite became the first satellite to detect a tropical cyclone—Hurricane Esther—before any ship or reconnaissance aircraft first confirmed its existence. Decades later, NOAA’s current fleet of polar-orbiting satellites—the Joint Polar Satellite System Program (JPSS)—orbits the globe 14 times a day, providing detailed observations of our planet and its atmosphere.
In 1975, NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) started a new revolution of satellites that observe and monitor tropical cyclones in near real-time. Today, as the GOES program celebrates its 50th anniversary, its latest generation of satellites, known as the GOES-R Series, continues that legacy of continuously observing the weather over much of the western Hemisphere, from New Zealand to the west coast of Africa.
"NOAA satellites are critical for monitoring the development, intensification and track of tropical storms and hurricanes each hurricane season," said Dan Brown, Branch Chief of the Hurricane Specialist Unit within the National Weather Service (NWS), National Hurricane Center (NHC). "Imagery from these satellites help forecasters at the National Hurricane Center determine when a tropical depression or storm has formed and when the structure of the system may allow for rapid intensification. These data are crucial for warning the public of storm surge, wind and rainfall hazards associated with landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes."
Before the Storm
Even when things are quiet, NOAA’s satellites are keeping an eye on the world’s weather. From monitoring the ocean looking for any signs of storm development to identifying areas where conditions are ripe for cyclones to form, these satellites are always providing forecasters with vital insights about the tropical environment.
Geo-Polar Satellite Blended Sea Surface Temperature Analysis from May 7, 2025.
NOAA’s JPSS has three satellites that orbit Earth from pole to pole, providing information about the atmosphere, ocean and land. These observations include atmospheric temperature and moisture, wind shear, land and sea surface temperature, cloud properties and rainfall rates. Their value extends far beyond the U.S.; JPSS data feeds critical global weather models that are relied upon for disaster preparedness, aviation safety and shipping operations around the world.
“Data from JPSS and other polar-obiting satellites provide about 85% of the data used by weather prediction models, which are the foundation of both short- and long-term tropical cyclone forecasts that NOAA issues,” said Tim Walsh, director of NOAA’s Office of Low Earth Orbit Observations. “Their data helps guide the preparation or evacuation information communities need well before a hurricane strikes.”
From their perch 22,236 miles above the equator, NOAA’s GOES-R Series satellites continuously monitor the weather over much of the Western Hemisphere in near real-time. Long before any tropical cyclone poses a threat, GOES satellites are already watching—detectingearly tropical disturbances days before they become a hurricane that threatens the U.S. as well as monitoring their evolution. Like JPSS, GOES satellites provide key information on sea surface temperatures and atmospheric wind shear—which is critical to know when identifying when and where tropical cyclones may develop.
When a Storm Threatens
Forecasters need as much information as possible when a tropical cyclone is churning through the ocean. Together, NOAA’s GOES and JPSS satellites provide meteorologists a more complete picture of these powerful storms and the atmospheric environment they move through.
Image of Hurricane Beryl’s eye from NOAA's GOES-16 satellite on July 1, 2024.
GOES-18 and GOES-19 are the current pair of operational geostationary satellites monitoring the Western Hemisphere, orbiting in the GOES West and GOES East positions, respectively. From these vantage points, they deliver three times more spectral information, four times better spatial resolution, and five times faster temporal coverage than earlier generations of GOES satellites.
GOES satellites are the primary source for near-real time, high resolution satellite information of tropical cyclones in the Central and Eastern Pacific as well as the Atlantic Basin. With these satellites, meteorologists can identify cloud features and patterns within a tropical system, observe the frequency and changes in lightning activity, detect cloud temperatures, monitor central pressure and visualize storm structure. All of this information is crucial for determining how a hurricane is evolving, where it’s headed, and how intense it may be when it makes landfall.
“GOES-19, in particular, is the sentinel in the sky to keep an eye on hurricanes that threaten the eastern United States, Caribbean islands, Central America and the Gulf Coast,” said Dan Lindsey, NOAA's GOES-R program scientist. “Like its counterpart watching over the Pacific, GOES-19 can scan these big Atlantic Basin storms as frequently as every 30 seconds in order to get up-to-the-minute location, track and intensity information.”
Image of Hurricane Milton from the NOAA-21 satellite on Oct. 7, 2024.
In conjunction with GOES, NOAA’s JPSS satellites offer another crucial perspective. They have several advanced instruments that can scan what’s going on inside of hurricanes and tropical storms. They provide imagery across numerous wavelengths—such as visible, microwave, near-infrared and infrared—enabling detailed measurements of atmospheric moisture, wind shear and other key variables within and around tropical systems.
These complementary satellite views help paint a more complete picture of a storm’s structure, size and strength. When combined with ground-based observations and weather models, JPSS data helps meteorologists better predict the strength and path of tropical cyclones as they churn through the ocean over the course of their lifetime.
Response and Recovery
Even after a tropical cyclone moves through, NOAA satellites continue to play a vital role in assessing the storm’s impacts as well as supporting response and recovery efforts.
GOES-16/Suomi-NPP merged flood extent map of coastal Texas and Louisiana on Aug. 31, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey.
Both GOES and JPSS satellites provide important information to emergency responders that helps guide their emergency efforts when hurricanes and tropical storms bring heavy rain and flooding to a region. A key resource is the NOAA VIIRS/ABI Flood Product, which is an online tool that shows a “big picture” view of flood extent and severity, helping identify the hardest-hit areas. This guidance enables federal and local emergency managers to make faster, more informed decisions about where to deploy limited resources, issue evacuations, determine when it’s safe for people to return to their homes, and where to focus recovery efforts. In fact, this flood product was instrumental in response efforts following the devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Hurricane Florence in 2018.
JPSS image of nighttime lights across the southeastern U.S. on Sept. 28, 2024, after Hurricane Helene.
NOAA’s JPSS satellites also help assess damage from from winds, storm surge and rain after a tropical cyclone. The VIIRS instrument’s Day/Night Band detects low-light emissions and reflections from the sun and moon, as well as many other sources of emitted light, such as cities, lightning, fires and volcanoes, and even aurora. By comparing nighttime imagery taken before and after a tropical system hits, officials can have a large-scale view of the extent of damage and the locations of electrical blackouts.
“From detecting floodwater to assessing infrastructure impacts and power outages, NOAA satellites continue to give valuable information even after a hurricane passes,” Lindsey added. “Their data and imagery provide the situational awareness and guidance that first responders need when determining where to target critical staff and resources after a storm impacts a community.”
Stay informed
With a full fleet of polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, NOAA has you covered before, during and after hurricanes and tropical storms threaten your community this hurricane season.
NOAA satellites support the National Hurricane Center’s mission to save lives, mitigate property loss, and improve economic efficiency by issuing the best watches, warnings, forecasts and analyses of hazardous tropical weather, and by increasing understanding of these hazards.
Get the latest forecasts, watches and warnings anytime from the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
Take a look at NOAA’s 2025 Hurricane Outlook and keep an eye on the tropics this season with our Hurricane Tracker.