NASA Series: Shipping Weather Satellites to Space

Blythe Brumleve

Aug 20, 2024

NASA Series: Shipping Weather Satellites to Space

Episode Transcript

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In episode three of our NASA Series, we’re talking about the goal of this mission: to manufacture and ship a weather satellite to space but more importantly, be able to collect data to help the accuracy of weather forecasting that impacts every single person here on earth.

After all, “Money spent on space stays on earth” and missions like GOESU help save lives and prevent/prepare for disasters.

In this episode, we’re going to be talking about the why behind this mission, what goes into weather forecasting, and when we should start hearing forecasts using data from this GOES-U satellite.

All this plus insights directly from some of the smartest people at NOAA, National Weather Service, and even the pilots who fly the hurricane hunter planes.

Speakers include:

Bill Line, Research Meteorologist,
Michelle Smith, Communications Specialist at NOAA
Kevin Fryar, Chief of Staff for NOAA’s GEO program
John Sokich, NWS Director of Congressional Affairs

NASA SERIES LINKS:

EPISODE LINKS:

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Podcasts Space Logistics

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Blythe brumlevel

Blythe Brumleve: 0:05

into another episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight. We are proudly presented by SPI logistics, and I am your host, Blythe brumleve. We are back with another episode in our NASA series. In case you have missed it, the first one in this episode, series has already dropped. It's called Deep Space logistics. The second episode in the series is called how to grow plants in space. Pretty self explanatory, I think, for both of those episode titles. So if you're a little bit curious about how we as a country, as really a civilization, are establishing, you know, the the new infrastructure for the new frontier, or maybe the last frontier is what I'm hearing it called, is, you know, either of those two verbiages, I think, will work for the space infrastructure and setting up resupply missions and establishing a base on the Moon. So all of these things are taking place in the world of space and the logistics around all of that. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about NOAA. Now, NOAA, N, O, A, A is short for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is a little bit of a mouthful. So I love the acronym of being being able to use just NOAA throughout this entire episode, because what they do is they are essentially the weather arm of the United States. So for a lot of folks who may not be aware of just how weather infrastructure works, I'm going to get into all of that because it is deeply fascinating, much more fascinating than I think that I ever realized I always knew kind of, you know, weather reporting and checking weather reports, you know, typical stuff that we all do, but with the goal of this particular episode, it really boils down to the entire ethos of the trip that I recently took in that, in case you missed the first two episodes, I got invited to a NASA social event, which took place in Cape Canaveral, in the state of Florida, in late June. And so it was a two day event. We got to tour all kinds of facilities, get a little behind the scenes action of what goes into a launch, especially a launch that is partnered up with SpaceX, and then SpaceX and NASA are also teaming up with NOAA, which is there it was responsible for the goes you mission. So this was the goes you satellite mission. And essentially it's to collect data to help the accuracy of weather forecasting that really impacts every single person on earth, including the shipment of your supplies and global supply chains. So I thought this was a perfect episode to sort of enter in as number three in our five episode series mix. We've got two more coming after this, which you can check out the website, in case you're listening to this. You know, a little bit later on, check out everything is logistics com, in order to see that entire series, because every part of this is incredibly fascinating to me. And I thought from an initial perspective, before I went down to cover this event and get that behind the scenes, insight is that this would just be a one episode kind of thing. Like, here's, you know, X things that I learned during a, you know about a NASA Launch which that episode will be coming. That's the last one in our series. And so with that being said, I recorded everything while I was down there for, I mean, literally everything. I had a real camera, my Canon camera that I use for podcasting. I never take it down off of this setup, because it's such a pain in the butt to get it reset back up, but I took it down to this very important event, and it was a game changer in helping me capture a lot of different footage and recording it all and going through it all. And there were hundreds of files that I had to sort through in order to make this five episode series happen. So if you didn't catch the first two episodes for this one, I am going to say that if you are listening to this in the podcast version, you might want to click on the YouTube link in the show notes, because this one is going to have a little bit more visuals that are involved, not as many. Well, yeah, it's definitely going to be a lot of visuals. So I, and I don't want, I would hate for you to be listening to this and want to see the visuals and then not be able to so I'm going to do my best to explain whatever is on the screen, so podcast listeners can kind of get, you know, the full experience, but it's not really going to be the full experience. So if you if you don't particularly like YouTube or like video versions, I would still suggest that make an exception for this one, because it really the visuals make such an impact into what you're seeing and what can be seen and what can be collected with all of this different sort of, you know, the flow of data between here on Earth, in space, and all of the you know, the meteorologists and the scientists. That are trying to decipher that data in order to help make more accurate weather forecasts, but then also to do the unthinkable and to and measure, you know, like there's, we're going to get into it. There's a lot of stuff that's really exciting on the satellite. I could just, you know, sort of shoot off of the hip about all of the things that I learned, but I made a lot of show notes, and so I'm going to do my best to follow the structure of the show notes. And so in this episode, we're going to be talking about the why behind this goes you mission, what goes into weather forecasting and when we should start hearing the forecast using the data that's collected from this new satellite that has been in production for the last 10 years, and finally got put on a rocket, shot up into space, and then we should be able to start getting that data back, and it's supposed to really, really help amplify weather forecasting and really help change the game in that regard, especially when it comes to the weather reporting and the weather forecasting here in North America. So all this, plus insights directly from some of the smartest people at NOAA, the National Weather Service, and even some pilots who fly the hurricane hunter planes. We've got all kinds of footage from that entire tour. We got to actually go to the hurricane hunter planes where they were parked at the airport near the, you know, the NASA sort of complex, where, if you didn't hear it in the other episodes, you think of NASA as just having, like, you know, a few big buildings, a facility on, you know, property grounds in Cape Canaveral, Florida. And, you know, a launch pad. They have 22 launch pads in and around the Cape Canaveral area. And so it's just really impressive to watch the growth of space, not just from a government standpoint, but also from a commercial standpoint. And when commercial and government kind of come together, like what we're experiencing with this particular instance, where it's a SpaceX rocket that the goes you satellite, which NOAA is a government organization. NASA is obviously a government organization, and so they're all coming together in order to really drive home the importance of being able to gather accurate data and report on it. So let's set up a few of really the level setting statements I want to make, because for the flow of this episode, we're going to go over some of the press conferences that happened right before the gozu satellite. We're going to hear from some of the hurricane hunters that actually fly, the planes that go fly over hurricanes. We are also going to hear from pilots. We are going to hear from meteorologists in my group with the NASA social group, there was about 26 or 28 of us. I would say more than half of that group were all meteorologists. So this was like a meteorology, like heavy show. And I think for me, just an initial takeaway, I didn't know how sort of close knit or close ties, I guess I should say that happens with meteorologists that they are. It's essentially you're using as much information as you can to make an educated guess. And so that's all weather forecasting is. Is educated guesses based on what you see, what you feel, what is the new twisters movie that just came out? If you can feel it, chase it. You know that that sort of just like camaraderie among meteorologists, I think, is really fascinating, and it's so evident here, because, you know, we had our group, which is a lot of, sort of like local, regional meteorologists, but then also some more on, like the National Scientific side of things that are studying national things, such as lightning patterns. And then you have, sort of the, you know, not sort of you have the aerospace meteorologists, which are are measuring all kinds of things, you know, gravitational pools, solar flares coming off of the sun. So incredible show. I've spent the first nine minutes talking about how incredible it is. So let's, let's level set, and then we're going to get into the meat of this discussion. So few level setting things to know. The GOES satellites have been launching into space since the 70s. This particular launch was for the goes, you satellite. It will become goes 19 once it reaches its orbital or orbital pattern. So that is, in case you're wondering what that is. I'll explain it in just a moment. So these GOES satellites, they typically launch a new one every eight to 10 years, the next one, Geo, EXO, which is the next in the series of the GOES satellites is going to be launching around 2032, I believe, if I have my math there Right. So as you can imagine, the data and the forecasting get better with each and every satellite that is launched into space. So the next one that goes You are the no geo EXO though satellite that I just mentioned, that one is going to be measuring atmospheric pollution and algae blooms and things like. That. So that is a really cool advancement that's already happening. Because if you're working on one of these missions for eight to 10 years, you have to think that this satellite, you know, it's probably not using the latest and greatest sort of measuring instruments and technology, but the geo EXO is using the the modern, and I say modern today's technology, and even some of the technology that's going to be developed in the coming years, it's going to be on that satellite. So back to goes you. Once the satellite reaches space, it takes about two weeks for it to enter its geostationary orbit. That's about 20 through 22,000 miles above the equator. Then around April of 2025, it will drift into the goes You position. And between that and sort of nine month timeline from launch to position, Scientists call this the checkout period. And this is where they're going to be testing and cross testing the data compared to what other satellites that are already in orbit. So they're pretty much, they're sending the satellite up into space, then they have to put it into sort of the orbit. But it's an orbit that doesn't necessarily move around the planet, if you're if I'm trying to describe this, it moves with the planet, not around it, and so it, I don't really know how to explain it, other than that, that phrase, like once it sort of locks on to an area which this satellite in particular, is that it's going to be focused in on the east coast of North America. So they have a goes west, and then they have a goes east. And so each of those satellites sort of focus in on those areas, and then they combine that data to make an entire map of the United States. And even they can see, you know, some parts of like North North America, including Canada, South America, they can even see some of the things going on in the Atlantic Ocean. As a Floridian, it's very interesting to me to know that some of our hurricanes in the past couple of years, there are moments when they call it taking the shear off of the top. And what happens is that you have this giant sort of you have these storms that are forming off the western coast of Africa, and they start to form, and then they start to come into the United States, the East Coast of the United States, where it can turn and go into the Gulf. It could turn and go, you know, up into the Carolinas, or even to the the Northeast. But when some depending on the wind patterns over in Africa, if they're whipping up the sand from the Sahara Desert, enough, then that sand can be whipped up and kind of put on top. And forgive me for any meteorologist who is listening to this, I know I'm not using the proper terminology, but this sand effectively mixes in with the moisture that originates for hurricanes, and it sort of just takes the shear that the top part of the hurricane off. So it's, it's like just, it's almost like decapitating a hurricane, but with sand. And so they didn't really even know that this kind of thing existed up until, you know, less than a decade ago. And so these are the newer advancements of things that they are measuring in order to more accurately predict. Because if you more accurately predict these things, then you can give people more warnings. You can have give them governments more time to emergency responders, more time to prepare in advance. So there's a lot of good things that can come from an increased ability to properly, or, I guess, correctly, more correctly, be able to forecast a lot of these different weather issues. So another interesting thing is the data collection and the sharing. So the the whole world, with the exception of China, all share their weather satellite data. I thought that that was really fascinating. And so if you think about all of the data that is being shared between all of these different countries, except China, for whatever reason, they don't want to share their data with anybody else in the world. But one country that does share their data is Japan. Japan and US have a very close relationship and disregard and in fact, there was one of the satellites, there was an image, or there was an example given by someone at the National Weather Service, and he said he was talking about an image satellite, an imaging satellite that the US had built, and they had plans to build, and so with this mission initiative, with this imaging satellite, they took those plans and they shared them with the country of Japan and their science department. I'm, I don't know what they're not a department, but they're, they're NASA, sort of space arm, NASA, equivalent in Japan. They were able to build that imaging satellite up to a year sooner than the US built it. They launched it, but because of sort of the US, you know, political. Little situation. You know, it takes a or political red tape, I guess I should say it took NASA so much longer to be able to build this particular satellite, whereas you have another country that took essentially the same exact plans and built it themselves and launched it into space before NASA ever got the opportunity to build it themselves. They have since built that imaging satellite. But I thought that that was an interesting sort of a I guess, peeling back some of the layers from weather reporting, space logistics, political stuff, it doesn't just stay here on Earth. It goes into space as well. And I there was another quote, and I haven't mentioned this yet, but this quote, I thought was, was brilliant. They said money spent on space, stays on Earth and missions like the goes you helps to save lives and help prevent and prepare for disasters. So are you in freight sales with a book of business, looking for a new home, or perhaps you're a freight agent in need of a better partnership. These are the kinds of conversations we're exploring in our podcast interview series called The freight agent trenches, sponsored by SPI logistics. Now I can tell you all day that SPI is one of the most successful logistics firms in North America who helps their agents with back office operations such as admin, finance, it and sales, but I would much rather you hear it directly from SBI freight agents themselves. And what better way to do that than by listening to the experienced freight agents tell their stories behind the how and the why they joined SPI. Hit the freight agent link in our show notes to listen to these conversations, or if you're ready to make the jump visit SPI three, pl.com with all of this data being collected, there's also an opportunity in the future for AI and machine learning to play a larger role. But for goes you. It's going to monitor the East Coast of the United States. It's going to help with fire warnings. It's also going to it has a Corona scope on it that helps to measure the solar flares that are coming off of the sun, to to put things in perspective, back in and they're going to talk about it in a video that I'm going to play here shortly. But there was a solar flare that came off of the Sun earlier this year. I believe it was in May, and because of the advanced warning that we knew that this solar flare was coming, the satellites were able to turn their direction away from that solar flare, and it ultimately saved the a lot of satellites in space, because they knew it was coming. But just think about if they didn't know it was coming, all of those satellites, they're providing weather information, they're providing GPS information, they're providing national security information. So if those satellites are damaged, then that is a loss of connectivity. It's a loss of information. So a lot of things can happen if we don't have this sort of monitoring in space of of what the heck is going on. But we also have to factor in all of these different elements that yes, it would impact people on Earth, especially when it comes to the energy grid or our internet infrastructure, those kinds of different abilities, but it also affects us from a national security perspective. And so having the goes you satellite to be able to help with fire warnings in the corona scope, that's going to be incredible. And so there's also the overlap of the the West Coast satellite. It has a higher resolution radar, which will also help with hurricanes and seeing Western Africa. There's also a lightning mapper tool on the goes you which I didn't know this as a Floridian, I just thought, sort of, you know, afternoon storms are just a regular thing, which they are a regular thing. But the lightning in the state of Florida is the most in the United States and possibly North America. Had no idea that we had that many lightning strikes in this state. So if you ever go down to Cape Canaveral and you drive around, maybe that you get some, you know, some tickets as well, to sort of see as some of the behind the scenes things at at at Kennedy, then you will notice a lot of all of the launch pads have a lightning rod at the top, and that's to help prevent some of the electronics and some of the machinery from getting struck by lightning. So lightning is a huge issue that's really, really important to the launch process, and then also in the state of Florida, so they're dealing with lightning. They're dealing with afternoon. With afternoon thunderstorms. But then from all of the meteorologists, I swear, I my my weather acumen has increased so much because of this trip. And so one of the meteorologists was also explaining to me that, so Florida has two different sea breezes that are going on. It's a peninsula, so you have the sea breeze from the west coast or the west side of the state, and then you have the sea breeze on the East Coast side of the state. Now a lot of the state, especially around the Cape Canaveral area, and even in the Keys some parts of you know the the western coast of the panhandle, and also western coast of Florida, around Tampa area. There are all of these barrier. Islands that are off the coast, and so with the those can also shift the weather patterns. And so for a lot of like the afternoon thunderstorms, I remember I lived at the beaches for forever in North Florida before I moved closer to downtown. And anytime I got a weather report, I would ignore it, because it was never right, and it was because the weather report was giving a forecast for in the city, not the beach, where the beach can have dramatically different weather than it can in land. And that's because over land, the the weather heats up. The land heats up a lot faster than the water does. So typically, when you have those afternoon thunderstorms in the state of Florida, it's because of the storms and forming over land first, and so that's why you have those afternoon thunderstorms appearing over land in the the inverse, at the beaches, you'll typically have a lot of thunderstorms that form overnight, because it's that it takes a lot longer for the water to get heated up and for those storms and those clouds to form. So I thought that that was really interesting, too, and it kind of confirmed my bias of when I, you know, did live at the beach, and I would look at the weather report and I wouldn't trust it. But now that I'm in town, I'm closer to downtown. We're closer to where, you know, the Jacksonville Jaguars play football season is starting up soon, so I'm pumped about that, but it's top of mind. But that is why the weather reports were so much more accurate now that I live closer in town versus when I lived at the beach. So a little bit of Florida weather information for folks who are interested out there. So all of this is happening. The mission is there to capture more weather related data in order to help every aspect of our life here on Earth. And so for the next part of this, now that I've sort of done the level setting of what I knew and what I didn't know, and maybe things that you didn't know about, you know, weather collection, weather data, and how that process sort of works. In this next video that I'm going to play, you're going to hear from Bill line. He is a research meteorologist at NOAA. Then you're going to hear from Michelle Smith, she's the communication specialist at NOAA, Kevin fryer, who is the Chief of Staff for Noah's geo program. And then there's also John socik, s, O, K, I, C, H, I think I pronounced that right. He is the National Weather Service Director of Congressional Affairs. So all four of these people are going to be speaking in this next video. And this is sort of to sort of give a little bit of background. This was the day one of our two day tour. So this was the first class that we sort of sat in on and it was really going over all of the pre launch, everything that's happened from a pre launch perspective for this NOAA mission, the goals that they hope to achieve and and, you know, just a lot of the insight and the background of what goes into or what has gone into developing and manufacturing this satellite, and then ultimately successfully sending it up into space. So let's play that clip,

Unknown: 23:05

informing on my forecast, but also informing the decision makers that I work with, both in the FAA and then with the Mercy managers as well. So for me, having the opportunity to be not only with the Go series, but now the next generation, and I'm not wearing that shirt and I'm wearing the current shirt or geoxo still makes me incredibly excited, because what we have now is fantastic, as you'll see here in the video, and then what we're expecting to be able to develop the next 10 years is even better. So for me, it's kind of mind blowing eventually. And Noah is preparing for a milestone satellite launch in 2024 goes, you will be the fourth and final satellite in Noah's latest generation of geostationary operational environmental satellites called the gozar series, the nation's most advanced weather observing and environmental monitoring satellite system ghost satellites orbit 22,236, miles above Earth's equator at speeds equal to its rotation. This orbit provides continuous coverage of weather systems as they develop and move across the western hemisphere. Ghost U, which will be renamed ghost 19, when it reaches orbit, will replace the current. Goes 16 satellite in the goes east orbit in this position, those you will continue goes east, Legacy of keep and watch over the contiguous United States, Central and South America and the Atlantic Ocean. Like the three other goes R Series satellites already in orbit. Goes you will provide near real time high resolution imagery that will deliver critical information for weather forecasts, severe weather prediction, lightning detection, space weather and tropical cyclones spinning in the Atlantic basin. That's going to be great when we get into. The orbit of goes east, because you always see, you know, we start seeing the continental United States, but also out to the Atlantic, to the African coast. Because if you think about it, working at the hurricane center, as I did, you need to be able to see some of the earliest initiation of some of these tropical systems. And like the rest of the gozar series satellites, goes you will include the advanced baseline imager, or ABI is the primary instrument NOAA uses to image Earth's weather, climate, oceans and the environment from geostationary orbit. Yeah. Abi really rocks. ABI is the primary camera on the goes R series, and it has a very large focal plane. And what that does for the instrument is it can look at very wide areas of Earth. And so because it can do that, it can scan very, very fast. What that means for the forecasters is they can look at a storm or other area of interest as often as once every 30 seconds. And when you can do it that fast, you know the forecasters are really seeing that data in real time? Yeah, the early detection is everything, and having the instrumentation, and especially the rapid scan to be able to have information quickly, because we have something that is such a challenge called rapid intensification, where hurricanes, just a band of clouds, become a strong system so quickly, so that the more information and the more data we get, the quicker that we get that information, the better we can do making that forecast and getting that information into the models for a better forecast. So having that rapid information and clarity that we're getting in the new instrumentation, it's just a game changer for the forecasters, and along with the other goes R Series satellites goes you will have the geostationary lightning mapper, or GLM, the first operational lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit. GLM identifies the location, frequency and extent of lightning over the Americas and surrounding waters, which can help forecasters understand how thunderstorms and tropical cyclones may be changing in intensity, and since its inclusion as a part of the Gosar series, satellites, GLM has continued to provide new insights, and it could actually distinguish between sort of your average lightning strike and the ones that are more dangerous, the ones that are continuing current, and those are very long lightning strikes that are most likely to cause a fire. Having technology in the GOES satellite, whether it's goes R goes you and future technology, early detection is everything. And we think about a satellite, the first thing you think of is a cloud. We see more than clouds, and lightning detection is a key to some of our early warnings for the fire weather community. So a lightning strike in a dry area and a time of the year that could cause a fire, that's an indicator to us that there could be a potential fire start. Along with this suite of instruments on board, Noah's other goes, our series satellites those you will carry something new when it launches, a critical space weather instrument called the compact coronagraph, one or C chord 1c. Chord one will be the third solar instrument on the satellite, and it will image the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere. The compact coronagraph is a solar telescope that blocks the disk of the Sun so the main ball of the sun, so that we can look at the fainter outer atmosphere of the sun, called the corona, and that's where extreme space weather events originate. Being able to monitor the sun's corona helps scientists detect and characterize coronal mass ejections that can spark geomagnetic storms here on Earth, those are the costliest type of space weather events and can cause widespread damage to power grids, satellites and communication and navigation systems. It's very important for us to measure space weather effects and be able to model and provide warnings, forecasts and alerts for space weather to protect our technological society. Basically extreme Space weather can touch all aspects of our economy and life and property here on Earth. I'm extremely excited about the compact choreograph that we're going to fly on the gozu satellite. And this is a game changer for our forecast capabilities here at NOAA in the Space Weather Prediction Center, having that data allows us to more reliably predict when these large solar storms are going to how they propagate towards Earth, and whether or not they're going to affect us here on Earth in A significant way. With Secord one and six other high tech instruments on board goes, you will continue Noah's legacy to help scientists and forecasters understand, monitor and predict our changing environment, from the oceans to outer space, the Go series of satellites of. Ports. Noah's mission to provide secure and timely access to global environmental data and information from satellites and other sources to promote and protect the nation's security, environment, economy and quality of life you I do hope you enjoyed

Blythe Brumleve: 30:35

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Unknown: 31:22

So first off, like I said earlier, my perspective is going to be from the program. I can talk to some of the National Weather Service, because operational meteorologists specifically give you some case use cases for what the satellite really does provide for us in the field, but from headquarters, and again, from research and also from the field, we should be able to answer pretty much any questions associated with both the instrumentation on the spacecraft and the expectations going forward. So this is your time to say just a couple of things about this satellite system. We tend to get benefits from the satellites that we don't even know that are going to be there, the fire detection that we can now see in the National Weather Service was something we did not expect when the bills were launched, our forecasters seeing the hot spots and were able to notify the firefighters and first responders hours before they would normally be notified of a wildfire. It's amazing what's happened, particularly, I know cases in well all over the West, but it's amazing to see from from 23,000 miles up, see these hot spots, and we alert them, and they go put out the fire before they become a big story. And it's amazing to see that one of those things, and my the first time, I have to say this as a forecast, but the first time I saw the imagery from the Go satellites, the high resolution stuff is like, oh my gosh, what the heck is that? No idea all this stuff that's going on. You watch the pulsing of the hurricanes and the thunderstorm. It's phenomenal. What's going on in there. We're able to see things, the dry air intrusion coming on, the hurricanes, seeing it now with all the instrumentation we didn't see before, it's just amazing. And goes you well, you're furthering that. It's the same stuff that we've got in the other ones in the addition to the coronagraph, correct? Remember what happened in what may 10 and 11th? That's the story that didn't happen, believe it or not. Yes, GPS was off. All the satellites were able to turn so they'd be safe. The satellites we know about, and those, we tell them, and the airlines weren't flying across the poles so they could defer and not get their passengers radiant. And the power companies were able to make accommodations to their transmissions so they wouldn't overload the circuits and basically cause major blackouts. Preliminary estimates from one of the companies is 10s of billions, if not up to trillions of dollars we saved by the forecast that came out of Space Weather Prediction Center across the globe. We're trying to validate all those, all the money, but imagine that if you lose the power grid. So anyway, this this new instrument up there. But the new instrument will give us the data from the coronagraph, from the coronavirus injections within, I think, 30 minutes, as opposed to eight hours or more, tremendous improvement. And we're all excited about it. Okay, sure you saw a lot of imagery on there, but it's not just imagery. These data from these satellites are extremely important in our weather forecast models, and making accurate forecasts with those models, we're also now leveraging AI and machine learning to integrate these data with radar with model data. Forecasters have a ton of data coming at them, so we're trying to come up with ways in which we can crunch that data into products that really are guides for forecasters to help them do their job better. So it's not just imagery, but it's models, AI and so all of that, we're doing a lot of a lot of great research to really squeeze out as much use from the satellite data as we can you. Yes, ma'am. Regarding the lightning instrument, I was curious if it has the ability to distinguish between housing and then negative ones. It does one of the cool things associated with the and that's the science behind GLM. It does total lightning. So we're not talking about ground, cloud to ground. We're talking about the total stroke, and can also differentiate the stroke as well, so that there's been a ton of tests between that and the terrestrial Lightning Network to be able to find out exactly how good it is. And as Hugh pointed out, dude, we've got a hell of that S system. I mean, we're still learning a ton of stuff, and it's not only informed the science of it, but it's also like he's saying, informing the operator on what techniques can be used to actually say and how can we better form the public. So there's a lot of learning that's still going literally. Before I joined the program six years ago, I had to go through that. I think it was 60 hours training. So I had to go through 60 hours of 60, like we're talking class hours of training on top of the shift work that we're doing as well, in order to understand what we had. So again, for me, it's hard to quantify, in some respect, for someone that doesn't say on shift specifically to understand the level of both information that was available to us, and then also just the newness of it and how we have to incorporate that into our own ability to really diagnose the weather conditions. So again, like I said, the R series has been fantastic. It's been foundational for the expectations where we're going to go with with our new capability, products and services. And we're super excited. And you know, that's one reason why this last launch is a culmination of a lot of really, really good things. And it just allows us to realize, hey, we're there, but we but now when we close this off, we still got a little bit, we still got a lot of a lot to go. She, she had a question, yes, in the video you mentioned, other than the C board, that there were six other instruments on the board, so abi, so we didn't have a breakdown. That is one thing. We'll make sure we do that. And I say that only because the most of the other instruments are actually solar instruments as well. X's size, and I don't want to go through all of them, because I'm probably going to end up missing one of them, magnetometer, sue me, GLM, and maybe so. So when we talk about and the new guy, the new black pool kid on the block, which is C core, so most instrumentation is actually for solar and for you know, for weather, specifically APIs, I'm curious what testing, what steps out. I'm curious like, what steps would be taken if and when the satellite detected like a mass coronal ejection that was going to affect the earth. Because with weather, I could see the obvious steps, you know, like evacuating and other things like that. But I'm curious what we would do, or what, you know, we'll talk about how space would first thing, when you see the mass ejection, have determined if it's going to go away from the way, from the earth, or toward the earth, or glancing blow or direct low. And that's once you determine that you put out your solar storm watch. We put out a watch that comes from the Space Weather Prediction Center gym. And next storm. We have categories from one to five, and if we expect it's going to be bad, we'll scratch it up like to live we had made with your five the first one we've had is in two decades of that magnitude. And once we do that, the people and the companies will start taking action to protect their interests, like I said, turning the satellites, yeah, air flights will go across the poles, and the electric companies will take the measures to make sure that they can absorb the current which created. So when we see it, we determine if it's going to get the earth, then we issue the watch. Then the mornings closer, amazing. And would that be a longer you'd have a lot longer to warn the earth than weather, because weather is so quick, yeah, you usually have see it depends on the speed of it. Sometimes it's hours and sometimes it's days, but it's not, it's not on the order of, usually not on the order of minutes. Sir, walk us through what's going to happen after lunch. I don't have another information. For example, after lunch. I don't have another information. For example, how long will it take to get its get to go home? And then, when will it become operational? Two weeks. So it'll take two weeks to get into geostationary orbit, about 22 to 20,000 miles above the equator, and then the checkout period blasts. This one's going. To be roughly, I think, nine months, and then April, yeah, in April, drift to the gozis position. Next, 25 correct. And in the meantime, the scientists are combing through the data, making sure it looks good, doing validation calibration. Yeah, which is cool, yeah, the video alluded to goes you turn into goes 19 once it's in what is the reason? Because the ground system, yeah, they all get a letter while they're built and launched. And then it when it's the point that it reaches geostationary orbit, then it gets a number. So that's so that the sequence in the ground station is in order. In case of a launch failure, which we did have one way back, it was like goes K, H, goes H didn't reach orbit, so that it didn't get a number. So then the ones that actually did successfully get there, that never launched the current sequential. So that's the main thing. It's all about data, right? You know, data streams and code so and just tell them. I was wondering how big of a step up the technology on satellite is like from previous iterations, or your average day, yeah, so, yeah, compared to the soil goes R was the first goes R satellite launched in 2016 it's has five times as many, or, sorry, three times as many spectral channels, so we view the atmosphere, channels visible and infrared. So it has three times more channels. 16, with 16, it has four times spatial resolution on average. So our like our visible channel, went from one kilometer tap kilometer, our higher channels went from two to one, and then it has five times, on average, the temporal parameter. But really temporally the greatest, the coolest thing, and the most helpful thing has come from having these move cool one minute sectors. So each satellite goes east and goes west. Each has two movable 1000 by 1000 kilometer sectors, where you one minute imagery, and when they overlap, you get 32nd imagery, which that was, I mean, incredible to be able to see things like fires as they're developing thunderstorms as they're developing tropical cyclones. It's easy to get one minute. Yeah, right, yeah. I mean, we had forecasters tell us this was like going from black and white television revolutionary. Kind of words have been made. It was an absolute game changer for someone as an old head from from back in the day, the king satellite image on the pictures right, they come in about an hours after data time, hard copy. Picture latency is a huge thing too. What's the one minute imagery you're getting? It within a minute of a time sign. So you're literally seeing things out there. So short of a radar, basically, we are watching this storm. That's awesome. So it follows that like, you know, you said you launched the last iteration eight years ago. You know, the next one gonna be another eight years or does that depend on you're down on the cadence Absolutely. And you know, hopefully you can tell your congressman that we still need to find point being this. This is a, this is a block series. So think of it as and I'm going to use a lot of at Main of having to use a lot of kind of comparisons, and I'm an automotive guy, so think of it as a particular model your car you So these four are in one model year car. The next generation will be another model year. And that's what we're thinking. What we have now will be even better. So that's why we're honestly thinking it's going to be the jets and we're going to be going to be completely you thought Tesla was hot, dude, it's going to be something. And the time duration between series is based on the projected longevity of the satellite and making sure the next generation is in place before we before. Yes, sir, what's going to happen? The current goes east. It's good storage. Storage to be a backup. Yeah. So I use forecasts a lot with astronomy, and one of the forecasts I use, it's, in my experience, the least accurate is the scene forecast where you have different atmospheric layers mixing, and it distorts fine details when you're shooting something in very high magnification. I'm curious if this will impact those forecasts. I can speak to that a little bit, because I just had a buddy who's a big sky picture kind of person and the sky and so in my terminology for the military, I think it's called tile free forecasting, right? So what areas are gonna be pile free so they can see through the answer, and then, more importantly, less wind turbulence would be, been there, done that. And with that question for us, the imager is not the one that's gonna see. Able to inform that the best the sounder will be. So that's the next generation. So our current capability is really, really good, and hopefully techniques will allow you to have better Cloudflare forecasting, forecasting, but the next generation, when we lean on the sounder, will better inform that specific building on it? It's also, you want to look about the forecast side of things. The more improved data we get into the forecast models, the better the forecasts will be for the wind and the mixing, those kind of things. So it's over the anyone's one over here? Yes, ma'am in something Jad I was reading before I came here. I heard that these, the goes our series would be like the foremost predicting satellites until 2036 so with your eight year timeframe that you mentioned, so the next launch is a four year overlap. And so either was that an inaccurate number? No, that's that is. So that we have the overlap, we will be launching the first well, the plan right now is to launch the first satellite in 2032 Yes, before we absolutely need it. The overlap is planned for that also our director of communication for the for the goes program for do for for GM. We call it because we are moving away from the goes, hopefully as of tomorrow as a larger program. And the reason I want to introduce her, because I think she's absolutely awesome, and she's the best thing ever. And the reason you guys are here, yeah, thank you. Yes, sir. So in one of the publications I was a part of, we actually study the sun's atmosphere doing like, totally because of 2017 so we're looking at like, different wavelengths in this sun's corona. Does this? So I'm interested to know like this, this particular goals mission, like you talked about, like, you know, Space Weather Prediction and those types of things. As far as, like, the depth of it. Does it see infrared? Does it pick out those weightless as well? So, yeah, the gentleman that was on there earlier, Elsa, you talked about the C chord, how it creates this disc, and it creates basically a continuous Eclipse to allow for us to understand the science. And that's exactly what you're going to see. And the other instruments on board, Suvi Xis, and that's I always read that one. That's their job as well. Okay, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, the different reason why they're under coronagraphs and ignore but now there are. There's the one that we're relying on. Prediction Centers rely on now launched in 1995 which is the reason this will be the first operational coronagraph, because that's a technically research but yeah, no, this is going to have the first operational so if there's any one takeaway, what I like to bring out is, if you hear research versus operational, operational means 24/7 and there's a decent group of people making sure that happens, you have that information, data and services available, research means they're somewhere on Saturday and Sunday, and you need to call for service. So when you think about it that way, it's like, it's great to have it, but you may not get it. You gotta wait a few days or so you get another product, whereas operational, you're gonna get it, and we're gonna make sure you have all time. These are the ways that our studios, they all, I think, in pictures, that she knows how to bring them back. Yes, sir. How long has this goes? You satellite instrumentation, data, development forum. How do you know if it's done? Well, the great thing about is we had four, so this is the fourth one that's been launched. So we have three other iterations of that, and honestly, they're kind of copies. There have been slight, maybe tweaks for performance, but specifically for performance within the instrumentation, not necessarily on the product and service side. So yeah, we're gonna start building them and then in sequence. And then, I mean, like the access instruments they, I mean, those were all built right away, and that they've just been sitting at storage. We're ready to launch them. I'm sorry. Axis is the laboratory, last laboratory, something space, physics, and then so we have different contractors that build the instruments, and then Lockheed Martin builds the spacecraft and integrates the instruments with the spacecraft. As you say last I don't know who that is. It's the laboratory. Oh, I was not going to evacuate us, but it does take years to develop the instruments and build the first time and operate. How does it just go out to where it needs to go? Is there propulsion on the craft itself there is, yeah, absolutely. So we have, and I'm not the engineer guy to give you the for different versions and benefits of liquid versus the electric we do have, we do have several different, we'll call them thruster systems on board to allow not only for station keeping, but also for renewing. Going back to the question about the previous satellite that can be moved to orbit. We'll be using that propulsion system to move it out of the operational orbit into what's called the storage orbit, basically on the shelf. And then it looks like we get to a geostationary transfer orbit, and kind of like, so it takes a few, you know, to the right final deal. So we have controllers at Siouxland, Maryland, and our facility, which is one of the best looking facilities anyway, big. No one thing across it. They actually fly it. I mean, these are people that fly the satellite. So, you know, you have pilots that pilot and locally fly satellite, and they literally fly the satellite. Yes, sir, I wanted to ask like, I don't know if you guys know, talk your heads, but how many contractors do you guys have? Or you guys just put together the Lego set? Well, our program is about 330 people. Last I counted, because people Harris, who built the main integer, but they also built our ground systems, so they process the data for us too. We have Lockheed Martin. They built the lightning MacArthur and the Suvi instrument. We have last that built the exits. We have astronauts, technology corporation that built sites. And then Goddard NASA Goddard actually built the magnetometer on those T in you. No, we don't know how many contractors work for this company. Yeah, main contractor, they also, yeah. So within, within the program, I just know that we have, you know, basically 330 people that are associated with the program that have hands on, touch whatever, and understand it. But within that, like, they're saying, there's other teams that have developed implementation or systems. Yes, Ma'am, what's the sensitive? Oh, yeah. Trying to stop the dummy. Yes. I will do that, because I do have that in my nose. Because it was a it was a thing, the reason why, the reason why I figured it had to be super sensitive if they took it, that's why I was curious. And go to our website. Tell them our website. Please go there.r.gov. And if you don't find everything you need there, please call me. I believe you will text message. So if you want to build one,

Blythe Brumleve: 53:19

okay, I hope you all enjoyed that intro press conference clip. There's a lot of really great information in there, including Kevin fryer. I thought that he was fantastic, just the way that he can explain things, and the way that he makes science and weather just really, really, I guess, approachable. I thought was great. So hopefully you liked him, and I'm hoping to get him on the show here in the future. But the next clip that I want to play, and you may have heard me talk a little bit about this, but it's called the transporter. I talked about this in the Deep Space logistics episode where the transporter, there's two of them that are located at Kennedy Space Center, and they're responsible for taking whatever rocket or satellite from the Vehicle Assembly lab, the Vehicle Assembly Building, the giant building that they actually store the rockets in. And so the transporter is a giant piece of machinery that so you're you can't really comprehend the scale of these things because they're so large, it's it looks about as big. I would say probably half of a football field, maybe a little bit bigger than that. No, I would say about a half of a football field is accurate. But these transporters, their response, they go a little over one mile an hour, and they're responsible for transporting the satellite or the rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building, the VAB building, and to taking it out to the launch pad. Has its own little custom road, and everything is little gravel pit road, which I had my little rock around here that I borrowed from. The Transporter lane that they get to go on. So I just borrowed it in case anyone from NASA is listening. It's just a little rock. I'm sure it's okay, but I'm going to play this clip about transporting a satellite and ask it. So I talked about the transporter. Let me back up a second. Talked about the transporter and how they get it from the vehicle simply building over to the launch pad. But what happens beforehand is that you this satellite was manufactured on the West Coast of the United States, I think, in California, and they had to ship it from there to Cape Canaveral in order to make this launch happen. So during that press conference, I was able to ask a question about that process and what it looks like and how it functions. And so let's play that clip now,

Unknown: 55:52

whatever galaxy, and then they find a county to the Shuttle Landing Facility, and it is excruciatingly slow. How long it takes to load it into the transport and get it out, because they are being very careful about transporting. Does it come out on something like the crawler? Well, eventually it will, so that we're talking about, yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, they right there. They, they bring it out on like a semi truck, but then when they roll it out to the launch pad, there's what, I forget, what I don't know what SpaceX called it, because we used to, yeah, okay, transport your truck. Yeah, thank you. You said you're feeling good about the weather. For the willing, the good weather minds intentional. Yeah, intention will whatever you want to call it, it's going to be great tomorrow. Now, is it the existing goes that you're that's helping aid your will? Is that the main it's, it doesn't want to it wants to stay operational. We are replacing it, so we still cartoon with that. It's up there. It's trying to judge, actually the Go 16 salad. We'll see that you can see in salad and see the launch. So follow us on right? Because I think we're gonna make sure? Yeah, we're gonna make sure we have that shot, because it's kind of cool when big brother looks little brother launched. We do have one minute sector scheduled to cover the launch. Everything the hot spot with the launch. Just cool. Job's cool. This is more of a communications question, but I was wondering there were such good interviews with that, and being with news and on social media, is there a way we could or person we could talk to you to access those to use in footage? Sure I can help you. Awesome, yeah, if you got a comm question, all. So I believe there's a two hour launch window tomorrow. What's going on? Why the two hour launch was when I launched the ISS? Is it because something we do to rocket? Is it because of where it's going? Yeah, we don't have to have, like the ISS. We don't have to launch at a specific time to get into the right orbit. So we get a two hour launch window so that we, you know, if there's a weather delay or anything like that, that we have time. That's the window that the FAA gives us, because they have to shut down the airspace. So we it has to be a window. We can't just decide to do it at any any time. So yeah, but this is a new process for for us with SpaceX, and it's different than like with once we fuel it, we have to go at the time that it's programmed to launch. It's not as like we can't they're not a lot of adjustments. Once it's fueled, then it has to go, or we struggle wash, and that's more of a SpaceX and or the physics of the actual process. I viability. How long? So? So, yeah. So for us, if you didn't understand part of that conversation, too. For us, within the program, we've launched three already a certain way with another provider. Now we're doing it with, say, emails gang, right? So SpaceX is new for us. There's a lot of change we've had to go through, both from an engineering perspective and just really from a launch operations perspective. And so having this, you know, new capability, new new ride up there, that's what it is. We call it a ride. It's been kind of fantastic to kind of learn all that, because this is the first but it will not be the last. Will be in this particular rhythm, in cadence with the industry. Going forward, was the new ride? More cost effective? Is that? Why? Yes, there was a competitive procurement process. Very competitive sex, love and heavy has the right requirements to carry such a massive payload. And cheaper. I They're bright providers. I mean, you know, it's like an Uber you know, exactly right? But the other part about that truly, is that that savings is great, not only for, obviously the program, to be able to use other resources for other things, but as a taxpayer now, you know, hey, there the the industry was disrupted, as you might hear with other things like Uber, and the benefit does come back to us as users and consumers. So it's positive, at least in that case, we're excited. I'm excited to see the boosters return, because that's two for One. Basically, this has been good. Any more questions. Fantastic. My energy is good. I think for those that this is your first, it will be your best. That's what we always say. If you haven't felt it, it's just an amazing healing. Feel, not see, not hear. You've seen them take off, yeah, in all honesty, you see a close up movie of the rocket taking off. That's cool, but you feel the whole sensation of visual. And I just still gonna be great. And then the other part too is like we're saying with the return, people that have seen the returns, usually gonna be a sonic boom. So who's my Edwards guy? Yeah, right. So if you remember, you know, certainly out there they had the jets coming through and there's a sign of boom. They said, wait for the sonic boom. That's apparently what we have to stand by for. So don't be too surprised. Everybody's like, shocked. 20 years they don't start. A 20 years. But just be advised that will be part of the show too, and that's free, so you guys can see your degrees, and we get it really, you gotta go to you, and you get to, like, feel it when we're at the press site. So no worries. We'll give you a heads up when it's coming in. The launch pad, the view from the room will be literally right across. No high atmospheric lightning. Yeah, that's the other thing too, with the, you know, the amble overhang. Anyway. Any other questions? If it were to get scrubbed, when would the next date be? Really? Wednesday, 516, I don't even

Blythe Brumleve: 1:04:01

know what to do. I The

Unknown: 1:04:04

next day, Tuesday, you guys will be allowed back for the next attempt, but we will have less than all the names. Okay? I

Blythe Brumleve: 1:04:23

hope you enjoyed both of those clips. And if, if you might be finding yourself wondering, because I, I too, wondered, What does a satellite look like? Because I honestly had no idea what a satellite looks like. And so I'm going to be sharing a couple of images on the screen. This first one is as full scale replica of the goes you satellite, and it's 120/5 or not 120/5 it's 1/25 scale of what the satellite looks like when it's going to actually. Be in space, and so if you're just listening, I'm sorry to explain this, but it's kind of like, gosh, how do I explain it? It's almost like a giant capsule, and then it has a large arm coming out of the side of it, and a large, what almost looks like a solar panel. And that might be a solar panel, but that is it. Oh, it's actually called a solar array. And so let me show you a couple of these videos. So I got a one up on the screen right now that it is a the 1/25 scale. Can panel and so that I thought was really cool to sort of see, because I, I don't know. I just maybe I'm just dumb, and I just, you know, I'm I didn't know what a satellite looked like, but if you looked at that video and you're like, wow, what? What is a lot of that stuff that is on the satellite Excel itself, because it does look there are some heavy instruments that are taking place on this satellite, and so I have an image up on the screen right now that talks about the goes you and that big sort of solar panel that is called the solar array. It converts energy from the sun into electricity to power the satellite. It's instruments, computers, data processor, sensors and telecommunications equipment, but they have all kinds of different here's the coronagraph that I was talking about, and it says the images the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections, so translation solar flares that are going to disrupt communications, or, you know, yeah, communications between satellites in space and then to here on Earth, there's UV X ray detectors, there's the lightning mapper, there's baseline imager, there's an antenna wing assembly which contains a number of communication subsystem antennas for data relay. Then there's also the solar ultraviolet imager, and it observes and characterizes complex active regions of the sun, solar flares and eruptions of solar filaments. Then there's also the space environment in I don't, I don't know what to how to even call it. It's the acronym is seis space environment in situ suite. Anyways, it monitors proton, electron and heavy ion fluxes in the magnetosphere. So geomagnetic, magnetic storms, things like that, which I think is really cool, because I, if you watch my logistics of magnets, I love magnets. So it's, it's definitely an interesting thing to get a look at. Now, couple of other links that I thought that y'all would enjoy. I talked about this on the Deep Space logistics episode, but Noah is really brilliant with their web presence, and it is really, really intensive of how much information is on this site. And I think if you recall, during the intro press conference, one of the gentlemen towards the end, he mentions that if there's something on this site that you don't see, let him know, because he feels it's that extensive of what is on this site. And so they talked about, you know, sort of, the shipment of the satellite to the Kennedy Space Center. They used an air force plane in order to get it there. It's very, very sensitive shipments for these devices, because if one thing, kind of, you know, one thing of like a fender bender with this satellite on board, or something like that, like that, is enough to ruin a decade of work. And so obviously, NASA and the NOAA team, they don't want that to happen. And so just scrolling through, you know, there's a lot of this process, a lot of this behind the scenes, of it being of the satellite being manufactured by Lockheed Martin and then being shipped over to Cape Canaveral is just impressive. And so if you're looking at the screen right now, there's there's the satellite, of course, but then it's put into the capsule, and the capsule is what goes on top of the rocket. And so you kind of have that capsule sitting on top of a rocket, and then on the side of it, especially with the Falcon Heavy rocket, then they have the two boosters that are on each side of the rocket itself. And of course, those those boosters famously, are reusable. That was one thing that SpaceX and Elon sort of pioneered, is the reusability of rockets and boosters. And those are the rockets that come back down and they land on the different landing pads out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And these landing pads are just, they're built on top of a glorified barge, and tugboats and barges are responsible for, you know, setting up the positioning right, so that those boosters can come back down and land. But that's the capsule that the satellite is in. And then, of course, it gets loaded. Onto the rocket itself you get, if you're looking at the screen right now, you can kind of see, sort of the progression of how that entire process works. But the website is called N, E, S, D, i, s.noaa.gov, and there's so much, and I'll put a link to it in the show notes, in case you want to see some of these images, because they even allow you to download a lot of these images, in case you needed to use them for some kind of, I don't know, presentation, maybe a school project or something like that. But it is really, really cool to see all of that behind the scenes insights. So we got that done. There's also that main launch site that I had just mentioned, and then that was essentially the NASA part of the tour. Later on in the day is when we got to go see some of the ground efforts that act alongside the satellite power. And that's other ways of collecting firsthand data to help us better predict the weather, and that is the hurricane hunter pilots. This was so cool. I had no idea that this was going to be part of the tour. I figured, you know, getting the press intro, press conference, that first sort of classroom type setting, the video that you saw earlier, I thought that that was kind of going to be the extent of it. But no, they took us out to an air base, and that's where the hurricane hunter plane was set up. There was a bunch of executives and scientists and pilots all from NOAA. That was that were all out there to do, you know, sort of a lot of these different media things, these media interviews. And one of the things that was really, really cool is the way that they are capturing that firsthand data, and that is essentially dropping these unmanned drones directly into hurricanes. Like, how crazy does that sound, that you are going to fly over a hurricane, to drop a bunch of drones into it in order to measure whatever is going on inside of a hurricane. It's very, I mentioned Twister twisters earlier. It's very, very akin to that style, I guess, is that you have to go in the path of the storm in order to collect the necessary data that's hopefully going to be saving people's lives. Except the cool thing is, is that these are unmanned drones. They are so I'm going to let me go ahead and play this video that gives a really good breakdown and a really good explanation of what goes on. It's about a five minute long clip. So again, this is probably best to watch. Not listen to it, but if you are just listening to it, it's basically the size of like a mailing tube that you would get like a poster in the mail. It's the size of that, with a little propeller that's on it, and it has a couple different instruments that they drop it down into the hurricane, and then all of a sudden they're getting the data back on the plane itself. So so I'm going to play this clip, and let's get

Unknown: 1:12:59

that started. Hopper that we can put about 60 of these into, and so the operators will prep, usually about 30 to 35 for a single mission flight. This is what is this thing, exactly. It's a GPS drop zone. So this is like a weather balloon, but backwards. And so we'll drop this from the bottom of the aircraft. It's got a parachute that deploys, and then as it floats down, it's collecting temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and wind direction data. There is a radio transmitter inside that sends all of that data back to the aircraft in real time, and then once this splashes in the ocean, sinks to the bottom, makes nice houses for the fish, all that data gets sent off to the National Hurricane Center so they can incorporate it into the forecast models. So like I said, we'll typically drop about 30 of these on a single flight. You don't recover. No, anything that leaves the aircraft is unfortunately expendable, so we're not able to get the data. Yes, exactly. You've now made them this. Yeah, so the smaller form factor is a little bit cheaper, and our new jet that we're getting next year, which will be involved stream 550 we'll only be able to launch this jellyfish. Jellyfish, that's what everybody's been calling it. So this is a sky four streamsong, so collects all the same data that the operational Vaisala dropsons Get, but this has a little bit more time aloft, so this can stay in the air about twice as long as these can, because these are a lot lighter than these are transmitting data. Radio transmitter, yep. So there's supposed to be an antenna here, but again, it's the show models, and these each serve different purpose. Yeah. So the stream zones right now are purely for research. And so there's some scientists at Noah's Atlantic observational Marine Laboratory. I forget that's not the right acronym ever. Anyway. They're there. It's where the hurricane research division is. And so. Goal is to launch these into hurricanes, see if the data set can supplement or complement the operational data sets. So you go above the hurricane, yes. So this aircraft flies above, around and in front of the hurricanes, and then the other aircraft see below you a hurricane. Well, we're at 45,000 feet, and a lot of times, the cloud tops of a storm will actually reach up to that altitude. So we're not looking down on the hurricane, but we're certainly above and around. Wow. So the p3 the other aircraft that we fly, this one, flies through the storm, usually between eight to 10,000 feet. What Chris is a pilot, that's what we do. So yeah, they're different aircraft with slightly different mission sets, but they all provide complimentary data that goes into models that hopefully makes everything as accurate as as we can possibly do. Yeah, like Nick was saying, the g4 there, it's gonna go above and around, and, like Jonathan mentioned, try to turn your spaghetti into a noodle. That's ideally what we're going to do there. And the p3 is going to go through the middle and get all of the like the structure and the strength and intensity, and just understand what's going on in the middle, like the actual engine of the storm, which they can then provide better forecasts on what the storm is going like, how strong it's going to be, how it's going to intensify, and, of course, understand its life cycle better. Is Noah, the only organization that does that intense sort of getting close and inside storms like that. So we have for hurricane missions. We have a partnership with the Air Force, the 23rd weather constant squadron also flies with us into those storms as well. Wow. You got like a body up in there, yeah, wow.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:16:38

What kind of training do you have to go through.

Unknown: 1:16:41

So all of our pilots go through, you know, depending on the airframe, they go through a lot of the airframe specific training. And then we have an extensive syllabus where we do a lot of in house training that can typically take about two years or so to actually qualify on how to do this. And then on the p3 aircraft specifically, we require at least, at a minimum 50 penetrations through storms, wow, and at least two full hurricane seasons before we would allow anyone to basically take command of the aircraft in that environment without a more senior pilot on board. I think over all, I am just shy of 100 total penetration slash. This is going to be my third season flying hurricanes. Nick's flown a good bit more than I have, because he's been doing this long, right for one of our other aircrafts, which went on our aircraft, neither of these prior to that, neither of those. Neither of those. So we've got two other kinds of aircraft. We got a King Air. We got three King Air aircraft. For the hurricane mission, the most likely associated with emergency response after a storm passes. You know, we had one on site when the bridge in Baltimore fell. We did survey and stuff like that as well. So any emergency response style stuff, the King Air will typically be involved in that. In addition to the other mission set, the Twin Otter, can also provide emergency response, but it's a little bit slower, a little bit more designed to handle low level, slow types of missions that you may need to use an observer with eyeballs for rather than scientific equipment onboard the aircraft. The biggest sort of life of property and protection that they do is going to be in the Midwest, in New England, with as far as, like, snow and determining kind of what those river forecasts are going to be for flooding or drownings. What's the craziest light, craziest, like, type of weather that kind of, like, scare you.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:18:36

So I hope you enjoyed that. That clip from the pilots that are the actual hurricane hunter pilots. And a couple of things that I wanted to pull on on these different strings, is that these pilots are flying through some of the worst weather of all time. In fact, there was one of the questions that was asked, and it wasn't, you know, this audio from from these different talks is suitable to use somewhat, because the information is that good, and we have a really good podcast editor who who can clean it up very well. But there was some audio that I could not use that just simply, you know, people were talking way too loud in the background in order to make use of it. But there was one really good question that was asked, and it's, what was the worst weather that you had ever flown through? And one of them said that hurricane Ian was the scariest storms that these pilots had ever been through. That happened in late September 2022 that was a Category five storm that hit southwest Florida. The pilot did show us a clip from inside the plane, and you could kind of see, you know, a little bit of that. You could see the plane jumping, of course, not jumping, but, you know, in turbulence, anytime you're flying commercially, and you experience turbulence, but this was just, it was much more extreme, because obviously they're flying through a hurricane. There was also a lot of lightning that you could see just out the the window of the plane itself. And so it was a little crazy to imagine. And going through that experience because it was crazy, watching the video of it. So I can't imagine being the pilot in that situation, and having the calmness and the wherewithal in order to get through something like that, in order to gather that really, really important data. So in this next clip that I want to play, and this is us actually getting to go inside of the plane itself. And so let me pull up that clip, because there are a couple of them that that I want to show. And it's because when you're on the plane itself, you have a bunch of obviously, you have the pilots, you have a couple different scientists, and then you have the people that are on the flight to drop the drone. So they have a shoot that is on the plane that is dropping these drones, these unmanned drones in that goes inside of the hurricane. So let me go ahead and pull up this clip. You know, as technology improves

Unknown: 1:20:55

and things get smaller, so we used to have, like, more of a Pringles can size, and now we're down to, like a paper towel hole size mini songs, but the shoot is actually in the back, behind the farthest left seat there.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:21:10

And so that shoot that she's talking about, I'm going to play it in this next clip. It looks like a if you've ever worked at a bank, you remember, like the old school, like shoots. I don't know if I haven't been inside of a bank in forever, but you know how they were would count money and they would put it inside the little tubes, and then the tube would go inside the vault. This is essentially kind of the same technology that they're using these drones to drop them in another shoot. So let me go ahead and play this minute long clip.

Unknown: 1:21:41

Oh, that's where it is. Cool. Yeah, that's it. So we'll have our two engineers here. This one will actually see real time as the drop links on is going down the chute or down down to the water, how all the data is collecting, if it's correct, and, you know, make sure that this didn't, like, you know, start flopping or that it's not a fastball and going too fast. Oh, wow. Something. They'll coordinate with the flight directors up in the furthest two seats, not the pilots, but the furthest two up here in the main cabin. Those are our meteorologists, and they talk to each other the whole time, like, okay, yep, this one's looking good. Okay, we'll package it up and we'll send it down to the hurricane center. Talk to Air Traffic Operations Center if we have any issues, we also have invite tech support. So they'll sit between these two seats, and this is where they can do some control deletes and all sorts of technical, you know, troubleshooting for us. So in theory, we wouldn't, we shouldn't have to abort for any mission related issues.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:22:40

Now, speaking the pilots, that there was a little bit of a other, you know, just a lot of, like FAQs, a lot of frequently asked questions, or maybe I don't, I'm not sure if they're frequently asked questions, but there were questions that our group had, and so I thought that this next part with the pilot, the hurricane hunter pilots, answering some of those questions. It's about a two and a half minute long clip, so I'm going to go ahead and play this one now, and through

Unknown: 1:23:03

an actual hurricane, we're going to have at least two pilots at the controls, and their main job is to work in tandem with the flight engineer who's maintaining the engines and the systems of the aircraft to keep it within a very tight profile. So we have a very tight speed band we're operating in that's safe and effective for getting us into and out of those high turbulence areas. And then we want to keep the aircraft on a very specific track that allows us to go through the worst that these eye walls have to offer without putting ourselves into excessive amounts of danger. And our in flight meteorologist is giving us those tracks and really working the radar to help us get the plane through the softest part of these eye walls. But so the pilots are maintaining that track and also trying to maintain the aircraft as level as we possibly can. Of course, during these these storms, we could be getting really massive updrafts and downdrafts, and we're trying to fight 1000 plus foot permanent vertical changes, all while trying to maintain right at about the eight to 10,000 feet typically, that we're trying to go through these storms. So it's a lot of you know, it's very much a coordinated dance, where everybody has to be communicating really quickly, really well, so that we can maintain everything as safe as we can, so we can get through these storms, get the data and get everybody home. Has any has anybody? This may be a dumb question, Has anybody ever been like struck by lightning, like the flight itself? So the aircraft does get struck by lightning. That's not a terribly uncommon thing to happen in these environments. We try to avoid lightning for that reason, because lightning strikes, even though they basically just a little pinhole in the aircraft, typically that can cause pretty catastrophic damage if it hits the wrong spot. So we do, anytime we fly around lightning, we do much more thorough inspection to make sure that the aircraft remains in a flyable condition, and we can minimize any sort of damage that occurs. How does one decide to be in this profession? That's. Okay, so there's a lot of different ways that you can get involved with being a hurricane hunter. So Chris is a pilot. We have pilots, we have navigators, we have flight directors who are meteorologists by training. I'm an aerospace engineer. We have electrical engineers, computer engineers, we have aircraft mechanics. There's all of these folks. There's scientists at the hurricane Research Division. There's all these folks that have to work together on the aircraft to make sure that we are safely collecting the data that we need to and that we're effectively doing. So there's a lot of different ways you can go about it. As far as wanting to I didn't know this job existed before I applied for it. But now eight years in, it's hard to imagine doing much of anything else. It's exciting. You get to work with some incredibly smart and talented people. You get to go to some interesting places. It's fantastic,

Blythe Brumleve: 1:25:54

is it the individual? So we'll end that clip right there, and you might have heard them talk about, you know, two different planes that that the hurricane hunters are piloting. One you can actually see in the background that that's the plane that they have been historically using. But the Coming Soon, very soon, I believe this fall, is when these hurricane hunter pilots are going to be using the new plane called the p3 and be with the new plane. They have that new design for the drones. And so in this next clip, I'm going to be showing you the the drone with, like the little propeller that is on the the tube itself, the bank tube is probably what I'm going to call it, just for the podcast listeners out there who are trying to visualize what this thing actually looks like, it looks like, I will say it looks like a, like a paper towel tube with obviously some very fancy instruments going on inside of it. But they also have a propeller on it as well to help with gliding and data collection. So let me go ahead and play this next clip.

Unknown: 1:26:57

Like I said, before we do not deploy these from the Gulf Stream four, we'll launch these from the P threes. So this is a small, uncrewed aerial system that is able to get to parts of the storm that are otherwise too dangerous for us to fly. And so the p3 will never go below 5000 feet in a hurricane environment, these can fly as low as 30 feet above the water, collecting all kinds of high resolution data that we otherwise wouldn't be able to get, and so we'll launch this out at the bottom the aircraft. This wing folds back and then deploys. It has a wind sensor. It's got the communications antenna. We can stay in communications with this out to at least 125 nautical miles. That's what we tested to in March. It has a pressure, temperature and humidity sensor, much like the drop signs do, and it's got a laser altimeter, so it can measure wave heights as well. And so this has a endurance of about 90 minutes. And so typically will fly into the center of the storm launch this, and then it will typically fly a preset pattern. But we do have an operator on board who can issue new commands to it if they see, like an interesting part of the storm that they wanted to sample more, they can steer it that way. And the goal with this, like I said, is to get that high resolution beta in what we call the boundary layer, so that's where the ocean and the atmosphere is acting. That's where all that energy transfers taking place, and getting high resolution data there has a potential to give us a greater understanding of how hurricanes intensify. And so right now, this is purely a research platform, so none of the data that's collecting is going into the forecast models, but hopefully, given time and given its value, proven, this data could find its way into operation. Forecast models,

Blythe Brumleve: 1:28:47

how many of them are typically used at one time? We

Unknown: 1:28:50

can never have more than one in the air at a time. We have a capability to launch multiple over the course of a mission. Choose about eight hours in length, only a 90 minute lifespan, so you can fit a couple in there, but our rules dictate we won't have more than one in the air at a time. That's for safety of our aircraft, as well as safety for our party aircraft with the air forces out there. Deconfliction for us is very important. Nobody wants to run into each other. We have for this season, 18 of these ready to go. Great.

Blythe Brumleve: 1:29:20

That's the end of that clip. And then I got one more for you that it's kind of similar, but it's a good breakdown of each of the drone pieces, and then how many they drop, and what happens to them after the drones are dropped. So let me go ahead and play this one.

Unknown: 1:29:38

These black swift they're out in Colorado. They make these, I'm not sure of their processes, though, but carbon fiber wing, carbon fiber rod that runs the length of the fuselage here, that's what keeps it from snapping once it gets into those hurricane force winds. And then the only control surface is back here. It's called an elevon. And so this will move. If the aircraft looks like a drone, it is drone. Yeah,

Blythe Brumleve: 1:30:09

wow, you said it's disposable, so it's like the others, where it'll just leave. The aircraft

Unknown: 1:30:13

is expensive, so not able to get them back. But just like with the drop signs, the value of the data is immense, because there's really no other way to get

Blythe Brumleve: 1:30:28

it. Really, really good clips from those hurricane hunter pilots. And keep in mind, this was all day one of our tour. So you know, as we sort of round out day one, let's get into day two, which is actually launch day. So this is the day that the satellite is going up into space, tentatively. Day two becomes more about watching the weather, especially in the state of Florida. I don't have to tell anyone who has visited the state that we get afternoon thunderstorms every single day over the summertime. So launches taking place in like June, July and August. I'm like, Hmm, the success rate can't be all that great, except it does. It happens pretty regularly. And I would say one of the more, I guess, shocking, not shocking, but more of a realistic thing is that while we were there, I said earlier that we were on this tour with all kinds of regional and national scientists, meteorologists. You know, these are the pros of the pros, also with all of the NASA meteorologists. And 90 minutes before the launch was supposed to take place, none of them had an idea on if the launch was actually going to happen. 90 minutes before launch, give some of the smartest minds in the world when it comes to weather, all congregating in one area, all really hoping that the launch would take place. I mean, spoiler alert, it did take place, but 90 minutes before the launch, we really didn't know if we were going to be able to see the launch that day. Now, if it didn't happen, then what NASA was, you know, had they, of course, NASA has contingent contingency plans, so they were going to invite us to stay an additional day in hopes that the launch would take place on Wednesday, instead of that Tuesday of that week, which would have been really unfortunate, because a lot of folks traveled in from all over the United States just to come to this tour. I was lucky enough that I drove in from Jacksonville, so it was only a two hour drive for me. It would have been very simple in order to extend my trip another day. I didn't really want to, because I was anxious to, you know, kind of get back to the normal swing of things. Plus, by this time, you're, you're just, you're ready for the launch to happen like spent, you know, two days, you know, with this build up process, I can, and I cannot imagine the people that spent eight to 10 years on this project and are anticipating, you know, 90 minutes before the launch is a go or not, it was still Very, very much in the air. I'm actually going to play a clip for y'all here in a minute of what goes on with the Space Forces launch. Weather Officer, I love that. You know, I hated it at first. I thought it was a little just like, Oh, that's so cringy Space Force. They have a fantastic logo. And just saying, now it just sounds really, really cool, but this guy, so we the Space Forces Launch Weather Officer, so this is to paint the scene for you. It is 90 minutes before the scheduled launch. We've done all of the tours. It's been two and a half days of really fun, educational but also it's a lot, you know. So you're also, you're all out in the heat to Florida summertime heat. It's, I'm a Floridian. I know how it is. And so even I was, you know, pretty tired at this point, really hoping that this launch was going to take place, because I didn't want to go through another day of, you know, wondering if it's going to take place or not. And so for this next clip I'm going to talk I'm going to be showing the Space Forces Launch Weather Officer who was responsible for coming into the room at this point. So we're all in, like the press media center area that's right by it's, it's three miles from the launch pad. So this is where we are going to be watching the launch take place. It's where the giant countdown clock is. If you've ever watched any of these launches on television, it's three miles so it's as close as you're gonna get for a space launch is three miles out. And so we're by the countdown clock. We go inside in order to get our final briefing, and just kind of wait out the next 90 minutes. And the Space Force Launch Weather Officer comes in, and he's sort of explaining his role, how he got to this role, and then also there, there was such an interesting moment, because it was he came in, and during his conversation, he said it like it was nothing, and he mentioned that the launch wasn't going to. Happened. He dropped a bomb on us, essentially, um, after these two and a half days, 90 minutes before launch, you know, you have all these, all these amazing like photographers there with our group too, that were just, I mean, he dropped this bomb on us 90 minutes before the launch. We had no idea if the launch was actually going to happen. So that is setting the scene. And so let's go ahead and play this clip. First

Unknown: 1:35:22

off, how many people are from this area? A lot of you, how many people are from out west? Okay, so I lived in California for a while. Obviously, a lot more humid here than anywhere in California ever. But this is very typical weather for this time of year here. So getting the thunderstorm clouds along with FAR sea breeze, that's very, very normal. Of courses, you'll get thunderstorms oftentimes with it worse, if we look at statistics, this is about the worst time of the day and the worst time of the year. A lot. Obviously, they didn't listen to the weather people when they made that plan, but no, honestly, it has to do more with where in the orbital insertion process we need the satellite to go. So we don't really have much of a say with that, but for a lot of missions, we'll be involved in still helping the customer select the t zero. So there's been a lot of the space link launches from SpaceX, you know, Starlink, those are four hour launch windows, so they give us a lot of time to play with in that time. So we'll usually start off with a forecast saying what our expectations are for the probability of a no go during that count. And then we see a change in that four hours. A lot a lot of times, if it's an evening launch, whether we'll get progressively better as the window progresses towards midnight, then we'll see a drop in that so called probability of violation. Or times we help select the t zero for the customer. We're doing that. My colleagues are doing that. Brian says they keep another Launch Weather Officer. He is the main one here today, so he's back in our shop with the console and talking to SpaceX, also talking with Noah and NASA, since this satellite is kind of their baby as well, just trying to select the best teaser. We are no go right now from a weather standpoint, again, those clouds, you can see that they don't look that menacing. The problem is that they were torn off the thunderstorm clouds, and so they carry electrification with them. Depending on the exact nature of the cloud and its temperature level, they could have be a problem for up to four hours after the time they actually get ripped off of a thunderstorm. So the thunderstorm could be long gone. Under certain circumstances, the clouds that are left behind could still be sufficiently electrified that we could not pass through the cloud itself. Now, if the vehicle passes just a couple of miles away from the cloud, that actually we work under a little bit less conservative rules, again, depending on the temperature structure of the cloud. So we send up weather balloons to get that information. We use weather radar, and we have our own weather radar, distinct from the National Weather Service, helps us interrogate what the clouds actually are doing the temperature and thickness of those clouds you nobody's

Blythe Brumleve: 1:38:08

happy. I love the silence at the end of that video, because it was deafening in that room. And I, you know, hopefully you know, me, setting the scene earlier is kind of indicative of what just happened. That wasn't just a normal like podcast pause. It was the silence of the ending of that question, or the ending of his statement. And the rest of the room is just stunned because he says the words no go. But then just a few minutes later, he was able to, sort of, I guess, correct the ship a little bit with his verbiage, because I think he kind of felt it in the room that everybody was just crushed. And then he goes on to, you know, sort of explain a little bit more. And it was that he's forecasting the two hour launch window, not just the exact launch time. And so let's, let's go ahead and play this next part. Launch

Unknown: 1:39:02

Weather officer's job can be like, over a huge amount of campaign, and from a weather perspective, it's just forecasting the hurricanes. But like, days like today are always tough, because you move in and out of weather violations, and they'll keep you on your toes. Would it be in and out of weather violations saying don't go is that for the expected zero time, or is it through the entire window? It's for the current time, and then the lunch weather officer will also try to time out an estimated clear time. Sorry, but for like, a win. How much spatial would we be? So the answer to that is it depends. So this goes to our launch window. For this particular launch, we gave him, like, 50% chance of violation at the beginning of the window, 70% at the end. So whether overall should get a little worse, because. As we're getting that the tops of those thunderstorms to the west going off over us. So, you know, again, today is not exactly working out as we had expected. Like we thought, the development of the initial storms would be a little farther to the west, so the front end of the window is a little worse, and the 50% probability of violation we there's a an old saying that you shouldn't use 50, because it's like flipping a coin, but it is a real number, and we're saying a one in two chance of actually having a weather violation, which actually is happening right now. But again, we're forecasting for the window, not just the count, which extends two hours in advance of that

Blythe Brumleve: 1:40:37

now. Ultimately, that 5050, chance that he speaks about ended up going in our favor, thankfully, and so pretty much like right after this gentleman left, think we were in the room for about 10 more minutes before our guides came back in and they said, oh well. First they gave us a little bit of a heads up, where they said, Okay, if things go wrong during the launch, which they have to NASA has contingency plans, as I had already mentioned. So if things go wrong, drop out of drop all of your stuff and follow us. That was essentially their role. If something goes wrong during the launch, we were to drop your cameras, drop all of your expensive equipment, and just run towards whoever that your nearest guide is, and follow them, because they will know where to go. So I thought that was a little interesting and kind of reassuring, at the same time that there was a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Luckily, nothing did go wrong. So we went right outside, and was one of the coolest things you will ever see in your life, and that is a NASA launch, and I can't really describe it, but in one of the videos that you can hear, it is just so incredible to feel the heat and the light off of the launch itself. It kind of felt at times that maybe we should have like, safety glasses on or something like that, because the heat and the light were so bright, it was intense. It was already hot as balls outside in Florida summertime, in late June. So to add on, the additional heat factor of the shuttle launch was incredible, and then the boosters coming back in and allowed, like sonic boom that they make when they come back into the atmosphere. I mean, it really is just incredible. So I can't really do it justice when I'm explaining it. So I think what would be best here is to play a tweet from that launch itself. And so let me go ahead and pull that up. Fine.

Unknown: 1:42:41

87654321 goes, go, you lift off of goes you. Noah's new to newest weather satellite to monitor the Earth and Sun in high definition. So

Blythe Brumleve: 1:43:06

cool, so cool. I still, like, can't get over it. I'm smiling like ear to ear, in case you're not able to, if you're listening on the podcast format, like I said, go watch the video version of it so you can get the full grasp of everything that I am talking about here. And then, you know, as you kind of learn more about this, you know, there, I did wonder, like, well, what the heck, like, where, where's the goes, you satellite. Now, we saw it in, you know, it was, it's one of those things. So let me pull up a Tweet of the goes, you satellite, arriving to space, and then going in, setting off in to orbit. I'll link to this tweet in the show notes, in case you want to check it out. But it's just, I mean, it's incredible. Here it is detaching from the capsule itself. And so this satellite will actually drop off. And it says in a follow up tweet that goes you will get into geostationary orbit. A satellite in this type of orbit doesn't move relative to the ground. It will always be over the same place on the Earth's surface. That's valuable for weather monitoring, because the satellite will then have a constant view of the same surface area goes you is expected to operate for over 10 years. So that is just a cute little moment where you can kind of see the satellite going off into its geostationary orbit. And yeah, so it's just, overall, an incredible, incredible experience. I cannot say that enough. If you've never watched a shuttle launch, if you've never been a part of one of these launches, I highly, highly advise whether you're in California or Texas, or it can make it over to Florida. I know Florida in particular, I've mentioned in the other episodes in this series that, you know I thought there was like two or three launches a year. Now, because of the growth of this industry, there are two or three launches a week. So if you come to Orlando area, you can take a drive east of. Orlando, rent a car, or even if you're in the area, the southeastern area, you could drive down to Cape Canaveral, stay for a few days in the area, and you're bound to see a launch. In fact, that the first day that I arrived, before the tour officially started, me and my fiance went to the beach in the area, the Cape Canaveral National shoreline, which is a beautiful beach, in case you want to go to it, but we arrived there, and a launch was taking place, like five minutes afterwards. So we got to see, essentially, two launches in one three day trip. So incredible. And so I do want to play one more last clip, because it's just, it's from Lockheed Martin, and it's just cool to see just sort of the entire mission come together into one video. So it's about a minute long for this video. Let me pull this one up and it just recaps the entire like manufacturing process, the shipping process, and then ultimately Sending the satellite into space. So let's play it you a really great video that they put together. And I just realized that I have been telling you guys that this, that this satellite was manufactured in California. It was not it said it in the video that was actually met manufactured in Colorado. So yeah, really great video. Really great social initiatives too, for the NASA Kennedy Center, Noah and Lockheed Martin to kind of all come together with their media expertise as well, in order to put these things together up really quite frequently. Because I want to say that that one video that we just launched or that we just watched was the Gosh, it looks like 10 minutes after where the after the fact, just doing some some quick little Google searches right after. So that about does it for this episode. I really hope that y'all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating this episode. I know it's a little bit of a longer one, especially with all of the extra clips that we added into this episode, but just think it really rings true and really rings home. You know how I would say not as not as advanced. How can I say this? It really rings true about how short of a time span that we have been able to collect data on weather activities here on this planet and reporting on it, what we see, what we can feel, what we can measure. It's really only been going on for a few decades. And you think about the entire, you know, not just the entire history of, you know, the universe, or even earth, to an extent, with billions of years of of weather data that we don't have access to. But these are just small incremental steps into better data collection that starts with better logistics here on Earth, that ends with space logistics, that ends with data communications from space down to earth, in order to help all of these scientists who and meteorologists who are trying to do their job and to make the world a you know, not necessarily. They can't, really, they don't have the power to make the world a better place, but they they do have the power to provide you with the information to get out of dangerous situations sooner rather than later, and to help emergency services prepare for those different weather events that are going to happen no matter what. And so this was a really, really fun episode to put together, because we all know how much weather impacts us here on Earth, not just from a leisurely standpoint, but also from a commercial standpoint, shipping and logistics, the constant foe is dealing with weather issues, whether it's flooding, whether it's hurricanes, whether it's wind and rain, all of those fires, you know, all of these different weather extremities that are going on across the globe. We need more data in order to be able to to and have smart people decipher that data in order to help create, you know, a better living environment for the realities that are here on Earth. Now this is again, a. Five part series, so I will link in the show notes to the other two episodes that have been previously released. Be on the lookout for the final two episodes in this series, and then ongoing space logistics episodes that we will be having here on the show. So hope you all enjoyed this special edition, and thank you for tuning in, and I'll see you real soon. You I hope you enjoyed this episode of everything is logistics, a podcast for the thinkers in freight, telling the stories behind how your favorite stuff and people get from point A to B. Subscribe to the show. Sign up for our newsletter and follow our socials over at everything is logistics.com and in addition to the podcast. I also wanted to let you all know about another company I operate, and that's digital dispatch, where we help you build a better website. Now, a lot of the times, we hand this task of building a new website or refreshing a current one off to a coworker's child, a neighbor down the street or a stranger around the world, where you probably spend more time explaining the freight industry than it takes to actually build the dang website. Well, that doesn't happen at Digital dispatch. We've been building online since 2009 but we're also early adopters of AI automation and other website tactics that help your company to be a central place, to pull in all of your social media posts, recruit new employees and give potential customers a glimpse into how you operate your business. Our new website builds start as low as$1,500 along with ongoing website management, maintenance and updates starting at $90 a month, plus some bonus freight marketing and sales content similar to what you hear on the podcast. You can watch a quick explainer video over on digitaldispatch.io, just check out the pricing page once you arrive, and you can see how we can build your digital ecosystem on a strong foundation. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll see you all real soon and go jags. You.

About the Author

Blythe Brumleve

Creative entrepreneur in freight. Founder of Digital Dispatch and host of Everything is Logistics. Co-Founder at Jax Podcasters Unite. Board member of Transportation Marketing and Sales Association. Freightwaves on-air personality. Annoying Jaguars fan.

To read more about Blythe, check out her full bio here.

NASA Series: Shipping Weather Satellites to Space

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