GOES-16 Space Environment In-Situ Suite: Sensors, Performance, And Early Orbital Data

The space weather instruments (Space Environment In-Situ Suite – SEISS) on the recently launched, NOAA GOES-16 (GOES-R series) spacecraft offer significant space weather measurement performance advances over the previous... [ view full abstract ]

The space weather instruments (Space Environment In-Situ Suite – SEISS) on the recently launched, NOAA GOES-16 (GOES-R series) spacecraft offer significant space weather measurement performance advances over the previous GOES N-P series instruments.   GOES-16 was launched on 19 November 2016, and the SEISS sensors were powered on 8 January 2017.  The SEISS specifications require that the instruments ensure proper operation under the most stressful high flux conditions - corresponding to the largest solar particle event expected during the program, while maintaining high sensitivity at low flux levels.  The SEISS suite comprises five individual sensors and a data processing unit: Magnetospheric Particle Sensor-Low (0.03–30 keV electrons and ions with 14 look angles spanning 180^o field-of-view), Magnetospheric Particle Sensor-High (0.05–4 MeV electrons, 0.08–12 MeV protons with 5 look angles spanning a 100^o field-of-view), two Solar And Galactic Proton Sensors (1 to >500 MeV protons, one pointed east and one west), and the Energetic Heavy ion Sensor (10-200 MeV for H, H to Fe with single element resolution).  We provide an overview of the sensor configurations and performance.  Results of extensive sensor modeling with GEANT, FLUKA, and SIMION are compared with calibration data measured over nearly the entire energy range of the instruments.  We present early on-orbit data from the enhanced GOES-R instruments and comparisons to the current GOES-13 space weather measurements.