CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.: A key satellite positioned to track severe weather in the eastern United States has failed, just as the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is about to start.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has activated a spare satellite, which will provide coverage of the East Coast, while it tries to fix the failed one, the agency said in a status report on its website on Friday.
“There is no estimate on return to operations at this time,” NOAA said.
The Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season starts on June 1 and lasts six months.
NOAA warned on Thursday that this year’s season may be “extremely active,” with 13 to 20 tropical storms and seven to 11 of those strengthening into hurricanes.
The agency’s three current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, known as GOES, were built by Boeing and designed to last 10 years. The failed spacecraft, GOES-13, was launched in 2006.
The same satellite was sidelined for about three weeks last year by another problem.
“At this time, it’s too early to tell if it’s related – it doesn’t appear to be related,” Tom Renkevens, a NOAA deputy division chief, told Reuters.
NOAA typically operates two GOES spacecraft over the United States, overlooking the East and West coasts, plus one on-orbit spare. The satellites are outfitted with imagers to watch for clouds and developing storms, atmospheric sounders to measure temperatures and humidity, and other instruments. — Reuters