GOES 12 is an American geosynchronous weather satellite that was launched by an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral at 07:23 UT on 2001 July 23. For some months, the spacecraft was on standby, then activated and moved to its desired longitude.
The 980-kg, 973-W spacecraft carries an IR imager, a sounder, and an X-ray imager. The IR imager is a Cassegrain telescope covering five wavelength channels, 0.55-0.75, 3.80-4.00, 6.50-7.00, 10.20-11.20, and 11.50-12.50 microns. It can provide images covering 3,000 km x 3,000 km every 41 seconds, by scanning the area in 16 square kilometer sections.
The sounder is to provide vertical distribution of temperature, moisture, and ozone by passive monitoring in 18 depth-dependent wavelengths. (Long-wavelength IR: 14.71, 14.37, 14.06, 13.64, 13.37, 12.66, and 12.02 microns. Medium-wavelength IR: 11.03, 9.71, 7.43, 7.02, and 6.51 microns. Short-wavelength IR: 4.57, 4.52, 4.45, 4.13, 3.98, and 3.74 microns. There is also another band at visible wavelength 0.7 microns, just to provide pictures of cloudtops.) The sounder covers an area of 3,000 km x 3,000 km in about 42 minutes.
Another instrument package named SEM (Space Environment Monitor) monitors the energetic electrons and protons in the magnetosphere and the X-rays from the Sun. The above three have been carried on the earlier GOES missions, but GOES 12 also carries an X-ray imager providing an X-ray (about 0.1-1.0 nm wavelength) picture of the solar disk.
Facts in Brief
Launch Date: 2001-07-23
Launch Vehicle: Atlas 2A
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, United States
Mass: 980.0 kg
Nominal Power: 973.0 W