GOES Space Environment Monitor
Data describing the environment at geosynchronous orbit.

GOES-14 & GOES-15 Data Were Discontinued on March 4, 2020 -- SWPC Announcement

GOES-13 Data Were Discontinued on December 14, 2017 -- SWPC Announcement

NOAA's space weather monitoring mission continues with GOES-R series data


The Synchronous Meteorological Satellites (SMS-1 and SMS-2) and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-1, GOES-2, etc.) all carry on board the Space Environment Monitor (SEM) instrument subsystem. The SEM has provided magnetometer, energetic particle, and soft X-ray data continuously since July 1974. The Solar X-ray Imager was introduced on GOES-12 and EUV sensors on GOES-13. Geosynchronous satellites have an unobstructed view of the sun for all but the few dozen hours per year when the Earth eclipses the sun. You can identify these intervals as gaps in the X-ray data near satellite local midnight in March-April, and September-October. The source data for these plots are averages; as a result, the peak values may appear smaller than they actually were. The volume of these data makes it impossible to issue a guarantee as to the quality of each and every data point. Users should be suspicious of ‘spikes’ in the data and attempt to correlate them with other sources before assuming that they represent the space environment. The GOES Space Environment Monitor archive is an important component of the National Space Weather Program --a interagency program to provide timely and reliable space environment observations and forecasts.

GOES Magnetometer
Three orthogonal flux-gate magnetometer elements, (spinning twin fluxgate magnetometer prior to GOES-8) provide magnetic field measurements in three mutually perpendicular components: HP, HE and HN. HP is perpendicular to the satellite’s orbital plane. HE lies parallel to the satellite-Earth center line and points earthward. HN is perpendicular to both HP and HE, and points westward for GOES-4 and earlier satellites, and eastward for later spacecraft.

GOES X-ray Sensor (XRS)
The XRS provides solar X-ray fluxes for the wavelength bands of 0.5 to 4 Å and 1 to 8 Å. To obtain observed fluxes from the published data, users must correct for scaling factors as described in the GOES_XRS_readme.pdf.

GOES Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS)
Solid-state detectors with pulse-height discrimination measure proton, alpha-particle, and electron fluxes. E1 and I1 channels are responding primarily to trapped outer-zone particles. The I2 channel may occasionally respond to trapped particles during magnetically disturbed conditions. The remaining proton integrals measure fluxes originating outside the magnetosphere -- from the Sun or the heart of the Galaxy. Users of GOES particle data should be aware that significant secondary responses may exist in the particle data, i.e. responses from other particles and energies and from directions outside the nominal detector entrance aperture. The integrated protons displayed in these plots have been partially corrected for these effects. The electron detector responds significantly to protons above 32 MeV. Electron plots from GOES-8 – GOES-12 use data that have been corrected for this, earlier plots use uncorrected data. All electron data become unreliable during ion storms, therefore, when the I3 protons exceed 10 protons/cm2 sec sr, electrons are not displayed. The alpha particle data displayed are for differential channels; therefore, their units are different from the other data displayed, and from what is indicated on the y-axis label. See the Data Key below.

Solar Proton Events Affecting the Near-Space Environment

SPE table (updated 2024/03/27)

GOES Extreme Ultraviolet Sensors (EUVS)
These data are provided by the GOES-13, -14, and -15 satellites. Transmission grating spectrographs measure 5 spectral bands between 5 and 127 nm. Calibrated data are provided for the three primary channels with 1 minute and daily cadences. These channels and their approximate bandpasses are A (5-15 nm), B (25-35 nm), and E(115-130). For further information on the EUVS data or data access, please see ReadMe's for Science Quality data for GOES_13-15 EUVS ChansAB and GOES 13-15 EUVS Lyman alpha.

 

SMS/GOES SEM Mission Overview

Satellite Launch Date First SEM Data Last SEM Data  
SMS-1 status 1974-05-17 1974-07 1975-10 Philco-Ford Corporation
SMS-2 status 1975-02-06 1975-02 1978-03 Ford Aerospace Corporation
GOES-1 status 1975-10-16 1976-01 1978-05 Ford Aerospace Corporation
GOES-2 status 1977-06-16 1977-08 1983-05 Ford Aerospace Corporation
GOES-3 status 1978-06-16 1978-07 1980-08 Ford Aerospace Corporation
GOES-4 status 1980-09-09 system failure n/a Hughes Electronics Corporation
GOES-5 status 1981-05-22 1983-01 1987-02 Hughes Electronics Corporation
GOES-6 status 1983-04-22 1983-05 1994-11 Hughes Electronics Corporation
GOES-7 status 1987-02026 1987-03 1996-08 Hughes Electronics Corporation
GOES-08 status 1994-04-13 1995-01 2003-06 Space Systems Loral (Formerly Ford Aerospace)
GOES-09 status 1995-05-23 1996-04 1998-07 Space Systems Loral (Formerly Ford Aerospace)
GOES-10 status 1997-04-25 1998-07 2009-12 Space Systems Loral (Formerly Ford Aerospace)
GOES-11 status 2000-05-03 2000-07 2011-02 Space Systems Loral (Formerly Ford Aerospace)
GOES-12 status 2001-07-23 2003-01 2010-08 Space Systems Loral (Formerly Ford Aerospace)
GOES-13 status 2006-05-24 2010-05 2017-12 The Boeing Company (Acquired Hughes Aerospace Group)
GOES-14 status 2009-06-27 2010-01 2020-03 The Boeing Company (Acquired Hughes Aerospace Group)
GOES-15 status 2010-03-04 2010-09 2020-03 The Boeing Company (Acquired Hughes Aerospace Group)