"In the midst of the very active North Atlantic hurricane season, the main weather satellite scientists use for keeping tabs on the weather across eastern North America and the Atlantic Ocean has gone offline. The outage began late on Sept. 23, after a period when the satellite, known as GOES-13, had been experience increasing vibrations, or “noise,” in particular instruments that was degrading its performance. According to the Capital Weather Gang blog, the satellite was put in stand-by mode while engineers work to fix the problem from the ground."

In the meantime, NOAA has taken action to maneuver a spare satellite into service. According to a message on NOAA's website, there is no estimated time that the malfunctioning satellite will resume service."

Andrew Freedman reports for Climate Central September 24, 2012. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Stopgap Spending Bill Gives NOAA a Measure of Flexibility on Key Satellite Programs" (Space News) [3]

"Rethinking Hurricane Ratings, Post-Isaac" (Miami Herald) [4]

"Key GOES-13 Weather Satellite Goes Dark" (Capital Weather Gang/Wash Post) [5]

"Funding Weather Satellites Crucial for Storm Forecasting" (Orlando Sentinel 6/29/12) [6]

"NOAA says GOP’s Proposed Satellite Funding Cuts Could Halve Accuracy of Precipitation Forecasts" (Climate Progress 3/24/11) [7]