In April 1994, the first of NOAA's new generation of geostationary satellites, GOES-8, was launched. The GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) is located almost 36,000 km above the earth. This geostationary orbit (with a period of 24 hours) allows continuous observation of the same region on the earth (approximately the western hemisphere).

GOES is a major component of the NOAA/National Weather Service modernization program and represents a significant advance in geostationary remote sensing that has been under development for the last decade. All major components of the GOES-8/M system are new or greatly improved.

To improve instrument performance, the satellite is three-axis stabilized so that the earth-atmosphere is observed nearly continuously.
To avoid conflicts between sounding (inferring atmospheric vertical temperature and moisture structure) and imaging (rapid imaging of the earth/atmosphere system) observations, separate instruments now perform these functions.
To improve imaging capabilities for cloud and storm diagnostics, and to enhance signal-to-noise characteristics for operational atmospheric sounding, new multispectral sensors are used.