The GOES-19 weather satellite is back online after an outage.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said engineers resolved the issue. WRAL received the data to show on-air.
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Satellite data is especially critical during hurricane season. Since there are no radars or weather stations covering the ocean (just occasional buoys), satellites are our first line of defense in detecting tropical waves that could turn into hurricanes.
Satellite data is also key in measuring and forecasting wildfire smoke. With hundreds of fires ongoing in Canada and hazardous air quality extending into the US, the timing of the outage was problematic.
