Major Atlantic weather satellite out of action

(CNS): An important weather satellite that monitors Atlantic hurricanes has been shut down, as a result of a number of technical glitches, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials have stated. The US weather agency has activated a spare satellite as a result of the erratic behaviour of the GOES-13, which tracks weather and hurricane traffic along the East Coast of the USA and across the Atlantic. NOAA said engineers shut down the satellite on Sunday and are still trying to diagnose the source of the problems.  A spokesperson said there could be a decrease in the accuracy of weather forecasts and NOAA is checking to see if hurricane forecasting could be affected.

"GOES-14 will remain the primary GOES satellite over the Atlantic basin and Continental U.S. until the imager and sounder data issues on GOES-13 can be fully diagnosed and hopefully fixed," NOAA officials said Monday.

The failure of "GOES-13" has left a gap for meteorologists in the eastern Atlantic and experts say this is likely to make monitoring of tropical storms more difficult. According to Accuweather the substitute satellite may be better than nothing but not perfect as images over the eastern Atlantic, are distorted because of the position of the temporary replacement satellite farther west.