Northern Pacific Roaming Band 9 Mid-Level Water Vapor IR Satellite
About Band 9
6.9 µm - "Mid-level Water Vapor" Band - 2 km resolution - Band 9 will be used for mid and upper-level tropospheric water vapor tracking, jet stream identification, hurricane track forecasting, mid-latitude storm forecasting, severe weather analysis, and mid-level moisture estimation (for legacy vertical moisture profiles).
The imager on GOES-16 features three mid-level water vapor bands instead of the single water vapor band on the GOES-13 Imager. The single water vapor band on GOES-13 contained a mixture of water vapor features over many levels of the troposphere, but GOES-16 enables us to focus on water vapor in the upper troposphere (band 8), the middle troposphere (band 9), or the lower troposphere (band 10). The GOES-13 Imager water vapor channel is between ABI bands 8 and 9.