
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 4, 1994                   TAG: 9404040068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW SATELLITE TO HELP PREDICT HURRICANES

With the country's two severe-weather satellites out of gas and out of date, officials hope an April 12 launch of a new satellite will help give better warnings of hurricanes and severe storms.

If it succeeds, the weather satellite GOES-I can give meteorologists more information on where a hurricane is heading three or four days in advance, National Hurricane Center deputy director Jerry Jarrell said.

The $400 million satellite also can give a clearer picture of other severe storms in Florida, said Ray Biedinger, deputy meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service's Florida office.

Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, National Weather Service Administrator Joe Friday, hurricane center director Bob Sheets and civil defense officials will hold a news conference today to talk about how it will help hurricane preparedness.

"Anything that improves the forecast ability of the National Hurricane Center improves at the local level our ability to make more rational evacuation decisions," said B.T. Kennedy, Palm Beach County emergency management director.

Millions of dollars could be saved if forecasts can be improved and needless evacuations can be avoided, said Arthur St. Amand, Broward County emergency management director.

The country's two current severe-weather satellites have outlived their life expectancies.

Satellite GOES-7, launched in 1987, has run out of fuel to correct its drifting orbit, so it sends pictures to Earth that skip the way television images can.

METEOSAT-3, borrowed from the European Space Agency, is 6 years old and has had some breakdowns, Jarrell said.

Mishaps, design problems and cost overruns have delayed the new generation of satellite and have put the weather service in a precarious situation.

The last of the old-generation satellites failed in 1984 and 1989; another was destroyed during a failed launch in 1986.

During the past three years, Jarrell said the hurricane center had had to practice tracking and forecasting hurricanes without using satellite information, in case both satellites died suddenly.

by CNB