But talking about the weather is just like other interpersonal activities: You can spice it up by looking at nice pictures.

The very best weather porn comes from geostationary satellites, and the very best geostationary satellite is launching today at 5:42pm ET. It is called GOES-R, and comes equipped with a 16 channel multispectral imager capable of delivering the hottest, high-resolution cloud-on-cloud action.

Since 1975, the US has kept a trio of weather satellites in geostationary orbit—22,3000 miles up. The cast gets rotated as technology improves, but one is always parked over the west side of the country, another over the east, and a third between the other two as backup.