NPOESS Environmental Data Products
- Paper number
IAC-08.B1.4.10
- Author
Mr. David Glackin, The Aerospace Corporation, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) program represents the merger of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) POES (Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite) and the Department of Defense (DoD) DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) systems. Established by presidential directive in 1994, a tri-agency Integrated Program Office (IPO) in Silver Spring, Maryland, has been managing NPOESS development, and is staffed by representatives of NOAA, DoD, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NPOESS is being designed to provide more than 35 atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial, climatic, and solar-geophysical data products, and will disseminate those products to civilian and military users worldwide. The first NPOESS satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2013 into an afternoon orbit (1330 local time ascending node-LTAN), and the second in 2016 into an early morning orbit (1730 LTAN). The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Meteorological Operational (MetOp) satellite will occupy a mid-morning orbit (2130 LTAN) as the third satellite in the joint NPOESS/MetOp constellation. NPOESS will remain operational for at least ten years. The NPOESS Environmental Data Records (EDRs) will be provided by a number of advanced imaging and sounding instruments. The instruments will be hosted in various combinations on two NPOESS platforms in two distinct polar, sun-synchronous orbits. The instrument complement represents the combined requirements of the weather and environmental civil and DoD operational remote sensing communities. The instruments are VIIRS (Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite), MIS (Microwave Imager/Sounder), CrIS (Cross-track Infrared Sounder), OMPS (Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite), ATMS (Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder), SEM (Space Environment Monitor) and CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System). NPOESS will also be equipped with the Advanced Data Collection System (ADCS) and Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System (SARSAT). VIIRS will provide data on clouds, aerosols, vegetation, sea surface temperature and ocean color, sea ice, land surface temperature and type, snow, and albedo. MIS, that is now in the formulation stage, is expected to provide data on sea surface winds, atmospheric and cloud liquid water, precipitation type and rate, precipitable water and total water content, sea surface temperature, ice characterization, soil moisture, snow water equivalent, and possibly microwave conically-scanned atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles. CrIS will provide infrared cross-track-scanned atmospheric temperature, moisture and pressure profiles, and total column ozone. OMPS will provide total column ozone and the ozone vertical profile. ATMS will function in parallel with CrIS to provide microwave cross-track-scanned atmospheric temperature, moisture and pressure profiles. SEM will provide data on the aurora and charged particles. CERES will measure the Earth’s radiation balance. A critical part of the NPOESS program is the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) that is jointly managed by the NPOESS IPO and NASA. NPP will carry the primary NPOESS sensors (VIIRS, CrIS, ATMS, and OMPS) as well as CERES to provide on-orbit testing and validation of sensors, algorithms, ground-based operations, and data processing systems prior to the launch of the first operational NPOESS satellite. The NPP satellite will be launched in 2010 into the 1330 LTAN orbit to reduce the risk of a data gap between the last POES and the first NPOESS satellite. The data from these instruments, coupled with NPOESS’s greatly reduced latency will enable more accurate operational weather and ocean nowcasting, short-term to medium range weather forecasting, severe storm warnings, land use, space weather monitoring and forecasting, and numerous other societal benefits. NPOESS instruments will provide continuity of data for 14 of 26 essential climate variables. The data will also be used for scientific studies of the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice cover, and will include information of benefit to climate studies.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)