HR: 16:00h
AN: OS24B-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
AU: * Hoffman, C W
EM: carl.hoffman@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AU: Mango, S
EM: stephen.mango@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AU: Schneider, S
EM: stanley.schneider@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AU: Duda, J
EM: james.duda@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AU: Haas, J
EM: mike.haas@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AU: Bloom, H
EM: hal.bloom@noaa.gov
AF: NPOESS Integrated Program Office, 8455 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 United States
AB: Over the last decade, the tri-agency Integrated Program Office (IPO), comprised of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has been managing the development of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Once operational later this decade, NPOESS will replace NOAA's Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and DoD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) systems. The IPO, through its Acquisition and Operations contractor, Northrop Grumman, will launch NPOESS spacecraft into three orbital planes to provide a single, national system capable of satisfying both civil and national security requirements for space-based, remotely sensed environmental data. With the development of NPOESS, we are evolving the existing 'weather' satellites into integrated environmental observing systems by expanding our capabilities to observe, assess, and predict the total Earth system - ocean, atmosphere, land, and the space environment. NPOESS will transform today's short-term, space-based ocean research missions into a sustained, operational ocean remote sensing observation program. Ocean measurements comprise one-fourth of the 55 user-validated requirements for geophysical measurements that will be made by NPOESS sensors. In 1997, the IPO initiated a robust sensor risk reduction effort for early development of the critical sensor suites and algorithms necessary to support NPOESS. In 2001, preliminary design efforts were completed for the last of five critical imaging/sounding instruments for NPOESS. Ocean requirements have directly and substantially 'driven' the design of three NPOESS sensors: the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS); the Conical-scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder (CMIS); and the Altimeter. With these instruments, NPOESS will deliver higher resolution (spatial and temporal) and more accurate measurements of sea surface temperature (SST), ocean surface wind vectors/stress, ocean color and suspended matter, sea ice (edge motion, age, surface temperature, thickness), oceanic heat flux, significant wave height, and sea surface topography. Infrared and microwave measurements of sea surface temperature from VIIRS and CMIS, respectively, will be combined to produce 'all weather' SST products. VIIRS imagery and altimeter measurements will be used to derive ocean circulation parameters to meet monitoring requirements for both operational and research purposes. The advanced technology visible, infrared, and microwave imagers and sounders that will fly on NPOESS will deliver higher spatial and temporal resolution oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, climatic, and solar-geophysical data, enabling more accurate short-term weather forecasts and severe storm warnings and improved real-time monitoring of coastal and open ocean phenomena. NPOESS will also provide continuity of critical data for monitoring, understanding, and predicting climate change and assessing the impacts of climate change on seasonal and longer time scales. The NPOESS team is well along the path to creating a high performance, polar-orbiting satellite system that will be more responsive to user requirements, deliver more capability at less cost, and provide sustained, space-based measurements as a cornerstone of an Integrated Global Observing System.
UR: http://www.ipo.noaa.gov
DE: 4894 Instruments, sensors, and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005