Tom Schott

1
NOAA POLAR SATELLITE PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Tom Schott
• Polar Product Manager
• U.S. Department of Commerce - NOAA
• Polar Max 2005 Review
• October 25, 2005

2
Topics

• POES Overview
• Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS)

3
POES Mission

• TO PROVIDE UNINTERRUPTED FLOW OF GLOBAL
  ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION IN SUPPORT OF
  OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR
• Global Soundings
• Global Imagery
• Global and Regional Surface Hydrological Obs
• Direct Readout, Data Collection, Search and
  Rescue
• Space Environment and Ozone Observations
• TO ESTABLISH LONG-TERM CONTINUOUS DATA SETS FOR
• Climate monitoring and change predictions
• This requires two satellites for continuous
  coverage placed in orbits selected to optimize
  support for both weather services and climate
  requirements.

4
NOAA Polar-orbiting Satellite System 2005
Fairbanks, AK
Polar Orbits
Suitland, MD and Camp Springs, MD
Wallops Is, VA
200 P.M.
Sun-Synchronous Incl. 98.74 Period 101
min. Apogee 530/518 miles Scan width 2700
km Circle Earth 14 times per day
1000 A.M.
5
10am
Noon
2pm
12 Z Orbit Coverage 0900Z 1500Z
2 P.M. Orbit
10 A.M. Orbit
6
10pm
Midnight
2am
00 Z Orbit Coverage 2100Z 0300Z
2 P.M. Orbit
10 A.M. Orbit
7
Failure of these instruments is basis for launch
call-up.
8
Major Customers

• Direct Readout Users
• High-resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) Users
• Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) Users
• Search and Rescue
• Data Collection System
• Numerical Weather Prediction Centers
• National Weather Service Field Offices
• NOAA Coast Watch and Ocean Watch
• Hazard community (US Forest Service)
• Other U.S. Federal Agencies
• Dept of Defense
• Dept. of Agriculture
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• International community
• Global climate community

9
International Partners

• EUMETSAT
• MetOp - (Initial Joint Polar System)
• Canada - DND
• Search and Rescue - (SARR)
• France - CNES
• Search and Rescue - (SARP)
• Service ARGOS - (DCS A-DCS)

10
Constellation Orbital Configuration
NOAA-18
2224 (drift-0.3min/mo)
NOAA-16
NOAA-12
2054 (drift 3.6 min/mo)
NOAA-15
1758 (drift-2.0min/mo)
NOAA-14
1654 (drift0.93min/mo)
1452 (drift2.6min/mo)
1200
Local noon
NOAA-17
1355 (drift-1.4min/mo)
Sun
Updated 7 Sept 2005
11
POES On-Orbit Status As of 6 Oct 2005
Operational Capable of meeting all requirements
Degraded (Limited operational use) Capable of
meeting some, but not all requirements
Failed Unable to meet any requirements
12
Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS)

• IJPS consists of two independent, but fully
  coordinated, polar satellite systems to provide
  for the continuous and timely collection and
  exchange of environmental data from space.
• Afternoon orbit provided by NOAA
• NOAA-18 launched 20 May 2005
• NOAA-N launch Dec 2007
• Mid morning orbit provided
• by EUMETSAT
• Metop A launch Jun 2006
• Metop B launch 2010

IJPS era begins
13
NOAA-18 Status

• Initial checkout (first 21 days) performed by
  NASA with hand-over to NESDIS/OSO on June 9.
• NASA On-orbit Verification (OV) continued through
  July 2 (45-day OV period)
• Declared operational PM satellite Aug 30
• Over 145 tailored products declared operational
• Investigating the following anomalies
• Out-of-family satellite attitude pitch error rate
• HIRS Noise on long wave channels

14
Microwave Humidity Sensor
Rain Rate

• Operational product suite
• Radiances, tropical rainfall potential, cloud
  liquid water, precipitation, precipitation rate,
  snow cover, layered precipitable water, water
  vapor mixing ratio
• Benefits
• Critical for numerical modeling
• Essential for upper and lower atmospheric
  moisture analyses impacts forecasts beyond 4
  daysMet Service of Canada
• Substantial impacts in the tropics -- UK Met
  Office
• Significant improvements in precipitation
  forecasts in the first 5 days -- NWS
• Disaster precipitation estimates provide
  rainfall potential from tropical storms prior to
  weather radar detection

Rain Rate - Katrina
Operational product suite from new sensor lt150
days after launch!
15
IJPS Shared Partnering
NOAA 18 N
METOP 1 2

• 0930 Orbit - Descending Node
• Direct broadcast with
• A-HRPT and digital LRPT links
• Contingency Support
• Data Exchange
• Instruments
• NOAA Provided
• AVHRR/3
• HIRS/4
• AMSU-A
• SEM
• SARSAT
• EUMETSAT Provided
• MHS
• Argos (Data Collection Sys)
• EUMETSAT Unique
• IASI
• ASCAT
• GOME-2

• 1400 Orbit -Ascending Node
• Direct broadcast with existing HRPT and analog
  APT links
• Contingency Support
• Data Exchange
• Instruments
• NOAA Provided
• AVHRR/3
• HIRS/4
• AMSU-A
• SEM
• SARSAT
• EUMETSAT Provided
• MHS
• Argos (Data Collection Sys)
• NOAA Unique
• SBUV/2

16
Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS) -
2006/7
Svalbard, Norway
Fairbanks, AK
Darmstadt,Germany
Polar Orbits
Suitland, MD and Camp Springs, MD
Wallops Is, VA
NOAA
200 P.M.
Sun-Synchronous Incl. 98.7/98.9 Period 101
min. Apogee 530/518 miles Scan width 2700
km Circle Earth 14 times per day
930 A.M.
Metop
17
Low Data Rate Direct Readout Users

• NOAA Automatic Picture Transmission (APT)
• Analog signal
• 2 imagery channels at 4km
• Frequency change for NOAA-18 N -- reduce
  interference
• 137.1 and 137.9125 MHz
• On afternoon NOAA satellites until 2012
• On NOAA 15 and 17 until no longer operational
• Metop Low Rate Picture Transmission (LRPT)
• Digital signal
• 3 imagery channels at 1km all other instrument
  data
• Date compressed and can be encrypted
• Flown on Metop morning orbits starting in 2006
  through 2015

18
High Data Rate Direct Readout Users

• NOAA High-resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT)
• Realtime data at 667kbs rate
• NOAA-18/N instrument changes MHS HIRS/4
• On afternoon NOAA satellite until 2012
• On mid-morning satellite (NOAA-17) until no
  longer operational
• Metop Advanced High-resolution Picture
  Transmission (A-HRPT)
• Realtime data at 3.5mbs rate
• Flown on Metop morning orbits from 2006-2015
• All instrument data including European sensors
  (IASI, ASCAT, etc.)
• Can be encrypted

19
POES Planned System Coverage
CY
11
12
09
10
13
07
05
03
08
02
04
06
PM Orbit
NOAA-16
APT HRPT Available
NOAA-18
NOAA-N
AM Orbit
APT HRPT Available
NOAA-17
Metop 1
LRPT A-HRPT Available
Metop 2
11
12
03
09
10
13
07
05
08
02
04
06
CY
Decision point is it cost effective to go
digital LRPT and/or A-HRPT?
20
IJPS NOAA Satellite Orbital Processing
NOAA Satellites
DOMSAT
Stored Orbital Data
Satellite Control Product Processing (Suitland)
Other Product Processing (Offutt, Universities,
etc.)
Command and Data Acquisition (Wallops/Fairbanks)
21
IJPS NOAA 18 N Blind Orbital Processing
(2006-2012)

• Orbits where Wallops or Fairbanks can not see a
  satellite to take a stored data dump (3-5
  satellite orbits a day)
• Svalbard will receive blind orbits making orbital
  data available to users 1-6 hours sooner
• DOMSAT users will need to arrange for access to
  NOAA 18/N blind orbits from NESDIS

NOAA 18/N
Stored Orbital Data
Users
Satellite Control Product Processing (Dramstadt
, Germany)
Command and Data Acquisition (Svalbard, Norway)
Product Processing (Suitland)
22
IJPS Metop Orbital Processing (2006-2015)

• Metop
• No blind orbits
• Mid morning satellite users serviced by NESDIS
  receive U.S. sensor data like they do today
• Access to other Metop data needs to be arranged
  through NESDIS
• DOMSAT users, Metop unique sensor data, etc.

Metop
Stored Orbital Data
Users
Satellite Control Product Processing (Dramstadt
, Germany)
Command and Data Acquisition (Svalbard, Norway)
Product Processing (Suitland)
23
METOP Pipeline Processing

• Pipeline processing all data received 120
  minutes after observation
• Applications with timeliness requirements will
  process in pipeline mode
• Orbital files generated 210 minutes after
  observation

Metop unique data
Orbital File Complete
US sensor data
Metop unique data
US sensor data
120
210
0
100
Svalbard Ingest
US sensor data
Product system
Data age will be 120 minutes for all granules
Regional product 130-140 minutes after
observation
24
NESDIS Metop Product Development Projects

• Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT)
• Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer
  (IASI)
• Gome-2

25
Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT)

• 25km and 12.5km Ocean Surface Winds products
  operational 2007
• BUFR format for numerical weather prediction
• Graphical winds for local forecast and warning

Ocean Vector Winds for NWS Forecasting(QuikSCAT)
12.5 Global Wind Vectors
26
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer
(IASI)

• Fourier Transform Spectrometer based upon a
  Michelson Interferometer (8461 channels)
• Highly accurate atmospheric temperature and
  moisture data
• NESDIS products will include thinned radiances,
  principal component scores, cloud cleared
  radiances, carbon products, temperature,
  moisture, ozone profiles

Cloud Cleared Radiances
Typically, less than 5 of a sensors Field of
Views (13.5 km) are clear.
Cloud Clearing can increase yield to 50-80.
27
GOME-2

• Total Ozone Product (Dec 2006)
• Improved Ultraviolet (UV) Index forecast
• Improved total ozone in numerical
• weather prediction (NWP)
• Profile Ozone Product (2007)
• More coverage for ozone profiles in NWP
• Better boundary conditions for air quality
• Exploring additional atmospheric chemistry
  products including NO2 and SO2 column amounts.

GOME-1 Total Ozone Product GOME-2 has better
horizontal resolution and cross-track coverage
28
Office of Systems Development
http//www.osd.noaa.gov NASAs GOES/POES
http//goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov Current NOAA
satellite status http//www.oso.noaa.gov/poessta
tus Satellite Products http//satprod.osd.noaa.g
ov/satprod NOAA satellite users guide
http//www2.ncdc.noaa.gov/docs/klm