GOES-12 image of Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in Texas on Sept. 13, 2008. |
Monitoring the Global Environment from Space
Jim O'Neal
In recent years, NOAA has made additions to its environmental satellite portfolio and continues to develop future systems. Correspondingly, the Aerospace Corporation role has expanded to include support to these new programs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with NASA, has a long history in the development, launch, and operation of environmental satellites. For decades, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) programs have been the flagship satellite programs for NOAA. In recent years, however, NOAA has been actively seeking both domestic and international partners to expand the type and amount of data obtained. In addition to GOES and POES, NOAA operations now include aspects of the European Meteorological Operational (MetOp) satellite program and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (Jason-2) as well as the Taiwanese Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) program. The Aerospace Corporation has been making key technical contributions to all of these programs and has played a significant role in the development of future environmental satellite programs such as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and GOES-R.
Geostationary Satellite Programs
GOES I-M
The mission of the GOES program is to provide a continuous and reliable stream of environmental information to support weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorological research. The program formally began with the launch of the first operational satellite, GOES-A, in 1975, which was renamed GOES-1 when it reached orbit. GOES-11 and GOES-12 are the current operational satellites and the last two from the GOES I-M series. The primary payload instruments are an imager and a sounder. The imager is a 5-channel multispectral instrument providing full Earth imagery, sector imagery, and scans of local regions. The sounder is a 19-channel multispectral instrument providing vertical temperature and moisture profiles as well as other sounding products. Orbital locations are 75 degrees west longitude (GOES East) and 135 degrees west longitude (GOES West).
GOES satellites transmit collected data to NOAA's Command and Data Acquisition Stations, which relay the data to the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility located in Suitland, Maryland. The information is then processed and distributed to users throughout the world (see sidebar, NOAS's Satellite Operations Facility)
Aerospace has provided extensive support to the GOES I-M series. Specifically, Aerospace contributed to the program reviews conducted by the Independent Integrated Review Team during satellite development and provided technical support to external independent readiness reviews for the launch vehicles. An important part of this involvement focused on the launch vehicle mission-unique design review, which included support to splinter meetings with launch vehicle engineers and written documentation formally identifying the team's findings. Additionally, Aerospace independent teams provided technical support to anomaly investigations, as needed.
GOES N-P Series
The GOES N-P series is a new generation of satellites that will enhance environmental data products and services to the GOES user community. GOES-N, the first of the series was successfully launched on May 24, 2006. A significant enhancement over the previous generation, GOES-N carries a Solar X-ray Imager for observing solar flares, solar active regions, coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections. Images for the instrument are used by forecasters to monitor solar conditions that affect space weather.
Aerospace provides resident systems engineering support at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center GOES N-P program office and at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility. Additionally, Aerospace provides support to the Launch Services Program for the GOES N-P missions. These missions are flown on the Delta IV launch vehicle, with mission assurance support provided by Aerospace. The first of the series, GOES-N, was launched more than two years ago, with Aerospace providing selected IV&V tasks to assess RL10 engine ignition concerns. Additionally, Aerospace provides range support to monitor operations in the Delta Operations Center, in the Horizontal Integration Facility, and at the launchpad.
GOES-R
The GOES-R series will provide significant improvement over the current GOES series in spectral, temporal, and radiometric performance. The GOES-R series will incorporate an improved imager, a lightning mapper, and a solar instrument suite (including insitu space environment sensors). The GOES-R imager will have 16 bands and will improve visible resolution from the current 1 kilometer down to 0.5 kilometers and infrared resolution from the current 4 kilometers down to 2 kilometers. Additionally, it will provide four full-disk images and twelve sector images within the continental United States every hour. The significant increase in capability will allow for a continuation of current GOES-derived products (precipitation, atmospheric motion vectors, sea surface temperatures, radiances, smoke, fires, clouds) plus the ability to derive new products such as upper-level SO2, vegetation indices, cloud microphysics, atmospheric waves, and ozone. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper, sensitive enough to detect 70-90 percent of all lightning discharges, will help predict severe storms by continuously tracking the intensity, frequency, and location of lightning discharges. It will provide information that can be correlated with radar returns, cloud images, and other meteorological data. The Solar Instrument Suite includes instruments for monitoring solar flares and an in situ suite designed to provide continuous measurement of Earth's ambient magnetic field along with protons, electrons, and alpha particle fluxes at geostationary orbit. The GOES-R program is in initial development and acquisition for the instrument, spacecraft, and ground systems.
Aerospace is playing a key role in GOES-R development, working side by side with NASA, NOAA, and contract support engineers in the GOES-R program office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Aerospace provides general systems engineering, acquisition assistance, and architecture and mission studies as well as engineering analyses in a number of technical areas. Aerospace acquisition assistance includes technical support to the government in developing statements of work, technical specifications, and requirements documentation as well as technical support to source selection activities.
Polar-Orbiting Satellites
POES
NOAA and NASA have jointly developed and operated the POES system that has been flying since 1970. The two-satellite constellation consists of a morning and an afternoon satellite in circular, near-polar orbits with an altitude of 833 kilometers. Operating in tandem, these satellites ensure that environmental data for any region of Earth is no more than six hours old. The sensors provide data pertaining to Earth's atmosphere, including imagery, temperature and moisture soundings, and proton and electron flux at satellite altitude. Additionally, the POES satellites can receive, process, and retransmit data from remote observation platforms distributed around the globe. The satellites also provide for the detection and location of emergency beacons from ships, aircraft, and people in distress; this capability has helped save thousands of lives.
First test image from the GOES-13 Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) depicting the full solar disc. Data from the SXI is used to forecast impacts to global navigation, radio broadcasts, electrical power grids, and satellite operations caused by high-energy particles from the sun. |
Aerospace has provided and continues to provide significant support to the POES program. Specifically, Aerospace assists with external independent readiness reviews to ensure launch readiness. A team of Aerospace engineers has been stationed at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility to aid in resolution of on-orbit anomalies, launch preparations, and upgrades to the ground system. The facility houses command and control for POES and GOES as well as other environmental satellite constellations. Command and control of NOAA's future environmental satellite programs will also reside there.
MetOp
The launch of POES-N/NOAA-18 in May 2005 inaugurated a new era of international cooperation between NOAA and EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). In 1998, the two agencies signed an agreement creating the Initial Joint Polar-Orbiting Operational Satellite (IJPS) system. The primary goal was to collect and exchange environmental data from polar satellites and disseminate it to users worldwide. Prior to the agreement, the POES constellation consisted of morning and afternoon satellites. Now, the NOAA satellites fly in the afternoon orbit, and the EUMETSAT satellites fly in the morning orbit. To ensure mission continuity, the MetOp satellites carry POES instruments, including the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder, and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit. MetOp-1 was successfully launched in October 2006 from Baikonur on a Soyuz launch vehicle.
Aerospace support to the MetOp program centered on the establishment of an operational command and control capability at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility as well as at the Command and Data Acquisition Stations in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Wallops Island, Virginia. Aerospace engineers provided technical guidance to the installation, checkout, and training activities needed to establish an operational capability for MetOp at NOAA. Aerospace continues to support MetOp activities by participating in anomaly investigations, upgrades to ground system hardware, and preparations for the launch of MetOp-2.
Jason-2
In partnership with NASA/JPL, EUMETSAT, and the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (the French National Space Agency), NOAA has recently established an operational capability for the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (Jason-2). Launched in June 2008, Jason-2 carries a satellite radar altimeter that provides precise sea-surface heights necessary for determining global sea rise, ocean currents, upper ocean heat content, wind speed, and wave height. An operational command and control capability was established at the NOAA facility in Suitland as well as the Fairbanks and Wallops Island facilities.
Aerospace engineers in Suitland and other locations have played a key role in the establishment of the Jason-2 operational capability for NOAA, providing in-depth technical support to nearly every activity associated with procurement, installation, and checkout. Aerospace provided support to design reviews and launch readiness reviews as well as launch and early orbit activities. Additionally, Aerospace continues to play a key role in transitioning the ground system from development to operations while resolving anomalies and refining operational procedures.
COSMIC
COSMIC is a joint venture between the United States and Taiwan. The six-satellite constellation was launched in April 2006. Using radio occultation (limb sounding) techniques, COSMIC is able to gain vertical profiles of temperature and moisture across the globe with high spatial and temporal resolution. In 2007, NOAA committed to establish an operational capability for the COSMIC constellation.
Aerospace again played a key role in the rapid establishment of a primary satellite command and data downlink capability at the Fairbanks facility as well as a back-up capability at the Wallops Island facility. An Aerospace engineer from the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility was deployed to both Fairbanks and Wallops Island to provide systems engineering and hands-on hardware installation expertise. As a result, NOAA established an operational capability for COSMIC in April 2008.
Artist's rendering of the NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) spacecraft. NPOESS combines the existing civil system (POES) and encrypted military system (the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP) under a single national program. |
NPOESS
In May 1994, President Bill Clinton directed the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, and NASA to create the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) to develop, acquire, manage, and operate the next generation of polar-orbiting environmental satellites. NPOESS converges the existing civil system (POES) and encrypted military system (the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP) under a single national program. To achieve its mission, NPOESS has undertaken a far-reaching program of sensor development and satellite transition and evolution to provide complete coverage of meteorological conditions for civil, military, and scientific purposes. A key capability of NPOESS will be to increase the timeliness of weather data from the current 150 minutes to less than 30 minutes. Many sensors will be flown on the NPOESS satellites, including the Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite and the Cross-track Infrared Sounder. These sensors provide 25 of the 38 products (called Environmental Data Records) from NPOESS and account for more than 80 percent of the data volume from the satellite.
Aerospace is playing a pivotal role in assisting the government in the development, production, and operational deployment of the NPOESS ground and flight segments. Aerospace has provided technical support to the government for all the NPOESS sensors from the beginning, starting with specification development and continuing on through integration and test. Aerospace is called upon by the customer when anomalies are noted in tests, when new tests or tools are needed, and when verification of results is required. Aerospace has also been helping to develop and field the ground system for NPOESS. Aerospace engineers and scientists have developed algorithms, helped install antennas, provided technical guidance for establishing a fiber cable link between the United States and the island of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, supported development of a direct readout capability, and assisted in the testing of the command system on the Coriolis satellite. A 23-member Aerospace office resides in the NPOESS program office in Silver Spring, Maryland, with additional staff in El Segundo, California. Furthermore, the program office calls upon more than 200 engineers and scientists from across the corporation each year to support the myriad of activities associated with this major satellite program. A prime example of Aerospace support occurred following the Nunn-McCurdy certification, when the program office was tasked to expand the system engineering effort. Aerospace responded by more than doubling the support staff provided to the NPOESS program office.
Conclusion
Through partnering with other domestic and international environmental satellite providers, NOAA's portfolio has significantly grown to include the MetOp, Jason-2, and COSMIC satellite programs. The new environmental data provided by these cooperative ventures have enhanced NOAA's ability to meet mission requirements. Aerospace support to NOAA began with POES and GOES and has expanded to encompass these new programs. Furthermore, Aerospace has a significant presence in the development of NOAA's future satellite programs, GOES-R and NPOESS. Aerospace support to these new programs began with concept development and is anticipated to continue through launch and on-orbit operations.
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