NOAA’s Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Overview Tom Schott NESDIS/OSD Satellite Product Manager U.S. Department of Commerce - NOAA NOAA Satellite Conference April 8-12, 2013

Topics Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS)

POES Mission To provided 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 Uninterrupted data requires two satellites for continuous coverage placed in orbits selected to optimize support for both weather services and climate requirements.

Mid-morning MetOp Orbit 10am Noon 2pm 12 Z Orbit Coverage 0900Z –1500Z Afternoon POES Orbit Mid-morning MetOp Orbit

Mid-morning MetOp Orbits 10pm Midnight 2am 00 Z Orbit Coverage 2100Z – 0300Z Afternoon POES Orbits Mid-morning MetOp Orbits

POES CORE MISSION REQUIREMENTS & SENSORS Science Observations Instrument POES Science Observations Imagery Vis/IR Imager AVHRR Sea Surface Temp. Vegetation Snow/Ice Cover Aerosols Radiation Budget Radiances IR and Microwave sounders HIRS Temp. Profiles AMSU-A Hum. Profiles MHS Hydrology Products Total Ozone and Profiles UV Backscatter Sensor SBUV Space Weather Space Environment Monitor SEM Services Direct Readout HRPT Data Collection A-DCS Search & Rescue SARR/SARP

Major Customers Numerical Weather Prediction Centers NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction National Weather Service Field Offices NOAA Ocean Service and NOAA Marine Fisheries Hazard community (Volcanic Ash Centers, US Forest Service) Other U.S. Federal Agencies International community Global climate community Direct Readout Users High-resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) Users Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) Users Search and Rescue Data Collection System

International Partners European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) MetOp Satellites Canada – Department of National Defense (DND) Search and Rescue Repeater (SARR) France – Center National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Search and Rescue Processor (SARP) Data Collection (DCS & A-DCS)

POES Status (Apr 2, 2013) http://www.oso.noaa.gov/poesstatus/index.asp Operational G Spacecraft Issue but no User Impact S/C Operational with Limitation Y Non-Operational R Not Applicable N/A Spacecraft Subsystems METOP-A NOAA-19 NOAA-18 NOAA-17 NOAA-16 NOAA-15 Launch Date Oct 2006 Feb 2009 May 2005 Jun 2002 Sep 2000 May 1998 Operational Date May 2007 Jun 2009 Aug 2005 Oct 2002 Mar 2001 Dec 1998 Mission Data Category Primary (AM) Primary (PM) Secondary (PM) Secondary (AM) Payload Instruments AVHRR G R (11) Y(13) Y(20) HIRS Y (3) Y (28) Y(14) R (6) AMSU-A1 Y(26) R (4) Y(15) Y(21) AMSU-A2 AMSU-B N/A Y (9) R (12) MHS Y (8) SEM SBUV S/C (9) R (29) Y(16) Telemetry, Command & Control ADACS Y (7) Y (27) Y(17) Y(10) EPS Y(25) Thermal Control Y(22) Communications Y (1) S/C (5) Y(30) Y(23) APT/LRPT R (2) R(18) DCS ADCS SAR Y(19) Y(24)

NOAA-17 Decommissioning After nearly 11 years of service NOAA-17 will be decommissioned on April 10, 2013 Decision based on evaluation of NOAA-17’s health, ability to provide meaningful data to the scientific and weather community, and resource demands in NESDIS/OSPO  Since launch, the electrical power subsystem has degraded extensively, and AVHRR and AMSU-A1 instruments are no longer functional Metop-A and B will replace NOAA-17’s data coverage NOAA-17 (NOAA-M) was launched on June 24, 2002

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 May 2005 NOAA-19 launched Feb 2009 Mid morning orbit provided by EUMETSAT MetOp A launched Oct 2006 MetOp B launched Sep 2012 MetOp C planning launch date 2017 IJPS era began

IJPS Shared Partnering MetOp A, B & C NOAA 18 & 19 0930 Orbit - Descending Node Direct broadcast with A-HRPT Contingency Support Data Exchange Instruments NOAA Provided AVHRR/3 HIRS/4 (not on MetOp C) AMSU-A SEM SARSAT EUMETSAT Provided MHS Argos (Data Collection Sys) EUMETSAT Unique IASI ASCAT GOME-2 GRAS 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

EUMETSAT MetOp-B Status Launched on September 17, 2012 (50 minutes behind MetOp-A) All instruments have passed cal/val and level 1b data are available through direct readout NESDIS/OSPO/SPSD developing level 2 products from NOAA supplied instruments Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MIRS) Products  April 8, 2013 at 1430 UTC  Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS) Products April 11, 2013 at 1430 UTC (rescheduled from April 1, 2013) Scheduled for operations ~April 24, 2013 MetOp-B will be new primary AM satellite Metop-B Instruments & Products: ASCAT – Winds IASI, AMSU-A, HIRS/4 – Soundings AVHRR – Fires GOME-2 – Ozone MHS – Cyclones Searth & Rescue SEM – Space Obs

Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS) Svalbard, Norway Fairbanks, AK Darmstadt,Germany Polar Orbits Suitland, MD and Camp Springs, MD NOAA Wallops Is, VA 2:00 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 9:30 A.M. MetOp McMurdo

Low Data Rate Direct Readout Users NOAA Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) Analog signal 2 imagery channels at 4km Frequency changed for NOAA-18 & 19 -- reduce interference 137.1 and 137.9125 MHz NOAA 15 still active Composite image courtesy of New Beith Weather Station http://www.newbeithweather.com/wxtoimg.php

High Data Rate Direct Readout Users NOAA High-resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) Realtime data at 667kbs rate NOAA-18/19 active MetOp Advanced High-resolution Picture Transmission (A-HRPT) Realtime data at 3.5mbs rate Flown on MetOp morning orbits All instrument data including European sensors (IASI, ASCAT, etc.) Can be encrypted

Satellite Operations Contact Information 24/7 Help Desk ESPCOperations@noaa.gov User Services SPSD.UserServices@noaa.gov Data Access NESDIS.Data.Access@noaa.gov Webmaster SSDWebmaster@noaa.gov Web www.ospo.noaa.gov www.facebook.com/NOAANESDIS www.twitter.com/noaasatellites See new GOES web page and web page for mobile devices: - The new GOES page -> http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ - Animated GIF imagery for mobile devices -> http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/imagery/m/index.html

Summary NOAA continues to partner with EUMETSAT in the mid-morning polar orbit NOAA-19 is the last of the POES satellites for the afternoon polar orbit POES satellites have served the nation since the early 1960s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) ensures afternoon polar orbit capabilities continue