Advancing NOAA’s Next-Generation Earth Observation and Data System Capabilities

Since its inception more than 50 years ago, NOAA has been a leading provider of operational Earth observations, data products and data services. NOAA’s observations protect millions of Americans from devastating weather, project American goodwill around the globe, and shield trillions of dollars in annual U.S. economic activity vulnerable to weather and climate variability. It is imperative that NOAA not only maintain continuity in its Earth observations and data information system capabilities, but also seek to advance those capabilities with the increasing frequency and intensity of severe weather and climate change.

The NESDIS Office of Systems Architecture and Engineering (SAE) is charged with establishing system engineering requirements for missions, spacecraft, instruments, data products and service delivery. The NOAA Satellite Observing Systems Architecture (NSOSA) study outlined means of capitalizing on private sector innovation and international partnerships as part of the next-generation space-based observation architecture. Since the 2018 NSOSA study release, SAE has also produced a Commercial Weather Data Pilot Program, a Joint Venture Partnerships Program, a NESDIS Ground Enterprise Study, and a User Engagement Policy, all with the goal of exploiting certain trends in the civil Earth observation enterprise as a means of advancing capabilities to meet NOAA’s mission.

This presentation will review near- and long-term accomplishments by SAE incorporating technological advances, accelerating commercial innovation, and increasing partner capabilities, as well as user needs, to meet increasing demand for environmental data products and services.