NWS Satellite Broadcast Services—Setting a New Direction

The National Weather Service (NWS) maintains a data distribution system through the Galaxy-28 satellite as part of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Program. This Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) is also known as NOAAPort to external partners and users. The SBN provides a one-way broadcast of NWS environmental data and information in near-real time to NWS field offices and external users.

NWS products are evolving with greater resolution, additional details, conversions from text-based to a digital format that all increase requirements for bandwidth over the SBN. The AWIPS SBN, as a part of its mission, is trying to accommodate the ever-increasing volume of data from providers such as the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R (GOES-R) series satellites, dual-polarization radar, and numerical prediction models. Considering these challenges, the AWIPS Program Office must manage the addition of new weather products for dissemination via the SBN/NOAAPort satellite service.

This presentation will explore options identified by the NWS to enhance or modify the flow of weather products via the SBN.