Update on NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System High Rate Data (HRD) Broadcast

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is adding Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites to its polar satellite constellation. NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) operates NOAA-15, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), and NOAA-20. JPSS-1 was launched on November 18, 2017, and renamed NOAA-20 when it reached its polar orbit. JPSS-2 is planned to launch in 2023. The JPSS direct broadcast is the High Rate Data (HRD). The NOAA-20 HRD has a data rate of 15 MBps and JPSS-2 HRD will have a data rate of 25 MBps. This talk describes the HRD and describes how HRD receive sites use the scientific data on the HRD to generate data products.

OSPO has accounted for more than 60 HRD receive sites and provided the opportunity for HRD users to participate in the HRD User Group. Since 2017, the HRD User Group has encouraged collaboration among OSPO and JPSS staff; vendors, manufacturers, and system integrators; and the HRD user community. There are over 60 members.

NOAA funded the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) to install and operate a network of polar satellite receiving stations in North America and the Pacific. The NOAA Direct Broadcast Real Time Network (DBRTN) delivers advanced sounder data to Numerical weather Prediction (NWP) centers with low latency for rapid refresh data assimilation. Sounder data are acquired in real-time at NOAA and partner antenna sites, processed centrally at CIMSS to Level 1B, and delivered to NWP centers in BUFR format. The NOAA network is part of the worldwide DBNet system coordinated by the WMO Space Program. CIMSS also developed and maintains the Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP) software which is used by Direct Broadcast users to generate satellite data products.

The JPSS Ground Segment designed and built the Field Terminal Support (FTS) system to provide the “building blocks” for HRD users to build their own field terminal software. The “building blocks” are software components, mission support data, and documentation. Software includes the Real-time Software Telemetry Processing System (RT-STPS) to create Raw Data Records (RDR) and Algorithm Development Library (ADL) software to create Sensor Data Records (SDR). Mission support data includes ancillary data, auxiliary data and mission notices. The FTS Landing Page is located at: https://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/ml/jpss-fts.html

The Joint Polar Satellite System 1 (JPSS-1) Spacecraft HRD) to Direct Broadcast Stations (DBS) Radio Frequency (RF) Interface Control Document (ICD) is available at: https://directreadout.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/links/rsd_eosdb/PDF/JPSS-1SCHRDtoDBSRFICDRevA-470-REF-00184February9,2015.pdf

The Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) Satellite HRD to DBS RF ICD is available at: https://www.jpss.noaa.gov/technical_documents.html

NOAA's Satellite Information System website is a central location for information about NOAA’s geostationary and polar-orbiting environmental satellites. Information is provided by various contributors within the NESDIS and the external satellite community. This site provides information of particular interest to users who operate their own direct readout receiving stations.More information about JPSS is available at: https://www.jpss.noaa.gov/. Manufacturers, vendors, and system integrators are listed on the NOAASIS website: https://www.noaasis.noaa.gov/