The NOAA/NESDIS Low Rate Information Transmission (LRIT) Processing System was implemented under Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) Central Satellite Data Processing contract in order to provide a replacement for the current WEFAX processing system.

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service (NESDIS) currently uses Weather Facsimile (WEFAX), an analog meteorological satellite broadcast service, to disseminate Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) and foreign satellite meteorological data to direct broadcast to users via the GOES L-band down-link frequency. In response to the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) recommendations for digital meteorological satellite broadcasts, NOAA is replacing its WEFAX service with a new digital service called LowRate Information Transmission (LRIT).

This paper and presentation will discuss hardware and software solutions that have been implemented to provide this service to the user community. An overview of the system, it's current data transmission sources, the improvements realized by the LRIT system over WEFAX and future plans will be presented.