An enterprise approach for meeting user distribution needs

The Environmental Satellite Processing Center (ESPC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is responsible for distribution of, and for providing access to, environmental satellite data from NOAA's and its partners' satellites to the user community. With the planned launches of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Program (NPP), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series (GOES-R), and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites in the near future, the volume of available environmental data will be greatly increasing, and the current distribution and access infrastructure is inadequate to support this growth. Instead of adding new systems to augment the current capabilities, NESDIS is taking an enterprise approach to integrate all legacy and planned distribution and access capabilities into a single system design for an improved user experience through common access features and expanded access capabilities. The Product Distribution and Access (PDA) system will provide phased capabilities, starting with legacy consolidation and the needs of the NPOESS Data Exploitation (NDE) Project. Follow-on phases will add capabilities needed for new missions and projects; e.g., GOES-R product distribution.