NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System and the S-NPP Satellite

When the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) restructured in 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) took responsibility for providing operational environmental satellite data in the 1330 Local Time Ascending Node (LTAN) orbit. The Department of Defense (DoD) became responsible for the 1730 LTAN orbit and the United States need for data from the 2130 LTAN orbit is being fulfilled through a partnership with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The NOAA program is called the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). The first satellite in the program, the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), successfully launched on 28 October 11 and is providing on-orbit testing and validation of sensors, algorithms, ground-based operations, and data processing systems that will be used in the operational JPSS mission. Knowledge gained from the S-NPP mission has already contributed significantly to improving the JPSS ground system architecture. The JPSS-1 satellite will follow S-NPP in the afternoon orbit and is scheduled to be launched in 2017 with the JPSS mission expected to continue operations beyond the year 2028. The JPSS program will provide significantly improved operational capabilities and benefits to satisfy critical civil and national security requirements for space-based, remotely sensed environmental data.