JPSS Data and Applications in Support of Forecasting and Environmental Assessments

The Joint Polar Satellite System is NOAA's new operational satellite program and includes the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) as a bridge between NOAA's operational Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) series, which began in 1978, and the first JPSS operational satellite scheduled for launch in 2017. S-NPP and JPSS provides a myriad of critical data that are used for weather forecasting, environmental assessments and climate variability. S-NPP/JPSS data are conducive to different applications and time scales, and supports the observation, forecasting and mitigation of natural disasters.

Weather forecasting – data from the JPSS Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) are used in support of forecasting weather events out to 7 days. Nearly 85% of all data used in weather forecasting are from polar orbiting satellites.

Environmental assessments – data from the JPSS Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) are used to monitor/assess the environment including the health of coastal ecosystems, drought conditions, rainfall, fire, smoke, dust, snow and ice, and the state of oceans, including sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a.

Climate variability – data from JPSS instruments will provide continuity to long-term data records and time series established using NOAA POES and NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite observations. These data records provide a unified and coherent long-term observation of the environment; the records and products are critical to climate modelers, scientists, and decision makers.

At the conference, a number of operational and research applications from the different S-NPP and JPSS sensors in support of weather forecasting, environmental assessments, and climate variability will be demonstrated.