Preparing for GOES-R Operations: Finalizing the Ground System Operational Science Algorithms for GOES-R Level 1 Space and Solar Products

GOES-R, the next generation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) System, is scheduled for launch in early 2016. GOES-R represents a new technological era in operational geostationary environmental satellite systems, and provides advanced earth, space, and solar products, based on government-supplied algorithms. The Harris GOES-R Core Ground Segment (GS) Team has provided the ground-processing software and infrastructure needed to produce and distribute these data products subject to user-specified latency requirements. In this paper, we focus on the new space and solar Level 1b algorithms being deployed in the GOES-R program. We give an overview of the ground software development and of the coordination with government leads and instrument developers to finalize the Level 1b algorithm design, and we describe results from verification testing of the implemented software. Finally, we describe how the process used to develop the software could support analysis and upgrades during post-launch calibration/validation activities.