The launch of National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (NPOESS) Preparatory Program (NPP) in 2006 and the first operational NPOESS in 2009 will begin a new phase in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's operational polar-orbiting satellite program. The NPOESS Program will continue mission support capabilities from NOAA's current Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program and will provide many new opportunities and technologies to exploit information from polar-orbiting satellites. NPP will provide a risk reduction opportunity for many new NPOESS capabilities and will serve as a proof of concept mission for the NPOESS ground segment architecture and for critical new instrumentation.

The National Environmental Satellite, Date, and Information Service (NESDIS) is responsible for receiving and processing environmental satellite observations and disseminating the products to NOAA's vast user community. The NPOESS Data Exploitation (NDE) Project has been established to identify and implement all changes within the NESDIS architecture required to support NPP and NPOESS data. NDE will therefore provide the critical link between NPOESS and the user community. This paper will provide an overview of NDE activities including product tailoring and distribution, NOAA-unique product development, instrument characterization, architecture and infrastructure, communications, and archive and access.