NPOESS, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, represents the U.S., next generation, polar-orbiting, Low-Earth-Orbit [LEO] satellite constellation and end-to-end system for environmental remote sensing. NPOESS represents a major portion of the LEO component of a �Future National Operational Environmental Satellite System� which could be envisioned as a significant contributing component moving towards a Global Earth Observation System of Systems [GEOSS].

The NPOESS Session will be comprised of four Sections:

1. An NPOESS Overview: The Next Generation National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite System �Preparing the Way for NPOESS: Program Overview, System Architecture and Status�

2. The NPOESS Mission is to provide an operational remote sensing capability on global and regional scales for the Meteorological, Climatic, Terrestrial, Oceanographic and Solar-Geophysical mission areas. A short series of presentations highlights three of the �Missions within the NPOESS Mission�, namely,

a. The Meteorological Mission b. The Climate Mission c. The Ocean Mission

3. A panel of presenters to describe the NPOESS Mission Capabilities with respect to the Sensors/Algorithms/Products for several of the major sensors that will be onboard the NPOESS Preparatory Project and the NPOESS constellation satellites, including:

a. VIIRS � Visible and Infrared Imager and Radiometer Suite b. CrIS � Cross-track Infrared Sounder c. OMPS � Ozone Mapper and Profiler Suite d. ATMS � Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder e. CMIS � Conical-scanning Microwave Imager and Sounder

4. Two of the major NPOESS Risk Reduction Missions including their role, their scope, and their potential and realized results:

a. NPOESS Preparatory Project [NPP] b. WindSat/Coriolis