The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is planning to initiate its Low-Rate Information Transmission (LRIT) services in calendar year 2002. NOAA LRIT direct broadcast satellite services will ultimately replace all existing NOAA Weather Facimile (WEFAX) direct broadcast satellite services. As a contractor for NOAA, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has been a key participant in the evaluation, planning and implementation of these new NOAA LRIT services. The LRIT service will be a digital broadcast service that replaces and supplements the current WEFAX analogue broadcast service. In addition to the current WEFAX weather images and messges it is currently planned to include other supplementary environmental data. The precise content and format of this supplementary data will consider its utility as well as its impact on the LRIT user ground stations. This paper addresses these considerations.

This paper will summarize the evolution of the CGMS LRIT standard as a replacement for the WEFAX service. It will also review the current LRIT implementation and tranisition plans of all three world regions. The projected utility of the current WEFAX services and the replacement LRIT services will be presented and compared. The additional flexibility and capacity of the new LRIT services will be highlighted as a benefit that offsets the modest increase in cost of the LRIT user station.

The paper will conclude with relatively firm plans and schedules for implementing the new NOAA LRIT services as well as specific attributes of the LRIT user station and their projected associated costs.