NOAA-20, designated JPSS-1 prior to launch, is the first of the United States

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

's latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites called the

Joint Polar Satellite System The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites. JPSS will provide the global environmental data used in numerical weather prediction models for forecasts, and ...

. NOAA-20 was launched on 18 November 2017 and joined the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite in the same orbit. NOAA-20 operates about 50 minutes ahead of Suomi NPP, allowing important overlap in observational coverage. Circling the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from pole-to-pole, it crosses the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

about 14 times daily, providing full global coverage twice a day. This gives meteorologists information on "atmospheric temperature and moisture, clouds, sea-surface temperature, ocean color, sea ice cover, volcanic ash, and fire detection" so as to enhance weather forecasting including hurricane tracking, post-hurricane recovery by detailing storm damage and mapping of power outages. The project incorporates five instruments, and these are substantially upgraded since previous satellite equipment. The project's greater-detailed observations provide better predictions and emphasize climate behavior in cases like

El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date L ...

and

La Niña La Niña (; ) is an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of as part of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern. The name ''La Niña'' originates from Spanish for "the girl", by an ...

. The

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus-d ...

of the project and

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), is a suite of instruments built by Ball Aerospace that measure the global distribution of ozone and, less frequently, how it is distributed vertically within the stratosphere. The suite flies on the Suomi N ...

(OMPS) equipment, was designed by

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ball Corporation (NYSE: BAL ...

. The

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a sensor designed and manufactured by the Raytheon Company on board the polar-orbiting Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 weather satellites. VIIRS ...

(VIIRS) and the Common Ground System (CGS) were built by

Raytheon Company The Raytheon Company was a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft unti ...

, and the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) was by

Harris Corporation Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and spaceb ...

. The

Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) is a 22-channel scanning microwave radiometer for observation of the Earth's atmosphere and surface. It is the successor to the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on NOAA weather satellites. AT ...

(ATMS) and the

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is NASA climatological experiment from Earth orbit. The CERES are scientific satellite instruments, part of the NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), designed to measure both solar-reflected an ...

(CERES) instrument were built by

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

Launch

The NOAA-20 launch was delayed several times. When the contract was awarded in 2010, launch was scheduled for 2014. By 2011, launch had slipped to 2016, and by 2012 that had slipped to 2017. In August 2016, following environmental testing, launch slipped from 20 January 2017 to 16 March 2017 due to problems with ATMS and the ground system. In January 2017, launch was delayed from March 2017 to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, or July to September 2017 for the same reasons. The launch was delayed from September 2017 to 10 November 2017 to provide extra time for engineers to complete testing of the spacecraft and electronics as well as ATMS. It also experienced several brief launch delays in the final weeks before launch. Originally scheduled to launch on 10 November 2017, it was delayed to the 14 November 2017 following the discovery of a faulty battery on the

Delta II Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 va ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

. The launch was then delayed to 15 November 2017 due to boats being in the launch safety zone minutes before the launch and due to a bad reading on the first stage of the launch vehicle. It was delayed a third time to 18 November 2017 due to high winds. NOAA-20 successfully launched on 18 November 2017 at 09:47:36 UTC. It represented the penultimate, and 99th consecutive successful launch of the Delta II launch vehicle. It was launched along with 5 CubeSats that conducted research in "3D-printed polymers for in-space manufacturing, weather data collection, bit flip memory testing, radar calibration and the effects of space radiation on electronic components".

CubeSats

2017-073B , Buccaneer-RMM , Buccaneer-RMM , S43014
2017-073C , MiRaTA , MiRaTA , S43015
2017-073D , MakerSat-0 , MakerSat-0 , S43016
2017-073E , RadFxSat ,

Fox-1B Fox-1B, AO-91 or AMSAT OSCAR 91 is a United States amateur radio satellite. It is a 1U Cubesat, was built by the AMSAT-NA and carries a single-channel transponder for FM radio. The satellite has a whip antenna for the 70 cm and 23 ...

, S43017
2017-073F , EagleSat , EagleSat , S43018

Instruments

NOAA-20 sensors/instruments are:

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)

The

(VIIRS) takes global

visible Visibility, in meteorology, is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be seen. Visibility may also refer to: * A measure of turbidity in water quality control * Interferometric visibility, which quantifies interference contrast ...

and

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere parameters at high temporal resolution. Developed from the

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra (satellite), Terra (Earth Observing System, ...

(MODIS) instrument flown on the

Aqua Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to: Arts * Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color Business * Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...

and

Terra Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...

Earth Observing System The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans ...

(EOS) satellites, it has significantly better performance than the

Advanced very-high-resolution radiometer The Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument is a space-borne sensor that measures the reflectance of the Earth in five spectral bands that are relatively wide by today's standards. AVHRR instruments are or have been carried b ...

(AVHRR) previously flown on NOAA satellites.

Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS)

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) produces high-resolution, three-dimensional temperature, pressure, and moisture profiles. These profiles are used to enhance weather forecasting models, and facilitate both short- and long-term weather forecasting. Over longer timescales, they help improve understanding of climate phenomena such as

and

. This is a brand-new instrument with breakthrough performance. CrIS represents a significant enhancement over NOAA's legacy infrared sounder — High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounders (HIRS) and is meant to be a counterpart to the

Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer The infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer (IASI) is a Fourier transform spectrometer based on the Michelson interferometer, associated with an integrated imaging system (IIS). As part of the payload of the MetOp series of Polar Operational ...

(IASI).

Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS)

The

(ATMS) is a cross-track scanner with 22 channels, provides sounding observations needed to retrieve atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles for civilian operational weather forecasting as well as continuity of these measurements for climate monitoring purposes. It is a lighter-weight version of the previous Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) instruments flown on previous

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

satellites with no new performance capabilities.

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS)

The

(OMPS) is an advanced suite of three

hyperspectral Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to obtain the spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene, with the purpose of finding objects, identifyi ...

instruments, extends the 25-plus year total-

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

and ozone-profile records. These records are used by ozone-assessment researchers and policy makers to track the health of the ozone layer. The improved vertical resolution of OMPS data products allows for better testing and monitoring of the complex chemistry involved in ozone destruction near the troposphere. OMPS products, when combined with cloud predictions, also help produce better ultraviolet index forecasts. OMPS carries on a long tradition of space borne measurements of ozone beginning in 1970 with the Nimbus 4 satellite and continuing with the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV and

SBUV/2 The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer, or SBUV/2, is a series of operational remote sensors on NOAA weather satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits which have been providing global measurements of stratospheric total ozone, as well as ozone pr ...

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) was a NASA satellite instrument, specifically a spectrometer, for measuring the ozone layer. Of the five TOMS instruments which were built, four entered successful orbit. The satellites carrying TOMS ins ...

(TOMS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) instruments on various NASA, NOAA, and international satellites. Over the more than 30-year period in which these instruments have been operating, they have provided a very detailed and important long-term record of the global distribution of ozone.

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)

The

(CERES), senses both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Earth. Cloud properties are determined using simultaneous measurements by other JPSS instruments such as the

VIIRS The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a sensor designed and manufactured by the Raytheon Company on board the polar-orbiting Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 weather satellites. VI ...

and will lead to a better understanding of the role of clouds and the energy cycle in global climate change.

Mission

Between 29 November 2017, when ATMS produced its "first light" image, and 5 January 2018, when

(VIIRS) and

(OMPS) produced theirs, the satellite went through activation, outgassing and decontamination on the path to operation. On 30 May 2018, after six months of on-orbit checkout, NOAA declared the spacecraft fully operational.

References

External links

Orbital Tracking

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