Polar satellites have provided invaluable meteorological data for the prediction of large storms and other major weather events, and Raytheon Co. has announced that those satellites now have a next-generation common ground system. CGS 2.0 is now operational for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) System, supporting 11 polar orbiting satellites and providing data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service almost 50% faster than before. The new common ground system was designed and developed for use with NASA’s JPSS-1 satellite, expected to be launched on Nov. 14.
“The new ground system significantly improves the mission capabilities of the JPSS program,” said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s Navigation and Environmental Solutions division. “It can handle even more data from the full constellation of satellites now and in the future.” Developed by NASA for NOAA, the JPSS CGS collects and disseminates observations from polar-orbiting weather satellites from the United States, Europe, and Japan.
The JPSS currently supports several domestic and international environmental sensing missions, including for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD); the National Science Foundation (NSF); the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites’ (EuMETSAT) Meteorological Satellite Program (MetOp); and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Global Change Observation Mission 1 (GCOM-W1).
