In the wake of Hurricane Irene, NASA is set to launch the next-generation Earth observation satellite, known as NPP, on October 25.
NPP, which represents a giant leap forward in capability, will help reduce the margin of error in weather forecasting that will help save lives and livelihoods. NPP will also provide more frequent data transmissions to eliminate existing data gaps, which is critical in predicting a hurricane’s track and narrowing the cone of uncertainity.
“There is value to knowing what tomorrow will bring. Whether by tomorrow we mean literally as in the weather forecast, or by tomorrow we mean something longer – the future earth environment that we can expect to be living in months, years, decades from now, and that our children and grandchildren will be living in,” said NASA Chief Scientist, Waleed Abdalati.
NPP will provide information on climate change, natural disasters, air pollution, the health of the earth, among other data.
Under contract to Goddard Space Flight Center, Ball Aerospace designed and built the NPP satellite bus and one of the satellite’s five advanced-technology instruments, and integrated all the instruments.
“You’re going to have severe weather in this timeframe in this location. And the information from these weather satellites is absolutely critical to providing that kind of data over a period of time, so that people in those areas can prepare,” said Mary Kicza, Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information, NOAA.
