Since October 1994, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System [NPOESS] Integrated Program Office [IPO] has been developing a suite of advanced, imagers, radiometers and sounding /probing instruments as a major part of the next generation operational, remote sensing satellite system in polar, low earth orbit [LEO].

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. NPOESS will be an end-to-end system for Environmental Remote Sensing Observations that will contribute to the “Nine Societal Benefits Areas” that are the foundation challenge areas identified for GEOSS [Global Earth Observation System of Systems] by the Group on Earth Observations [GEO].

In the same time frame the European community, EUMETSAT, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellite Systems, will be flying their next generation, operational, polar-orbiting LEO system, MetOp. MetOp will also have highly capable imagers, radiometers and sounding/probing instruments.

The NPOESS & METOP instruments will represent together a significant contribution to a polar-orbiting, earth remote sensing system of satellites for an emerging GEOSS for Numerical Weather Prediction, Climate, Terrestrial, Oceanographic and Space Weather applications. Similarly, the US and European satellite systems, GOES-R & MSG instruments, will represent an important, geostationary component of such a GEOSS.

This presentation will discuss some of the planned NPOESS and the precursor NPOESS Preparatory Project [NPP] Mission Capabilities with respect to the sensors/algorithms/products for several of the major sensors that will be onboard the NPOESS/NPP constellation satellites including: VIIRS – Visible and Infrared Imager and Radiometer Suite, CrIS – Cross-track Infrared Sounder, ATMS – Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, OMPS – Ozone Mapper and Profiler Suite, and MIS – Microwave Imager/Sounder. These sensors/algorithms/products will form synergies with the major sensors onboard EUMETSAT’s MetOp including the AVHRR/3 – Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, IASI – Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, AMSU/MHS – Advanced Microwave Sounder/Microwave Humidity Sounder, HIRS/4 – High-resolution Infrared Sounder, GOME-2 – Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment, GRAS – GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding, and ASCAT – Advanced Scatterometer.