A new satellite that will provide near continuous health
checks of planet Earth will be launched in early December.
NOAA-J, a joint project of NASA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, is
scheduled for launch at 2:02 a.m. PST on December 4, 1994.
The launch will be from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, aboard
an Atlas-E during a 10-minute window. The 3,775-pound (1,712-kg)
spacecraft will be launched into a 541-mile (870-km) orbit with
an inclination to the equator of 98.86 degrees.
From this vantage point, the new satellite will circle the
Earth every 102 minutes, passing over the North and South Poles
on each orbit of the planet. Like other NOAA satellites, NOAA-J
will collect meteorological data and transmit the information
directly to users around the world to enhance local weather
analysis and forecasting. In addition, the satellite data are
used for hurricane tracking and warning and for agricultural,
commercial fishing, forestry, maritime and other industrial uses.
The satellite, to be known as NOAA-14 in orbit, will carry
seven scientific instruments and two for Search and Rescue (SAR).
The scientific instruments include the Advanced Very High
Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR); the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet
Spectral Radiometer Mod 2 (SBUV/2); a suite of three sounding
instruments consisting of the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU),
the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS/2I), and the
Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU); and the Space Environment Monitor
(SEM) and Data Collection System (DCS).
The AVHRR, built by ITT, is a scanning radiometer used for
remotely determining cloud cover and surface temperature. The
SBUV/2, built by Ball Aerospace, is a spectrally-scanning
radiometer for measuring solar irradiance and backscattered solar
energy.
The SSU, built by Matra Marconi in Great Britain, will make
temperature measurements in the upper atmosphere. The HIRS/2I,
built by ITT, detects and measures energy emitted by the
atmosphere to construct vertical temperature profiles from the
Earth's surface to an altitude of 25 miles (40 km). The MSU,
built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, detects
and measures microwave energy (allowing it to see through clouds
to the Earth's surface) from the troposphere to construct
atmospheric vertical profiles to an altitude of 12 miles (20 km).
The SEM is a multichannel, charged-particle spectrometer
that measures the population of the Earth's radiation belts and
the particle precipitation phenomena resulting from solar
activity. The SEM was built by LORAL (Ford-Philco)/NOAA Space
Environment Laboratory.
The DCS, built by Serge Desault of France, collects relevant
data from buoys, free-floating balloons and remote weather
stations and retransmits the information to ground stations. The
ground stations send it to a Centre National d'Etude Spatials
(the French space agency, CNES) central processing facility in
France where processing is completed. From there, it is
distributed to users and is stored on magnetic tape for archival
purposes.
The SAR equipment is part of an international search and
rescue program known as COSPAS/SARSAT. Primary participants in
the humanitarian program are Canada, France, Russia and the
United States. In operation since September 1982, the program is
responsible for having saved more than 3,900 lives.
The SAR instruments onboard are the Search and Rescue
Repeater (SARR), built in Canada by SPAR, and the Search and
Rescue Processor with Memory, built in France by Serge Desault.
NOAA-J will join four other NOAA satellites in polar orbit.
They are NOAA-9, launched in December 1984; NOAA-10, launched in
September 1986; NOAA-11, launched in September 1988, and NOAA-12,
launched in May 1991.
NOAA-11 is the primary operational afternoon satellite, and
NOAA-12 is the primary operational morning satellite. NOAA-J is
scheduled to replace NOAA-11 as the primary afternoon satellite.
NOAA-13, launched in August 1993, suffered a power failure
12 days after launch, and all attempts to command the spacecraft
have been unsuccessful.
The NOAA-J spacecraft was built by Martin Marietta/Astro
Space, Princeton, NJ. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt MD, is responsible for the construction, integration
and launch of the satellite. Operational control of the
spacecraft moves to NOAA after it is checked out on orbit.
The Atlas-E launch vehicle was built by General Dynamics
(recently acquired by Martin Marietta). The U.S. Air Force
manages the Atlas-E program and the Vandenberg Air Force Base
support efforts.
