Polar Operational Environmental Satellites
Encyclopedia
The Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) project operates a constellation of weather satellite
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...

s in polar orbit
Polar orbit
A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...

s around the Earth. It is a joint effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...

 (NOAA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
EUMETSAT is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 26 European Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the...

 (EUMETSAT). Spacecraft for the project are provided by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 and the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...

 oversees the manufacture, integration and test of the NASA-provided TIROS
TIROS
TIROS, or Television Infrared Observation Satellite, is a series of early weather satellites launched by NASA, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth. This initial remote-sensing effort was significant because it enabled Earth...

 satellites. On-orbit satellite operation of these is performed by NOAA's Office of Satellite Operations (OSO). The POES constellation also includes an ESA-provided MetOp
MetOp
MetOp is a series of polar orbiting meteorological satellites operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. The satellites are all part af the EUMETSAT Polar System. It is intended to replace the soon to be retired TIROS network...

 satellite operated by EUMETSAT.

Daily global coverage

Each POES satellite completes roughly 14.1 orbits per day. Since the number of orbits per day is not an integer, the ground track
Ground track
A ground track or ground trace is the path on the surface of the Earth directly below an aircraft or satellite. In the case of a satellite, it is the projection of the satellite's orbit onto the surface of the Earth .A satellite ground track may be thought of as a path along the Earth's surface...

s do not repeat on a daily basis. The systems includes both morning and afternoon satellites which provide global coverage four times daily.

Applications

Data from the POES satellites support a broad range of environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, global sea surface temperature measurements, atmospheric soundings of temperature and humidity, ocean dynamics research, volcanic eruption monitoring, forest fire detection, global vegetation analysis, search and rescue, and many other applications.

Recent Launches

  • NOAA-19
    NOAA-19
    NOAA-19, designated NOAA-N prior to launch, is the last of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's POES series of weather satellites...

     - Launched 2/6/2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base
    Vandenberg Air Force Base
    Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

    , USA
  • MetOp-A - Launched 10/19/2006 from Baikonur Cosmodrome
    Baikonur Cosmodrome
    The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...

    , Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

  • NOAA-18
    NOAA-18
    NOAA-18 is a weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA. NOAA-N was launched on May 20, 2005, into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 854 km above the Earth, with an orbital period of 102 minutes. It hosts the AMSU-A, MHS, AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder instruments, as...

     - Launched 5/20/2005 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA
  • NOAA-17
    NOAA-17
    NOAA-17 is a weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA. It was launched on 24 June 2002, and is currently operational, in a sun-synchronous orbit, 824 km above the Earth, orbiting every 101 minutes. It hosts the AMSU, AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder instruments.APT...

     - Launched 6/24/2002 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA

Upcoming Launches

  • MetOp-B - Currently estimated to launch in the Spring of 2012 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
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