JPSS upgrade improves weather data delivery

Aerospace firm Raytheon has completed an upgrade and final testing of the data transport and processing system for the Joint Polar Satellite System Common Ground System (JPSS), which provides weather and environmental data used by NASA, NOAA, the US Department of Defense and the three agencies’ international partners. According to Raytheon, the upgrade accelerates data processing and dissemination, improves system availability and provides cybersecurity protection of the data and the common ground system (CGS) in support of the upcoming JPSS-1 launch as well as future satellite missions. “The new system will output 11TB of data per day being downlinked from the JPSS constellation,” said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s Navigation and Environmental Solutions. “JPSS CGS will speed up delivery of weather data to regional forecast centres that build weather models, track environmental aerosols and map polar ice movements.” The system upgrade precedes the final major step: an upgrade of the flight operations elements of the CGS, prior to the JPSS-1 launch, which is scheduled for September 2017.