NASA satellite set to get the dirt on Earth's soil moisture

A new NASA satellite that will peer into the topmost layer of Earth's soils to measure the hidden waters that influence our weather and climate is in final preparations for a Jan. 29 dawn launch from California.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will take the pulse of a key measure of our water planet: how freshwater cycles over Earth's land surfaces in the form of soil moisture. The mission will produce the most accurate, highest-resolution global maps ever obtained from space of the moisture present in the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of Earth's soils. It also will detect and map whether the ground is frozen or thawed. This data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.

"With data from SMAP, scientists and decision makers around the world will be better equipped to understand how Earth works as a system and how soil moisture impacts a myriad of human activities, from floods and drought to weather and crop yield forecasts," said Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SMAP's global soil moisture measurements will provide a new capability to improve our understanding of Earth's climate."

Globally, the volume of soil moisture varies between three and five percent in desert and arid regions, to between 40 and 50 percent in saturated soils. In general, the amount depends on such factors as precipitation patterns, topography, vegetation cover and soil composition. There are not enough sensors in the ground to map the variability in global soil moisture at the level of detail needed by scientists and decision makers. From space, SMAP will produce global maps with 6-mile (10-kilometer) resolution every two to three days.

Researchers want to measure soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state better for numerous reasons. Plants and crops draw water from the soil through their roots to grow. If soil moisture is inadequate, plants fail to grow, which over time can lead to reduced crop yields. Also, energy from the sun evaporates moisture in the soil, thereby cooling surface temperatures and also increasing moisture in the atmosphere, allowing clouds and precipitation to form more readily. In this way, soil moisture has a significant effect on both short-term regional weather and longer-term global climate.

In summer, plants in Earth's northern boreal regions -- the forests found in Earth's high northern latitudes -- take in carbon dioxide from the air and use it to grow, but lay dormant during the winter freeze period. All other factors being equal, the longer the growing season, the more carbon plants take in and the more effective forests are in removing carbon dioxide from the air. Since the start of the growing season is marked by the thawing and refreezing of water in soils, mapping the freeze/thaw state of soils with SMAP will help scientists more accurately account for how much carbon plants are removing from the atmosphere each year. This information will lead to better estimates of the carbon budget in the atmosphere and, hence, better assessments of future global warming.

SMAP data will enhance our confidence in projections of how Earth's water cycle will respond to climate change.

"Assessing future changes in regional water availability is perhaps one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Today's computer models disagree on how the water cycle -- precipitation, clouds, evaporation, runoff, soil water availability -- will increase or decrease over time and in different regions as our world warms. SMAP's higher-resolution soil moisture data will improve the models used to make daily weather and longer-term climate predictions."

SMAP also will advance our ability to monitor droughts, predict floods and mitigate the related impacts of these extreme events. It will allow the monitoring of regional deficits in soil moisture and provide critical inputs into drought monitoring and early warning systems used by resource managers. The mission's high-resolution observations of soil moisture will improve flood warnings by providing information on ground saturation conditions before rainstorms.

SMAP's two advanced instruments work together to produce soil moisture maps. Its active radar works much like a flash camera, but instead of transmitting visible light, it transmits microwave pulses that pass through clouds and moderate vegetation cover to the ground and measures how much of that signal is reflected back. Its passive radiometer operates like a natural-light camera, capturing emitted microwave radiation without transmitting a pulse. Unlike traditional cameras, however, SMAP's images are in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is invisible to the naked eye. Microwave radiation is sensitive to how much moisture is contained in the soil.

The two instruments share a large, lightweight reflector antenna that will be unfurled in orbit like a blooming flower and then spin at about 14 revolutions per minute. The antenna will allow the instruments to collect data across a 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) swath, enabling global coverage every two to three days.

SMAP's radiometer measurements extend and expand on soil moisture measurements currently made by the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, launched in 2009. With the addition of a radar instrument, SMAP's soil moisture measurements will be able to distinguish finer features on the ground.

SMAP will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and maneuver into a 426-mile (685-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit that repeats exactly every eight days. The mission is designed to operate at least three years.

SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument. Both centers collaborate on science data processing and delivery to the Alaska Satellite Facility, in Fairbanks, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, at the University of Colorado in Boulder, for public distribution and archiving. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/smap

and

http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov

SMAP will be the fifth NASA Earth science mission to launch within a 12-month period. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

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First infrared satellite monitoring of peak pollution episodes in China

Plumes of countless anthropogenic contaminants (especially particulate matter and deadly carbon monoxide) situated near walk out over China have the very first time been detected from space. The job was completed with a team in the Laboratoire Atmosph?res, Milieux, Findings Spatiales (CNRS / UPMC / UVSQ) together with Belgian scientists with support from CNES, using dimensions through the IASI infrared sounder released aboard the MetOp satellite. Their groundbreaking answers are released online online from the journal Geophysical Research Letters dated 17 The month of january 2014. They represent an important step towards enhanced monitoring of regional pollution and predicting of local pollution episodes, particularly in China.

Despite efforts through the Chinese government to lessen surface pollutants, China is frequently impacted by major polluting of the environment episodes. It has become an essential public health problem, since polluting of the environment causes greater than 300,000 premature deaths in China every year. In The month of january 2013, Beijing experienced an unparalleled pollution episode, mainly because of periodic coal consumption and unfavorable climate conditions (insufficient wind plus temperature inversion) that trapped the contaminants at walk out. In lots of regions, atmospheric levels of particulate matter (PM) arrived at values considered dangerous to human health, sometimes exceeding the daily threshold suggested through the World Health Organization (25 ?g/m3) with a factor of nearly 40.

To watch local and regional pollution, China comes with an quality of air monitoring network that continuously provides dimensions of key contaminants including PM, deadly carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). However, the physical distribution of calculating stations is patchy, which causes it to be hard to predict the introduction of pollution episodes. Within this context, satellite findings end up being very valuable because of their excellent physical coverage and horizontal resolution. Regrettably, such dimensions possess the drawback to being sensitive primarily at altitudes of three to 10 km. Using satellites to find out atmospheric composition near walk out was complicated so far.

The scientists have proven that, unlike anticipation, the IASI sounder has the capacity to identify plumes of contaminants even near walk out as lengthy as two the weather is met: climate conditions should be stable, which results in a build-from contaminants at walk out, and there has to be a substantial temperature distinction between the floor and also the air just above Earth's surface. In The month of january 2013, IASI measured high levels of anthropogenic contaminants for example CO, SO2, ammonia (NH3) and ammonium sulfate aerosols over Beijing and neighboring metropolitan areas. The IASI infrared sounder thus turns out to be suitable to monitoring these contaminants such conditions.

The work signifies a breakthrough in pollution monitoring from space. Using the launch of IASI-B, two IASI sounders can now collect infrared data from space and two times just as much information has therefore been available because the finish of The month of january 2013. It'll henceforth be easy to monitor pollution episodes connected with stable climate conditions more precisely and frequently. The job reveals new prospects for enhanced assessment and control over quality of air.

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Raindrop research dials in satellite predicting precision

Calling within the precision of satellite weather predicting may be the goal behind research into raindrop shape and size being carried out in the College of Alabama in Huntsville with a UAH doctorate student who's also an atmospheric researcher within the NASA Paths Intern Employment Program.

Patrick Gatlin states his work calculating the dimensions of raindrops using ground instruments offers an precision baseline that's then scaly as much as ground radar after which to satellite dimensions. He's co-author of the paper around the subject.

"That's truly the whole reason for calculating raindrops, is perfect for remote realizing reasons," Gatlin states. Scaling up precision from the small sensor on the floor to large sections of the world being observed from space requires very precisely adjusted instruments. "Our capability to properly illustrate rain fall utilizing a sensor wide is carefully associated with understanding how precipitation varies, right lower towards the individual raindrop and snowflake size."

Perfecting ground-level instrument findings, increasing the size of individuals to encompass ground-based radar after which going even bigger to build up accurate satellite calculating instruments is the easiest method to reduce error because the area under observation increases. "Before we invest in most this satellite instrumentation," Gatlin states, "let us make certain we have first got it right."

A coming large part of scaling up precipitation predicting is NASA's planned launch of their Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite toward the finish of Feb. UAH is really a mission contractor, headed in the college by Dr. Ray Carey, an connect professor of atmospheric science, and including UAH Earth System Science Center research researcher Matt Wingo, who's dealing with NASA in their flight facility in Wallops Island, Veterans administration.

"UAH designed the woking platform for a few of the ground-based instruments which will validate the data in the satellite," states Gatlin.

Transporting a sophisticated radar/radiometer system to determine precipitation from space, the GPM may be the core of the items is a global network of calculating satellites which will provide next-generation global findings of snow and rain. It'll function as a reference standard to unify precipitation dimensions from the constellation of research and operational satellites.

Through enhanced dimensions of precipitation globally, the GPM mission will assist you to advance knowledge of Earth's water and cycle, improve predicting of utmost occasions that create natural hazards and problems, and extend current abilities in making use of accurate and timely precipitation information.

In the own research, Gatlin has ranged from Iowa and Oklahoma to Canada, Finland, Italia and France. Instead of raindrops, the Canadian research is built to collect snowflake images to be able to enhance the precision of calculating products for snowfall.

In every locale, a built-in network of ground-level calculating products happen to be used, such as the Parsivel2, a disdrometer that measures the particle size and velocity of raindrops falling via a laser. Also being used are a couple of-dimensional video disdrometers, designed to use two video angles to produce 2-D pictures which allow resolution of raindrop shapes. A relevant video disdrometer on loan from frequent research collaborator Colorado Condition College is situated around the UAH campus behind Cramer Hall.

Throughout a area study, the instruments on the floor take dimensions while an airplane flies with the clouds to gather actual raindrop information and the other flies high over the clouds with remote realizing equipment to imitate satellite radar recognition. Is a result of all of the measurement techniques are in comparison.

Enhanced satellite-based precipitation dimensions will improve both rain fall and snowfall forecasts on the global scale, Gatlin states. "I will be calculating snow and rain in certain places that we have never measured it before." The opportunity to better measure raindrop size may also have effect on tornados predicting, as small raindrops result in greater evaporation rates which have been correlated with bigger and much more powerful microbursts by UAH's Dr. Kevin Knupp yet others.

Gatlin is going to finish off a worldwide study focusing just on large raindrops 5 millimeters in dimensions and bigger. These drops take time and effort to capture within the small calculating area given by calculating instruments, and thus their observation is rare. Gatlin states from 224 million drops he's investigated, only 8,000 happen to be 5 mm or bigger.

"Despite the fact that large raindrops might have the finest effect on radar dimensions, we do not have advisable of the concentration," he states. "What I have been doing is getting together all of the raindrop data bases which have collected various rain fall data utilizing the same techniques."

Oddly enough, while Sumatra supports the recognition of getting the finest quantity of large drops overall, the biggest drop collected in the study fell via a calculating device in the UAH campus. It measured 9.1 mm and was created inside a hailstorm whenever a falling bit of hail melted before landing.

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NOAA assumes full operational responsibilities of environmental satellite

March 4, 2013

Artists rendering of the Suomi NPP satellite.

(Credit: NOAA)

A recent major milestone to develop the next-generation of polar-orbiting satellites was reached when operational control of America’s newest environmental satellite was transitioned to NOAA. These satellites are critical to providing advanced warning for severe weather including tornado outbreaks, heavy snowfall, hurricanes, heat waves, floods, and wildfires.

Data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite will continue to strengthen NOAA’s ability to predict severe weather days in advance. Suomi NPP data are also used to generate dozens of environmental data products, including measurements of clouds, vegetation, ocean color, and land and sea surface temperatures.

The Suomi NPP mission is a bridge between the current fleet of polar-orbiting satellites and NOAA's upcoming Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), scheduled to launch in 2017. Suomi NPP is operating new, sophisticated Earth-observing instruments that NOAA is using to support improved weather forecasts.

“The future is now for NOAA satellites,” said Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D., assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction, deputy administrator and acting chief scientist at NOAA. “The handover marks the dawn of the JPSS era. It also signals the effective teamwork between NOAA and NASA to launch and operate environmental satellites has worked for more than 40 years and will last well into the future.”

"Satellites like Suomi NPP are critical to the National Weather Service mission and improved decision support services," said Louis Uccellini, Ph.D., director of NOAA's National Weather Service. "These polar satellites provide an important dataset for the global earth observing system and will lead to improved forecasts out to three days in the future and beyond."

Composite map of the world assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.

Download here (Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC)

Suomi NPP was launched on October 28, 2011. In March 2012, Suomi NPP was commissioned and operations were transferred from the NASA Suomi NPP project to the NASA/NOAA JPSS program. Since that time, the Suomi NPP flight and ground teams at the JPSS program have worked to ensure the spacecraft, instruments and data products were operating successfully. NOAA began using data from one of the Suomi NPP instruments – the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder -- on May 22, 2012, seven months after launch, nearly three times faster than previous missions.

Suomi NPP observes any given point on the Earth’s surface twice a day — once in daylight and once at night. It circles the planet in a north-south motion between the poles about 14 times a day, 512 miles above the surface. Once an orbit is complete, Suomi NPP sends its data to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway. The data is then routed to the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. where it is processed and distributed. NOAA’s NWS incorporates the data into its weather prediction models that help generate medium-to-long range forecasts. The data is also available to users around the world via direct broadcast.

Vanessa Griffin, director of NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations said, “Our NOAA operations team is well trained, experienced and excited about taking over operations of the Suomi NPP satellite. We worked closely with the JPSS program to ensure the transition was smooth and transparent for our operational customers.”

NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System is America’s next generation polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite system. JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advances for more accurate weather forecasting to secure a more 'weather ready nation '— saving lives and property, while promoting economic prosperity. JPSS provides continuity for critical observations of our vast atmosphere, oceans, land, and cryosphere — the frozen areas of the planet. NOAA, working in partnership with NASA, ensures an unbroken series of global data for monitoring and forecasting environmental phenomena and understanding our Earth.

NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations commands and controls NOAA’s fleet of satellites; and manages and directs the operation of the ground facilities which ingest, process, and distribute environmental satellite data and derived products to domestic and foreign users.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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Polar-orbiting satellite retires

April 10, 2013

After nearly 11 years of helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-17 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a typical lifespan of three years.This Image is from the last operational morning orbit of NOAA-17 on May 26, 2007.
Download here. (Credit: NOAA)

After nearly 11 years of helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-17 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a typical lifespan of three years. The shutdown will result in no data gap, as NOAA-17 was being used as a back-up satellite and was removed from service after several key systems on board became inoperable.

NOAA will continue operating several POES spacecraft – NOAA-15, NOAA-16, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 – in addition to the nation’s newest polar-orbiting satellite, Suomi NPP, launched October 28, 2011. NOAA’s POES spacecraft fly a lower, pole to pole orbit capturing atmospheric data from space that feed NOAA’s weather and climate prediction models.

NOAA began the deactivation process of NOAA-17 on February 18, with the final shut down occurring today. Launched in June 2002, NOAA-17 made 55,000 orbits of the globe, traveling more than 1.5 billion miles while collecting huge amounts of valuable temperature, moisture and image data.

“NOAA-17 helped our forecasters see the early development of severe weather from tornadoes and snow storms to hurricanes, including the busiest hurricane season on record - 2005. It also tracked subtle changes in the environment that signaled the onset of drought and wildfire conditions,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “NOAA-17’s long life is a credit to the engineers who built and operated it and the technology that sustained it. Although we say farewell to NOAA-17, we still operate a dependable fleet of satellites that continue to provide crucial data.”

NOAA-17 was part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) network of satellites. SARSAT, which began in 1982, has rescued more than 33,000 people worldwide, including more than 7,000 in the United States and its surrounding waters by detecting distress signals from emergency beacons.

Deactivating NOAA-17 also heralds a significant change for polar-orbiting satellite operations worldwide with NOAA now exclusively flying afternoon orbit spacecraft while its key international partner, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), flies mid-morning orbit spacecraft. This results in significant savings for U.S. taxpayers, because sharing data helps produce more accurate and uniform data for forecasters. Through the Initial Joint Polar System agreement, NOAA and EUMETSAT established a shared satellite system by exchanging instruments and coordinating the operations of their polar-orbiting satellites to provide operational meteorological and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring services worldwide. 

NOAA and its partners at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are continuing to build the next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which is scheduled to launch the JPSS-1 satellite in 2017.

NOAA’s JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advances for more accurate weather forecasting, helping build a Weather Ready Nation — saving lives and property, while promoting economic prosperity. JPSS provides continuity for critical observations of our vast atmosphere, oceans, land, and cryosphere — the frozen areas of the above planet. NOAA, working in partnership with NASA, ensures an unbroken series of global data for monitoring and forecasting environmental phenomena and understanding our Earth.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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After 10 years of service, GOES-12 satellite retires

August 19, 2013

GOES-12 captured this visible image of Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005, at 11:45 a.m. (EDT). At that time, the storm was at Category 5 strength and projected to impact New Orleans.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

GOES-12 has seen it all, from Hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, to the Christmas blizzard that crippled the Central United States in 2009. It even traveled south of the equator to provide coverage for South America starting in 2010. Now, after more than 10 years of stellar service, NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12 spacecraft is being retired.

Launched on July 23, 2001, the satellite lasted well beyond its original operational design life of two years for on-orbit storage and five years of actual operations to support forecasters and scientists in NOAA’s National Weather Service.

“GOES-12 gave the Western Hemisphere many years of reliable data as the operational eastern GOES for accurate forecasts, from small storms to those of historic proportions,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

Built by Space Systems/Loral, GOES-12 became operational April 1, 2003 as the GOES-East satellite, monitoring weather across the U.S. East Coast and part of the Atlantic Ocean. On May 10, 2010, when GOES-12 was no longer able to be maintained to meet the requirements of the National Weather Service, it was shifted to a new position, where it provided coverage of weather conditions affecting South America, including volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, and drought.

When NOAA decommissions a geostationary satellite like GOES-12, it is boosted further into orbit, the remaining fuel is expended, the battery is disabled and the transmitters are turned off. These maneuvers reduce the chances the satellite will collide with other operational spacecraft. Additionally, decommissioning lowers the risk of orbital debris and stops the satellite from transmitting any signals that could interfere with any current or future spacecraft.

NOAA continues to operate GOES-13, which serves as the GOES East satellite for the United States and GOES-15, which is the GOES West satellite - both hovering 22,300 miles above the equator. NOAA also has an orbital backup geostationary satellite, GOES-14, which can be activated if any of the operational satellites experience trouble.

Kicza added: “The NOAA-NASA partnership is making steady progress toward developing and launching the more advanced GOES-R satellite series to position us into the future.”

GOES-R is expected to more than double the clarity of today’s GOES imagery and provide more atmospheric observations than current capabilities with more frequent images.

On January 29, 2010, GOES-12 captured a powerful storm developing in the U.S. mid-west. In the coming days, two blizzards hit the East Coast resulting in historic snowfall totals.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

Data from the GOES-R instruments will be used to create many different products that will help NOAA meteorologists and other users monitor the atmosphere, land, ocean and the sun. GOES-R will also carry a new Geostationary Lightning Mapper that will provide for the first time a continuous surveillance of total lightning activity throughout the Americas and adjacent oceans.

In addition to GOES, NOAA also operates the polar operational environmental satellite (POES) program satellites, the Defense Meteorological Satellites Program series satellites and the Suomi NPP spacecraft.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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NASA launches latest Earth-observing satellite (AP)

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – After a years-long delay, an Earth-observing satellite blasted into space early Friday on a dual mission to improve weather forecasts and monitor climate change.

A Delta 2 rocket carrying the NASA satellite lifted off shortly before 3 a.m. from the central California coast. The satellite separated from the rocket about an hour after launching, unfurled its solar panels and headed toward an orbit 500 miles above Earth.

NASA invited a small group of Twitter followers to watch the pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, where weather conditions were ideal. Skies were clear and there was little wind.

"It was a thrill to watch the bird go up this morning in the beautiful clear night sky with the stars out there," Mary Glackin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at a post-launch news conference.

The satellite joins a fleet already circling the planet, collecting information about the atmosphere, oceans and land. The latest — about the size of a small SUV — is more advanced and carries four new instruments capable of making more precise observations.

Mission project scientist Jim Gleason said he could not wait for the data to "start flowing." NOAA meteorologists planned to use the information to improve their forecasts of hurricanes and other extreme weather while climate researchers hope to gain a better understanding of long-term climate shifts.

Besides collecting weather information, the satellite will track changes in the ozone, volcanic ash, wildfires and Arctic sea ice.

Many satellites currently in orbit are aging and will need to be replaced. The newest satellite is intended to be a bridge between the current fleet and a new generation that NASA is developing for NOAA.

The $1.5 billion mission's path to the launch pad has been rocky. It was part of a bigger civilian-military satellite program that the White House axed last year because of cost overruns. The satellite was originally scheduled to fly in 2006, but problems during development of several instruments led to a delay.

Engineers will spend some time checking out the satellite's instruments before science operations begin. Built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., the satellite is expected to orbit the Earth for five years.

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