How We Get Our Weather Information

JPSS Supports NOAA's Weather Ready Nation

NOAA weather satellites are the backbone of life-saving weather forecasts and advance hazardous outlooks and its Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) represents the next great leap in weather forecasting accuracy

Raytheon provides the technology, from space to ground, to support NOAA's important weather mission of creating a Weather Ready Nation. Without polar-orbiting satellites and the capability to process and translate data records, online resources and local weathermen would have little-to-no information to report for forecasts beyond 48 hours.

Where do weather forecasts come from?

While the public relies on weather forecasts to make personal and business decisions daily, the average American does not know how weather data is collected and transformed into an extended forecast.

Polar-orbiting satellites provide 93 percent of the data used in the two to ten day National Weather Service (NWS) forecast models. Supported by Raytheon technology in space and on the ground, JPSS provides accurate information to predict weather patterns with high confidence three days and beyond.

At the heart of JPSS is an advanced weather and climate monitoring instrument responsible for nearly two-thirds of the spacecraft's data collection requirements. The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is the primary instrument responsible for global imagery, land and sea surface temperature monitoring, cloud characterization and other key environmental data. This Suite of sensors is responsible for collecting and transmitting environmental data back to earth.

On the ground, Raytheon's Common Ground System, comprised of ground antennas, command centers and fiber optic links, is capable of receiving, managing and routing nearly a terabyte of information daily to U.S. weather processing centers.

Numerical weather models and computers process this data to support environmental data records (EDRs) which are used to produce forecast information.

Meteorologists and local weathermen use this information to make more accurate predictions about what the weather will be like in an hour, tomorrow or next week to help individuals, emergency responders, community leaders and the military make better decisions.