NOAA N-Prime Successfully Launched

Ed Levy
NOAA Office of Communications

February 26, 2009 — The NOAA N-Prime weather satellite launched successfully Feb. 6, 2009, at 02:22 a.m. PST, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a Delta-II rocket, and as it entered orbit, the spacecraft was renamed NOAA-19. This successful effort was the result of several years of hard work by the NOAA team, in coordination with their NASA, EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and industry partners. 

NOAA-19 replaces NOAA-18 as NOAA’s primary afternoon satellite in a 2:00 p.m. local solar time orbit as companion to EUMETSAT’s MetOp-A in a mid-morning orbit.  These Polar orbiting environmental satellites provide more than 90 percent of the weather information used in long-range weather forecasts and observe every place on Earth at least twice every 12 hours.

NOAA-19 also will contribute to the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. GEOSS is an ongoing effort among more than 70 nations to develop a worldwide network to monitor the world’s changing climate.

“There is a growing demand for reliable coverage and accurate data from satellites to help us understand what’s happening in the environment,” said Mary E. Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “This spacecraft will help meet those requirements.”
The new satellite carries the same primary instruments for weather and climate predictions as its predecessor, plus improved Data Collection and Search and Rescue Systems. Like its predecessors, NOAA-19 will provide global images of clouds and surface features and vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity. This information is used in numerical weather and ocean forecast models.

NOAA-19 also provides data useful for tracking ozone distribution in the upper atmosphere, volcanic eruptions, and sea surface temperatures, as well as forest fire detection, locating icebergs, and preparing vegetation indices. NOAA-19 will also gather near-Earth space environment charged particle information important for the marine, aviation, power generation, agriculture, and forestry sectors; as well as for astronauts, satellite operators, and other communities.  

Additionally, NOAA-19 will be a part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking system called SARSAT. NOAA satellites are able to quickly detect distress signals from emergency beacons and have supported more than 6,000 rescues in the United States and its surrounding waters since 1982 and more than 24,500 people saved worldwide.