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Information and History
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International Program Cooperation
In the 1980s, NOAA needed to balance the high cost of space systems and the
growing need to provide a complete and accurate description of the atmosphere at
regular intervals as inputs to numerical weather prediction and climate
monitoring support systems. This led NOAA to enter into discussions and
agreements at the international level with the European Organisation for the
Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The goal of this
cooperation is to provide continuity of measurements from polar orbits, cost
sharing, and improved forecast and monitoring capabilities through the
introduction of new technologies.
Building upon the POES program, an agreement is in place between NOAA and
EUMETSAT on the Initial Joint Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (IJPS).
This program will include two series of independent but fully coordinated NOAA
and EUMETSAT satellites, exchange of instruments and global data, cooperation in
algorithm development, and plans for real-time direct broadcast. Under terms of
the IJPS agreement, NOAA will provide NOAA-N and NOAA-N' satellites for flight
in the afternoon orbit while EUMETSAT makes available METOP-1 and METOP-2
satellites for flight in the mid-morning orbit. The first METOP satellite is
currently planned for launch in mid-2003.
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