NOAA, NASA AWARD $178 MILLION GOES-R INSTRUMENT CONTRACT

NOAA and NASA today announced a $178 million contract award with Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Corporation to design and develop the Solar Ultraviolet Imager, which will help forecast solar disturbances. The SUVI will fly on the next generation of geostationary satellites, known as GOES-R. The first satellite in the series is set to launch in December 2014.

“The SUVI will provide important solar observations critical for early warning of Solar Radiation Storms”, said NOAA Space Environment Center director Tom Bogdan. “It will allow us to continually monitor solar and geophysical disturbances and issue real-time alerts and warnings to customers like commercial satellite operators and NASA.”

The SUVI will monitor the entire dynamic range of solar x-ray features, including coronal holes and solar flares, and will provide quantitative estimates of the physical conditions in the Sun’s atmosphere. These data are used for geomagnetic storm forecasts and for observations of solar energetic particle events related to flares. The GOES-R SUVI will continue the mission performed by the Solar X-Ray Imager on the current NOAA GOES-N series of spacecraft. The contractor will work on SUVI its facility in Palo Alto, Calif.

Once launched, scientists at NOAA’s Space Environment Center, in Boulder, Colo., will be the primary users of the SUVI instruments. The SEC provides real-time monitoring, forecasting and warnings of solar disturbances. SUVI will continue NOAA’s imaging observations of the Sun’s atmosphere that began in 2001.

In addition to the SUVI instruments, the contractor will provide post-delivery support for SUVI. When launched, the GOES-R series will upgrade existing weather and environmental monitoring capabilities, and introduce a new era for U.S. geostationary remote sensing.

NOAA funds, manages and will operate the GOES-R program. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the acquisition of GOES-R instruments for NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.