CONTACT:  Patricia Viets, NOAA                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Cynthia O'Carroll, NASA              10/26/98

NOAA-15, an environmental satellite launched on May 13, has successfully completed engineering tests and instrument calibration and will replace NOAA-12, which was launched in 1991, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.

NOAA-15, a Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite, or POES, is the first in a series of five POES satellites with improved imaging and sounding capabilities that will operate over the next 12 years. Like other NOAA satellites, NOAA-15 collects meteorological data and transmits the information to users around the world to enhance weather and climate forecasting. In the United States, the data are used primarily by NOAA's National Weather Service for long-range weather and climate forecasts.

"With NOAA-15, we will get better measurements of atmospheric temperature and moisture values," said Mike Mignogno, NOAA's POES program manager. "These translate into better information, particularly in the troposphere under cloudy conditions. The result will be accurate, global, tropospheric temperature and moisture data under all sky conditions."

The POES satellites orbit the Earth from pole to pole, providing images of cloud cover; temperature and moisture data from its sounders; surface parameters such as sea surface temperature, snow, ice, and vegetation; and space environment parameters. The satellite also carries search and rescue instruments that are used internationally in locating ships and aircraft in distress. The use of satellites in search and rescue has been instrumental in saving about 9000 lives since the inception of the Search and Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking (SARSAT) system.

The satellites are operated by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in Suitland, Md. NOAA operates two polar-orbiting and two geostationary environmental satellites. Currently, NOAA-14 and NOAA-15 are the two polar-orbiting satellites; and GOES-8 and -10 are the two geostationary satellites.NOAA also operates satellites in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

NOAA and NASA work together to develop and launch NOAA's environmental satellites. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is responsible for the construction, integration, and verification testing of the satellite, instruments, and ground equipment. NASA also arranges launch of the satellites with the U.S. Air Force. NASA turned operational control of the satellite over to NOAA on July 7, after a comprehensive on-orbit verification period.

Information on the polar satellites is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www2.ncdc.noaa.gov/docs/intro.htm and http://poes2.gsfc.nasa.gov