Part One
Covering the years 1965 to 1990
(Written by Jim Norton, 1991)
The Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station was
built in 1965 on ten acres of land leased from NASA
Wallops Island. The site was once part of a nine hole
golf course belonging to a US Naval Air Station (NAS
Chincoteague). The Navy relinquished the property
to NACA (the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautic
s), NASA's forbearer, in the late 1950's.
The Station became operational in January, 1966, with
a staff of 46 personnel. It was one of the few completely
new technical government enterprises to be staffed
entirely by government personnel from its inception.
The first operational Meteorological satellites, ESSA
1 and ESSA 2 were launched on February 3 and 28 of
the same year. (ESSA, the Environmental Science Services
Administration, was the pre-1970 forerunner of NOAA).
The heritage of these first polar orbiters was the
original ten TIROS (Television and infrared Observational
Satellite) satellites dating back to April 1, 1960
and built by RCA. Only the last two TIROS satellites
were launched as polar orbiters. The others, although
in circular low earth orbits, were inclined to the
equator by 48 and 58 degrees and were spin stabilized
such that the instruments saw the earth only during
brief periods of their orbits. The Instrumentation
of later NOAA polar orbiters relied heavily upon the
experience gained from NASA's NIMBUS satellites, launched
between August, 1964 and October, 1978.
Within the first three months of operations, CDAS
technicians reduced the entire NASA TIROS ground station
(located at NASA Wallops) to a half dozen equipment
racks, integrated them into the ESSA ground station
and operated both series of satellites, until the
demise of TIROS 9 in early 1967.
The NASA Applications Technology Satellites, specifically
ATS-1, launched in December of 1966 and ATS-3, launched
in November of 1967, conclusively proved the value
of geosynchronous observational platforms for meteorological
use and laid the groundwork for the present GOES series.
Although the instrumentation of these satellites,
built by Hughes Aircraft, was primitive by today's
standards, they were remarkable in several respects.
They were among the first to achieve geosynchronous
orbit, ATS-3 transmitted color imagery, and both were
exceptionally long lived. Even after the imaging instruments
failed (10/72 for ATS-1 and 10/75 for ATS-3), they
were used by NOAA as weather facsimile (WEFAX) transponders
until December 31, 1978. As ATS-3, its fuel depleted,
drifted westward over the Pacific, it was used by
several schools and universities as a VHF transponder
between islands for at least ten more years.
In 1968, the first geosynchronous receive capability
was installed at Wallops to process and record ATS
imagery and telemetry. Liaison was established between
the CDA Station and the NASA STDN Station at Rosman,
NC and eventually ESSA/NOAA took over complete control
as NASA fulfilled its commitments. These first scanning
telescopes were small, with about a six inch mirror
and were mounted on the outer periphery of the satellite,
instead of concentrically with the satellite spin
axis. The entire telescope assembly moved +/- 10 degrees
north/south as the satellite rotated at 100 rpm.
As the telescope scanned the earth, the approximate
10 km resolution data from the visible detectors was
relayed to the earth via an analog FM transmission
link. On the ground, the data was processed and recorded
on magnetic tape for dissemination. These tapes formed
the basis for subsequent geosynchronous satellite
meteorological analysis. Needless to say, the experience
gained from these early experiments proved invaluable
for all elements of the foundling National Environmental
Satellite Service.
As plans proceeded for NOAA's formal entry into operational
geosynchronous satellites, the Wallops CDAS operations
building was expanded fifty feet to the south in 1970,
providing an additional 2500 square feet of operations
floor space. At this time, five senior Wallops technicians
were assigned to the project to provide the necessary
liaison to insure a smooth transition into the new
operation.
SMS-1 (Synchronous Meteorological Satellite-l), built
by Philco/Ford was successfully launched on May 7,
1974 and was followed by six months of intensive testing,
analysis, and operational scenario development. It
is interesting to note that the original operations
scenario, when envisioned in the late 1960's, was
planned around one satellite transmitting a few images
a day, interleaved with periods of WeFax and satellite
ranging. Well before the first launch, provisions
for two operational satellites were in place and shortly
thereafter, the daily routine expanded to 48 twenty
minute images and ten minute WeFax chips/ranging periods,
on half-hour cycles. The output doubled after the
launch of SMS-2 on February 6, 1975. The first fully
NOAA funded satellite, GOES-1, was launched on October
16, 1975. The Wallops team quickly became fully immersed,
not only in operations, but in innovative operational/systems
improvisations and modifications to enhance and insure
continuous, reliable data throughput.
What started as research operations, RISOPS (Rapid
Interval Scan Operations - 15 minute imaging) and
RRSD's (Research Rapid Scan Days 3 minute imaging),
became operational in 1976, enabling researchers and
meteorologists to better characterize and predict
severe short term thunderstorm/tornado and longer
term hurricane conditions. During the same period,
Data Collection System and WeFax operations expanded
dramatically.
Wallops provided training, technical, and logistics
support for ESA (European Space Agency) personnel
before and during the 1979 FGGE (First Global GARP
Experiment), when The US ] loaned GOES-1 to the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) for a year's use
at 57.8° E. Longitude, over the Indian Ocean.
GOES-4, built by Hughes Aircraft and the first of
the present generation of GOES satellites, was launched
on September 9, 1980. The latest of Santa Barbara
Research Center's instruments not only introduced
the multi-spectral IR imaging capability, but added
atmospheric sounding of temperature and water vapor
as well. Westinghouse, who had built all the image
processing ground systems since ATS-1, also built
the experimental ground system designed allowed a
70 day proof-of-concept test to provide insight into
system integrity and operational viability.
As it turned out, the 70 day test stretched into almost
six years of a seven-day-a- week, sixteen-hour-a-day
"transparent" experiment (transparent, at least most
of the time to operational products users).
With the advent of another operations building expansion,
almost doubling its size, and significant new ground
systems, built jointly by Westinghouse and Integral
Systems Inc, the new products became operational in
1986. In the meantime, Wallops technicians designed,
built, and installed the sophisticated interfaces
necessary to integrate the stand-alone experimental
equipment with multiple operational systems in order
to accommodate simultaneous experimental/operational
requirements. In conjunction with Scientists at the
University of Wisconsin's Space Science Engineering
Center (SSEC), Wallops was also instrumental in establishing
the best use scheduling of the satellite's capabilities,
which remains largely intact. Considering the fact
that the single experimental ground system controlled
the satellite instrument and that any failure degraded
operational commitments, the success of the project
stands as a tribute to all the many organizations
involved.
Part two for the years 1991 to 2002 will be coming
shortly
|
Home |
Mission |
CDA Station History |
Other NOAA Links |
GOES I to M Links
GOES N-O-P-Q Links |
Polar Links |
Other miscellaneous Links
Webmaster
Privacy Policy
|
|
|
|
