Defense weather satellites provide environmental support

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LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) --  Officials from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center here said they are on track to launch a third satellite in November that will join two others already in orbit essential in tracking global weather conditions and providing data for distribution to Department of Defense and civilian government agencies.

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, has been providing environmental support to the nation for five decades. A DOD program run by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, DMSP designs, builds, launches and maintains satellites, which monitor the meteorological, oceanographic and solar-terrestrial physics environments.

"DMSP satellites are designed to meet unique military requirements for worldwide space and terrestrial weather information; however, this data is fully shared with civilian agencies," said Col. John Wagner III, DMSP director.

"Through these satellites and accompanying data, military and civilian weather forecasters can detect developing weather patterns, track existing weather systems over remote areas and alert the civil and military communities of anticipated hazards to people and resources," Colonel Wagner said.

These DMSP satellites provide meteorological data in real time to Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps tactical ground stations and Navy ships worldwide. This data is also stored in recorders on the satellites for later transmission to ground stations.

From these ground stations, information is relayed to the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and to the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanographic Center at Monterey, Calif. It is then compiled into numerous worldwide weather and space environmental products. AFWA and FNMOC distribute these products to DOD and civilian government agencies.

At the heart of DMSP's sensing capability is the Operational Linescan System. The OLS sensor uses a moving telescope technique to scan the Earth in the cross track direction, while forward motion of the satellite provides the along track incremental motion. It is designed to provide pictorial meteorological cloud imagery for continuous global coverage. OLS imagery is used by forecasters to locate severe storms and estimate their strength.

The Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder is another mission sensor. The SSMIS utilizes microwave data. This information is considered essential to accurate positioning of storm centers and forecasting storm development and motion because SSMIS wind speed and rainfall rate data are not obscured by cloud cover. Hurricane and typhoon forecasting have improved significantly with the use of DMSP microwave imagery.

The DMSP constellation is made up of two primary polar orbiting satellites. The next satellite is expected to be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in early November. The last three satellites are scheduled to follow in two-year intervals beginning in April 2008 and ending in April 2012.

The lifetime for DMSP satellites is four years, so coverage is expected until 2014 to 2016. DMSP will be replaced by a combination of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and European MetOP satellites.

(Story written by John Bohlson, Capt. William Bones and Jo Adail Stephenson of the Space and Missile Systems Center Public Affairs Office)