Rapid Algorithm Integration in the JPSS CGS

Abstract

The NOAA-NASA jointly-acquired Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) will replace the afternoon orbit component and ground processing system of the current Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). The ground system, known as the ‘Common Ground System (CGS)’, and developed by Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) provides command, control, and communications (C3) and data processing and product delivery. The CGS currently flies the Suomi NPP (S-NPP) satellite and routes mission data to U.S. ground facilities, where it processes the data into mission products and provides them to US weather centrals. The CGS also supports various levels of data acquisition, routing and processing for multiple other missions across the globe today, with plans for incorporation of more missions in the future. CGS’s data processing capability (the Interface Data Processing Segment, or IDPS) processes the satellite data from S-NPP and provides environmental data products (including Sensor Data Records (SDRs) and Environmental Data Records (EDRs)) to the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF). As data processing algorithms evolve, these changes will have to migrate into the operational system. In the past, operationalizing science algorithms and integrating them into active systems often required months of work. In order to significantly shorten the time and effort required for this activity, Raytheon has developed tools, processes, and techniques to enable rapid algorithm integration into the CGS. These include the Algorithm Development Library (ADL), the Binary Algorithm Adapter (BAA), and the Accelerated Release Cycle (ARC). This paper describes the tools and processes CGS has implemented to speed the science to operations implementation process, as well as comparisons between implementation timelines before and after the tools were in place.