The NPOESS Preparatory Project Science Data Segment: The Final As Built Description

The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) provides remotely-sensed land, ocean, atmospheric, ozone, and sounder data that will serve the meteorological and global climate change scientific communities while also providing risk reduction for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the U.S. Government´s future low-Earth orbiting satellite system monitoring global weather and environmental conditions. NPOESS is a joint mission of three federal agencies: NASA, NOAA, and DoD. NASA Science Data Segment´s (SDS) primary role in NPP is to independently assess the quality of the NPP science and environmental data records for climate research. Such assessment is critical for making NPOESS products the best that they can be for operational use and ultimately for climate studies. The SDS supports science assessment by assuring the timely provision of NPP data to NASA´s science teams organized by climate measurement themes. The SDS breaks down into ten major elements: an input element that receives data from the operational agencies and acts as a buffer, a calibration analysis element, five elements devoted to measurement based quality assessment, one Production Element for Earth Radiation, an element used to test algorithmic improvements, and an element that coordinates overall science direction and results. This paper describes how the NPP SDS leveraged existing systems, the final system architectures, and lessons learned for the development of mission-reliable research-ready systems capable of supporting the assessment of NPP derived products.