Mary-Louise Hoffman
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. will integrate a Lockheed Martin-built instrument designed to measure global energy balance into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s Joint Polar Satellite System.
Lockheed designed the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System to provide environmental data for forecasting seasonal climates and the instrument is scheduled to fly onboard the JPSS-1 spacecraft in early 2017, NOAA said Thursday.
NOAA and NASA want the satellite to help scientists observe the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, vegetation, snow and clouds.
Lockheed developed the CERES instrument to gauge the radiation being emitted and absorbed by Earth.
NOAA has used the scientific instrument to support its Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite and the NASA Earth Observing System.
Other JPSS-1 instruments include a microvave and an infrared sounder, an imaging radiometer and an ozone mapping technology.
