Ball Aerospace and Technologies has received the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System instrument built by Northrop Grumman for integration into the Joint Polar Satellite System beginning later this year.
Ball Aerospace said Thursday that CERES will help JPSS-1 support the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership‘s weather and climate measurement missions for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
CERES is designed to measure thermal radiation and reflected sunlight from Earth to determine the relation between the planet’s energy balance and atmosphere to guide climate forecasts, the company said.
It is one of many instruments Ball expects to receive within the next 10 months to integrate into JPSS-1, as the company is also scheduled to complete building the satellite bus by November.
Ball Aerospace said its own Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite-Nadir instrument has passed a review and will provide JPSS-1 with ozone measurements for numerical weather prediction modeling and other environmental observations.
The other instruments are the Cross-track Infrared Sounder, Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder and Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.
Ball Aerospace’s contract with NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center includes the JPSS-1 satellite bus design and construction, OMPS-N, instrument integration and support for satellite-level test and launch.