The academic community is a vital consumer and purveyor of JPSS data, directly contributing informational, educational and research expertise to the program. Through the NOAA/NESDIS Cooperative Institutes (CIs), JPSS leverages the remote sensing and scientific research from major universities. All CIs are competitively awarded to institutions and educational programs, which possess the strongest academic and remote sensing backgrounds to best serve the needs of NOAA—thereby JPSS.

The University of Wisconsin, Space Science and Engineering Center (UWSSEC), Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), collaborates with NOAA/NESDIS in the development and creation of derived JPSS satellite products. CIMSS has also developed the Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP) which allows product users to process raw polar-orbiting satellite data consistent with what the program distributes, provided they have access to an antennae capable of gather the data.

1. Bowie State University
2. City College New York
3. City University of New York
4. Columbia University
5. Hampton University
6. Lehman College
7. UMBC
8. University of Puerto Rico

• Cooperative Institute for Oceanographic Satellite Studies(CIOSS), Corvallis, OR - Oregon State University
• Advanced Satellite Products Branch (ASPB) & the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies(CIMSS), Madison, WI - University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (RAMMB)& the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA), Ft. Collins, CO - Colorado State University
• Satellite Climate Studies Branch (SCSB) & the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) - locations at College Park, MD - University of Maryland and Asheville, NC - North Carolina State University
• Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center (CREST), New York, NY - City University of New York (CUNY) with University Partners in the Mid-Atlantic States and Puerto Rico

Other NOAA academic partners include Harvard University, University of Colorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Utah State University.