The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is our Nation's next generation polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite system. JPSS is a collaborative program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its acquisition agent—National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This interagency effort (JPSS) is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous environmental satellites. Established in February 2010 in the President's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request as the Civilian successor to the restructured National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), JPSS will provide continuity of critical, global Earth observations— including our oceans, clouds, ozone, snow, ice, vegetation and atmosphere through 2025. NOAA, an agency within the Department of Commerce (DOC), works in partnership with NASA on all JPSS missions, ensuring an unbroken series of global weather data and increased accurate weather prediction— securing a more ‘Weather Ready Nation.’

The global environmental data from JPSS will be fed into Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models for forecasts and used for climate monitoring. In fact, the primary user of JPSS data is NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS). Once the polar-orbiting data is retrieved from the JPSS satellites, the JPSS data is entered into NWP models that are utilized by NOAA's National Weather Service to better predict medium- and long-term weather, including severe weather phenomena. For example, during the early stages of Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, the polar-orbiting satellite data helped NOAA's National Weather Service forecasters and scientists accurately predict Sandy's hurricane track and infamous ‘left hook’ landfall into New York and New Jersey—more than five days in advance.

To learn more about the JPSS Program, visit 'About JPSS'. Please also visit our page describing the benefits of the JPSS Program.