The JPSS Science Data Process is a critical part of the entire JPSS Program and overarching mission. Developing and fielding a new environmental satellite system involves more than launching a spacecraft. The new system must endure the following phrases:

• First, the new system must be methodically tested;
• Then, instruments are calibrated ;
• Third, the Earth measurement must be validated to ensure accuracy and reliability;
• Once this process is complete, satellite observations can be used with confidence when making weather forecasts and other environmental data products; and
• Lastly, the data can join the uninterrupted record of climate observations from space, which currently stretches more than 30+ years.

The first of the next-generation polar-orbiting satellites, Suomi NPP (SNPP), is the precursor to JPSS. Launched by NASA in conjunction with NOAA, SNPP fields for the first time: advanced, highly sensitive instruments that all JPSS series are currently proposed to carry.