The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) GOES-13 satellite is back in full operation and tracking Hurricane Sandy.   This image, taken today (October 29) at 12:15 UTC (8:15 am EDT), shows the vast reach of the storm.

Image credit:  NOAA

Sandy is expected to make a sharp turn to the northwest and make landfall tonight along the New Jersey coast and merge with another storm system coming in from the west.  The combination is being called Frankenstorm since it is occurring so close to Halloween.  Terms like “epic” and “catastrophic” are being used by officials to describe the potential damage from the storm.

The U.S. coastline between South Carolina and Connecticut/Rhode Island is shown in the image in bright pink.  The long, narrow, north-south Chesapeake Bay shows clearly about halfway up, and halfway up the Chesapeake Bay on the western shore is the Potomac River, which leads to Washington, DC.

At the top of the image is New York — including New York City and Long Island.  Long Island is separated from the southern shores of Connecticut and Rhode Island by the (roughly) east-west Long Island Sound.   The forecast is for New York City and areas along the Sound to suffer some of the worst effects of the hurricane.

GOES-13 was temporarily taken out of service in September and NOAA was going to replace it with an in-orbit spare (GOES-14), but was able to resolve the problem and return GOES-13 to operational status.

Perhaps one silver lining from Hurricane Sandy is that the storm is raising awareness of the long-known likelihood that there will be a gap in weather satellite coverage a few years from now because new satellites are not ready to launch before older satellites cease functioning.

The New York Times posted a story on October 26 summarizing the issues facing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) plans for new polar-orbiting weather satellites.  Although it confuses the roles of NOAA and NASA in some places, and fails to mention that there are similar concerns about NOAA’s geostationary weather satellites, it at least highlights warnings issued in several outside reviews of NOAA’s plans and by NOAA itself.

NOAA is responsible for operational weather satellites in two different types of orbits — polar orbits that circle the Earth passing over the North and South poles, and geostationary orbits above the equator where the satellite maintains a fixed position relative to a point on Earth.  NOAA’s polar orbiting satellites are called POES — Polar Operational Environmental Satellites; the geostationary satellites are GOES — Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.  Both types of satellites are needed to forecast the weather more accurately.

NOAA officials have been cautioning Congress for well over a year about a potential gap in polar orbit satellite coverage, but in June the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added worries about the GOES satellite series as well.  GAO’s David Powner told a House subcommittee that GAO has only a 48 percent confidence that the first of a new series of GOES satellites (GOES-R) will meet its 2014 launch date, meaning a potential gap in geostationary coverage as well.

Three reviews of NOAA satellite programs since September — an Independent Review Team (IRT) established by NOAA and led by Tom Young, a review by the Department of Commerce’s (DoC’s) Inspector General, and a NOAA Science Advisory Committee Satellite Task Force report — have critiqued how NOAA and its parent, DoC, manage satellite programs. The Deputy Secretary of Commerce and the head of NOAA each issued directives to implement the findings of the Young IRT.

NOAA sets the requirements (what instruments are needed, for example) and manages the POES and GOES programs from development through operations.   Because of its expertise in spacecraft and launch vehicles, NASA serves as the acquisition agent for NOAA.  NASA arranges for and monitors contracts with the companies that build and launch the satellites.  NOAA obtains the money for the satellites from Congress and reimburses NASA for its work.

NOAA launched its final POES satellite, designated NOAA 19, in 2009.  A replacement program (NPOESS) that was to merge NOAA’s civil weather satellites with the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) military weather satellites failed programmatically and NOAA is now proceeding with a different program, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). 

JPSS-1 will not be launched until 2017, long after NOAA 19 is expected to cease functioning.    Therefore, NOAA seconded a NASA environmental research satellite, Suomi NPP, to fill the gap between NOAA 19 and JPSS-1.   NASA has its own program of earth science satellites that provide research data rather than operational weather data. 

However, as a research satellite, Suomi NPP was designed to operate for only three years and there is concern that it, too, will cease functioning before JPSS-1 is operational.  

The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended that NOAA’s satellite programs be transferred to NASA because it is not convinced NOAA has effective program management skills.   That recommendation was made as part of the FY2013 appropriations process, which is not yet completed.

Whatever agency is in charge, the need for weather forecasters to have satellite data in their toolbox is palpably evident today as the East Coast braces for Hurricane Sandy as well prepared as possible because of the ample warning time enabled by that data.

The superstorm that is heading to the East Coast has caused the JAXA Washington Office to postpone Monday’s showing of a film in honor of 20 years of Japan-U.S. human spaceflight cooperation.  The new date is November 2.

With Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia already declaring states of emergency in preparation for the massive weather event nicknamed “Frankenstorm,” since it will take place so close to Halloween, JAXA and the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) decided today to postpone showing a third in a series of three movies about Japan’s successful asteroid sample-return mission Hayabusa.

It is likely not to be the last event that ends up being rescheduled due to the storm if current forecasts prevail.

NOAA’s weather satellites are showing Hurricane Sandy’s current position off the Florida coast after coming up through Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Image credit:  NOAA

The unusual late season hurricane’s course remains somewhat uncertain, but computer models are coalescing on a scenario where it will make a sharp left turn into the mid-Atlantic states and make landfall in New Jersey where it will merge with another storm system arriving from the west.  Some are comparing it to New England’s 1991 “Perfect Storm,”  but others are remembering last year’s storms in New England — Tropical Storm Irene that caused tremendous flooding damage in Vermont and “Snowtober” that hit other parts of New England last October with extensive power outages due to trees still full of leaves collapsing on power lines.

A critical element of forecasting such storms is NOAA’s weather satellites.  NOAA’s ability to manage its weather satellite programs is under sharp scrutiny these days because of extensive cost overruns and schedule delays on the now-cancelled National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).    Some key Senators are worried that the replacement Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) could be headed for similar problems.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) is calling for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review NASA’s export control policies.   Broun chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight.

Broun’s letter to GAO refers to “allegations that NASA centers have allowed unapproved individuals access to sensitive technologies,” but does not specify who or what is involved other than referencing “an ongoing investigation at Ames Research Center” that Broun asks to be included in the review.

Broun, a medical doctor, stirred controversy recently by proclaiming that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang Theory are “lies straight from the pit of hell” according to Politico.  He is unopposed for reelection.

NASA has opened its annual solicitation for nominees to serve on the NASA Advisory Council’s (NAC’s) science subcommittees. 

U.S. citizens can nominate themselves or others to serve on any of the five subcommittees that report to the NAC Science Committee.  The five subcommittees are astrophysics, planetary science, earth science, heliophysics, and planetary protection.

Nominations are due by November 14, 2012.

Details on how to make a nomination and the qualifications required for nominees are in the Federal Register notice.