FLGS Statement of Objectives v3.pdf

Statement of Objectives for

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)

Future Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Ground Services (FLGS)

1 Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Program Overview The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) next-generation operational Earth observation program that acquires and distributes global environmental data from multiple polar-orbiting satellites. The program plays a critical role in NOAA's mission to understand and predict changes in weather, climate, oceans and coasts, and the space environment, which support the Nation's economy and protect lives and property. The first JPSS satellite mission, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite, successfully launched in October 2011. The first JPSS satellite launched in November 2017 and is designated as NOAA-20.

Currently, S-NPP and NOAA-20 provide continuous environmental observations, along with the legacy NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). Three additional JPSS satellites will follow S- NPP and NOAA-20. They are currently planned to launch on approximately five-year intervals beginning in CY2022 to extend the JPSS Program lifecycle out to 2038.

In addition to the JPSS Program's own satellites operating in the 1330 (±10) Local Time of the Ascending Node (LTAN) orbit, NOAA also leverages mission partner assets to afford 3-orbit coverage and other space-based weather observations. These partner assets include the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) operational weather satellites (in the 1730 - 1930 LTAN orbit), the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Meteorological Operational (Metop) satellites (in the 2130 LTAN orbit) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W) satellite (in the 1330 LTAN orbit). JPSS routes Metop data from McMurdo Station, Antarctica to the EUMETSAT facility in Darmstadt, Germany and EUMETSAT, in turn, provides Metop data to NOAA. For GCOM, JPSS routes the GCOM-W data from Svalbard, Norway to the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, MD, processes GCOM-W data and delivers GCOM-W products to the JPSS users who have JAXA permissions.

Additionally, the JPSS Program provides data acquisition and routing support to the DMSP and the WindSat Coriolis Program. JPSS routes DMSP data from McMurdo Station to the 557th Weather Wing at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, NE. After processing, the 557th releases the DMSP data for public consumption over the Internet via the National Centers for Environment Information (NCEI) in Boulder, CO. The JPSS Program provides data routing support to the National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN)-supported missions, which include the Earth Observing System (EOS). As part of the agreements for the use of McMurdo Station, JPSS provides communications/network services for the NSF between McMurdo Station, Antarctica and Centennial, Colorado.

As a multi-mission ground infrastructure, the JPSS Ground System supports the heterogeneous constellation of the before-mentioned polar-orbiting satellites both within and outside the JPSS Program through a comprehensive set of services as listed in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1: JPSS Ground System Services

Service Description Enterprise Management and Ground Operations Provides mission management, mission operations, ground operations, contingency management and system sustainment

Flight Operations Provides launch support and early orbit operations, telemetry and commanding, orbital operations, mission data playback, payload support, flight software upgrade, flight vehicle simulation, and disposal at the end of mission life

Data Acquisition Provides space/ground communications for acquiring mission data

Data Routing Provides routing of telemetry, mission and/or operations data through JPSS’ global data network

Data Product Generation Provides the processing of mission data to generate and distribute raw, sensor, environmental, and ancillary data products

Data Product Calibration and Validation Provides calibration and validation of the data products Communications as a Service Provides SATCOM and/or Communications connectivity from existing or to existing or new points of presence.

NOAA has partnered with NASA to implement the JPSS Program, using NASA’s space acquisition expertise. NOAA defines requirements using their established management structure and provides funding and requirements to NASA. NASA is the acquisition agent for the flight systems (e.g., satellites, instruments and launch vehicles). NOAA is the acquisition agent for the Ground S and is responsible for operations, science, and infrastructure. Once a satellite has been successfully launched and commissioned, the operational responsibility is transferred from the JPSS Program Office to the NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO).

Mission operations are conducted primarily from NOAA’s Satellite Operations facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Maryland. A redundant capability is available at the NOAA facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, which ensures continuity of operations in the event of an outage at NSOF. A dedicated global Wide Area Network (WAN) links ground antenna stations, the mission operation centers, and data users. In addition, the JPSS Ground System provides instrument and data product calibration and validation functions and supports field terminal users with software, documentation, and operations support data. The data products produced by the JPSS Ground System include detailed cloud coverage, atmospheric temperature and pressure, ozone distribution, as well as snow cover, vegetation, aerosols, and Earth radiation budget information. This wealth of information enables numerous users to monitor and predict changes in weather, climate and ocean conditions.

NOAA has completed the NOAA Satellite Observing Systems Architecture (NSOSA) study, which examined space segment architecture decisions for space systems post-JPSS-1/2/3/4. The study’s emphasis is placed on continuity of observations that support core forecasting and warning capability, and observation improvements that support long-term numerical weather prediction advancement. It is anticipated that the JPSS Program will require new capabilities, products and services in support of existing and future LEO missions.

2 Overview of services Today, the JPSS Ground System provides services for enterprise management, ground operations, flight operations, data acquisition, data routing, data product generation, data product calibration and validation, and field terminal support to an array of satellites and users. The JPSS Ground Project oversees the development and sustainment of these services in support of the JPSS Program and partner missions.

Figure 1 shows the types of missions (flight operations, data acquisition and routing, data processing) and consumers (data product, mission data, data routing) currently supported by the JPSS Ground System. As this figure shows, some missions/users may also be consumers of JPSS mission data and/or science data products. Figure 2 presents the JPSS Ground System Architecture.

Figure 1 JPSS Ground System – Types of Missions and Consumers

Figure 2 JPSS Ground System Architecture

3 Purpose This Statement of Objectives (SOO) has been developed as a means to describe the existing JPSS Ground System and communicate the government’s interest to exploit new capabilities or technologies that are logical end states or goals meeting NOAA’s multi-mission LEO framework. As NESDIS/JPSS begins to perform market research and develop its acquisition strategy for its next Ground System contract vehicle(s), the organization has a strong desire to solicit industry feedback and gain a broader understanding of new and emerging capabilities, different management/implementation methodologies, and newly proven methods for operating ground stations for multi-mission systems and migrating to other potential architectures or service delivery models.

NESDIS/JPSS intends to explore further how to deploy agile, flexible and modular enterprise elements (hardware and software) at scale while effectively accounting for security, governance, and modern architectures without impact to operational needs.

NESDIS/JPSS also has a particular interest in converged enterprise platforms, services, and approaches that may be capable of simultaneously supporting both geostationary and polar constellations, delivering infrastructure and WAN communications solutions, and/or services for both mission sets.

4 Scope The scope of the next iteration of the JPSS Ground System requirement(s) will include the sustainment of the existing JPSS Ground System and the long-term approach to implementing NESDIS multi-mission LEO ground system services. Throughout the rest of the SOO, the term Future LEO Ground Services (FLGS) is used to describe the next iteration of the system as whole, but does not denote a presumption of singular or multiple contract(s), rather the currently existing state or potential end state. FLGS will evolve using existing and new elements to ensure NESDIS’ LEO weather satellite mission requirements are fulfilled.

5 Forward-Looking Statement(s) The following is the Government’s articulation of desired future capabilities or current capabilities that must further evolve to meet JPSS Ground Project and mission needs.

FLGS will extend the services performed by the existing JPSS Ground System for the life of the JPSS Program, through no earlier than the mid-2030s.

FLGS will identify alternate implementation approaches and development methodologies in order to reduce JPSS Program long-term sustainment, operations, and maintenance costs.

FLGS will assess the viability of migration to a services-based approach for providing the capabilities currently performed by the JPSS Ground System.

FLGS will consider alternative approaches to fielding the capabilities currently provided by the JPSS Ground System, including non-traditional procurement strategies.

FLGS will consider alternative technical and programmatic implementation approaches in order to achieve the following goals:

• Approaches to minimizing impacts to operations during system sustainment and maintenance activities (including security patching)

• Defense-in-depth security architecture to accommodate a FISMA High system while increasing usability and minimizing operator impact from security control implementation

• Decoupling infrastructure dependencies from software applications and services

• Development of enterprise framework and standards

• Reduction in hardware footprint while maintaining required operational availability

• Reduction in operations, maintenance, and sustainment costs (including increased automation)

• Increased insight through consolidated system monitoring and metrics reporting capabilities

• Support for NOAA enterprise algorithm implementation, deployment, and maintenance

• Extensibility to future missions (both NOAA and non-NOAA)