We are in an age of explosive change in the way information is collected and distributed. NOAA and the National Weather Service face the challenge of not only keeping pace with these changes but of fully utilizing these advances to provide more timely and more accurate forecasts. THE NWS must be prepared to incorporate data from the next generation of polar orbiting environmental satellites (POES) in the forecast process. Thus, there is a need for a new generation of relatively low-cost commercial ground systems that can receive data in the X-band. The principal objective of the proposed research is to evaluate the possibility of significantly reducing the cost of X-band ground systems for collecting direct broadcast data from future weather polar orbiting satellites including METOP, NPOESS, and EOS. Commercial Applications: According to NESDIS estimates, there are presently 1,000 NOAA HRPT user stations worldwide. As the next generation of POES satellites are placed in orbit beginning in 2003, each ground system operator will have to upgrade their existing equipment. Global Imaging believes the worldwide market for relatively low-cost ground systems for next generation POES satellites will be approximately $300M USD.
