Evolving ground system architecture requirements for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)

The Integrated Program Office (IPO) is developing a ground system architecture for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) because requirements cannot be accommodated by current technology. Increased data rates, increased processing complexity, and more stringent latency requires another approach. We discuss the rationale behind the challenging requirements, in which direction the requirements are evolving, and how the NPOESS ground system architecture might be related to the NASA Vision of a Web of Sensors.