NPOESS ground segment has successful demo

OMAHA, March 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force announced a milestone in the development of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System's ground segment.

The NPOESS Integrated Program Office with development partners Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. announced a successful demonstration of the NPOESS ground segment's interface data processing.

In a demonstration for the Air Force Weather Agency, simulated data from the primary NPOESS sensor, as part of the NPOESS ground segment, was successfully processed by the interface data-processing segment. The successful demonstration marked a milestone for the Air Force Weather Agency in weather exploitation technological development.

"A new height in weather-satellite data exploitation was accomplished when the simulated data was successfully processed," Col. John Murphy, Air Force Weather Agency commander, said in a statement.

"The interface data-processing segment completes the first operational NPOESS ground system in the Defense Department and will be vital to future weather exploitation and military operations."