"NOAA established the JPSS program in 2010 to replace aging polar satellites and provide critical environmental data used in forecasting the weather. However, the potential exists for a gap in satellite data if the current satellite fails before the next one is operational. Because of this risk and the potential impact of a gap on the health and safety of the U.S. population and economy, GAO added this issue to its High Risk list in 2013, and it remained on the list in 2015. GAO was asked to review the JPSS program. GAO’s objectives were to (1) evaluate progress on the program, (2) assess efforts to implement appropriate information security protections for polar satellite data, (3) evaluate efforts to assess and mitigate a potential near-term gap in polar satellite data, and (4) assess agency plans for a follow-on polar satellite program. To do so, GAO analyzed program status reports, milestone reviews, and risk data; assessed security policies and procedures against agency policy and best practices; examined contingency plans and actions, as well as planning documents for future satellites; and interviewed experts as well as agency and contractor officials. GAO recommends that NOAA take steps to address deficiencies in its information security program and complete key program planning actions needed to justify and move forward on a follow-on polar satellite program. NOAA concurred with GAO’s recommendations and identified steps it is taking to address them."--Highlights page.

Polar Weather Satellites: NOAA Is Working to Ensure Continuity but Needs to Quickly Address Information Security Weaknesses and Future Program Uncertainties

"The following report of the Second NOAA Data Quality and Continuity Workshop contains summaries of issues and problems presented at the first workshop as well as papers on additional topics that have come to our attention since the the initial workshop. Material for some presentations that appear on the workshop agenda has been excluded based on overlap with other topics. Other papers that have recently come to our attention, but not presented at either workshop, have been included to highlight additional issues within NOAA"--Introduction

Solar irradiance is a vital source of energy input for the Earth's climate system and its variability has the potential to mitigate or exacerbate a human-created climate. Maintaining an unbroken record of Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is critical in resolving ongoing debates regarding the potential role of solar variability in influencing Earth's climate. Space-borne instruments have acquired TSI data since 1978. Currently, the best calibrated and lowest noise source of TSI measurements is the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) onboard NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE). These TIM-era data are of higher quality than the older data in the full record. Thus, the TSI climate data record (CDR) has two components. There is the shorter, but more accurate record of the TIM era and the full (33+ year) space-based TSI measurement record. Both are important and require preservation. Review of NOAA Working Group Report on Maintaining the Continuation of Long-Term Satellite Total Irradiance Observations evaluates NOAA's plan for mitigating the loss of total solar irradiance measurements from space, given the likelihood of losing this capacity from instruments currently on the SORCE satellite in coming years and the short term/experimental nature of the currently identified method of filling the data gap. This report evaluates NOAA's plan for mitigating the gap in total solar irradiance data.

Solar irradiance is a vital source of energy input for the Earth's climate system and its variability has the potential to mitigate or exacerbate a human-created climate. Maintaining an unbroken record of Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is critical in resolving ongoing debates regarding the potential role of solar variability in influencing Earth's climate. Space-borne instruments have acquired TSI data since 1978. Currently, the best calibrated and lowest noise source of TSI measurements is the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) onboard NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE). These TIM-era data are of higher quality than the older data in the full record. Thus, the TSI climate data record (CDR) has two components. There is the shorter, but more accurate record of the TIM era and the full (33+ year) space-based TSI measurement record. Both are important and require preservation. Review of NOAA Working Group Report on Maintaining the Continuation of Long-Term Satellite Total Irradiance Observations evaluates NOAA's plan for mitigating the loss of total solar irradiance measurements from space, given the likelihood of losing this capacity from instruments currently on the SORCE satellite in coming years and the short term/experimental nature of the currently identified method of filling the data gap. This report evaluates NOAA's plan for mitigating the gap in total solar irradiance data.