{"id":4197,"date":"2024-05-03T12:34:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T19:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/training\/visit\/blog\/?p=4197"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:06:25","slug":"noaa-21-designated-as-the-primary-satellite-of-the-jpss-constellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/visit-blog\/2024\/05\/03\/noaa-21-designated-as-the-primary-satellite-of-the-jpss-constellation\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA-21 Designated as the Primary Satellite of the JPSS Constellation"},"content":{"rendered":"

During March 2024, NOAA-21 was declared the primary satellite of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). In early April 2024, NOAA-20 (newly designated as the secondary satellite) completed its orbital shift placing NOAA-20 a half-orbit (~50 minutes) a part from NOAA-21. The tertiary satellite, SNPP, is now positioned a quarter-orbit between NOAA-21 and NOAA-20. A schematic below displays and compares the old JPSS orbital configuration (pre – 20 March 2024) to the finalized orbital configuration (4 April 2024).<\/p>\n

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For users, how does the new orbital configuration appear in the imagery? A CONUS perspective of VIIRS 11.45 \u00b5m swaths from NOAA-21, SNPP and NOAA-20 are seen on 10 April 2024. Notice the JPSS orbital sequence (observed from east coast to west coast) starts with NOAA-21, then ~25 minutes later SNPP, then NOAA-20 ~25 minutes after that. Afterwards, a 50 minute data gap occurs, then the sequence repeats.<\/p>\n

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