National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (É.-U.)

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System in the USA. NPOESS is the name given to a series of satellites controlled by three US government agencies; NASA, and the departments of Commerce and Defense. Replaces the DMSP series of defense satellites, the NOAA satellites, and the NASA satellites. See the NPOESS page for more details.

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is the United States' next-generation satellite system that will monitor the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment. NPOESS satellites will host proven technologies and operational versions of sensors that are currently under operational-prototyping by NASA. The estimated launch date for the first NPOESS satellite, "C1" or "Charlie 1" is around 2010, but schedule slippage and budgetary issues may push the launch date to 2014.