Update #4:  NOAA-18 testing from 09:26-18:16 UTC Aug 17, 2023 will result in data losses due to supporting POES EL (Extended Life) ground system testing.

Expected Data Loss:

Update #3: NOAA-18 testing from 09:21-19:40 UTC Aug 2, 2023 will result in data losses due to supporting POES EL (Extended Life) ground system testing.

Expected Data Loss from NOAA-18 WAL-B 93686 AOS 14:52 UTC:

Expected Data Loss from NOAA-18 WAL-B 93814 AOS 16:23:30 UTC

Expected Data Loss from NOAA-18 FBK-B 93816 AOS 19:40:50 UTC

Update #2: NOAA-18 testing from 14:38-18:10 UTC July 24, 2023 will result in data losses due to supporting POES EL (Extended Life) ground system testing.

Update #1: NOAA-18 data from 08:11-18:44 UTC on July 13, 2023 will result in data losses due to supporting POES EL (Extended Life) ground system testing.

Topic: POES Data Outages - POES EL Transitions

Date/Time Issued:  August 17, 2023 1311Z

Product(s) or Data Impacted: All NOAA-15/18/19 data and products

Date/Time of Initial Impact: May 1st, 2023 0000 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End:  September 15th, 2023 0000 UTC

Length of Outage:  Intermittent

Details/Specifics of Change: 

Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Extended Life (EL) is an NOAA initiative to extend the value of the older POES satellite constellation under a best-effort approach. Starting this year, POES data that was once operationally supported will migrate over to a data of opportunity service, as available.  Due to this new approach, contingency data recovery will not be performed and extended data disruptions could occur periodically because of operational constraints.

Shortly the POES Satellite Operations will be transitioning off the existing NOAA POES Ground System to a Commercial Ground System service.  The POES Constellation consists of NOAA-15, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19, now in an extended phase of their mission life, and will transition to this best-effort approach managed and operated by the new commercial ground system service.  The operations transition period will span from May 1st 2023 until September 15th 2023 during which time there will be intermittent and potentially daily data outages that can occur for specific POES satellites based on upcoming transition activities. Data outages will primarily affect Level 1 and higher products; however, Direct Broadcast Services (HRPT) will remain available for users as needed.

The notional schedule for each POES spacecraft transition starting to move over to the commercial ground system capabilities is identified below. POES satellite transitions will take notionally one month to complete for each satellite once started. All transition activities will complete by September 2023. Post September all users should access POES Data directly from HRPT when overhead of a users site or via NOAA Product Distribution and Access (PDA) for authorized users. All users should expect periodic interruptions to data as each satellite transitions to the new ground system

 NOAA-18 - May 2023

 NOAA-19 - July 2023

 NOAA-15 - August 2023

Contact Information for Further Information:

ESPC Operations at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov and 301-817-3880, and User Services at SPSD.Userservices@noaa.gov 

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