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Administrative: NOAA-18 Reduced Gyro Enhanced Flight Software On-Or bit Test, Issued: September 15, 2011 2020 UTC

Topic: NOAA-18 Reduced Gyro Enhanced Flight Software On-Orbit Test

Update: The timeline outlined in the original notification is still valid. Our engineers will conduct the planned test.

Date/Time(UTC) Message Issued: September 9, 2011, 1425 UTC

Product(s) Involved/Affected: All data and products from NOAA-18 (AVHRR, AMSU-A, HIRS, MHS, & SBUV)

Date/Time(UTC) of Initial Implementation: September 20, 2011, Time 12:42 UTC

Date/Time(UTC) of Expected End: September 21, 2011, Time 15:53 UTC

Length of Outage: 27 hours and 11 minutes

Details/Specifics of Change: From 20 September 2011 at 12:42 UTC (orbit 32637) to 21 September 2011 at 12:32 UTC (orbit 32651), NOAA-18 will be placed into the Reduced Gyro Mode for a flight software test of the enhanced Reduced Gyro software for about 24 hours. Products may be impacted by slightly larger than normal yaw attitude disturbances. The performance of NOAA-18 instrument L1b data is expected to be similar to the counterpart of NOAA-15, which has been operated in the enhanced Reduced Gyro Mode since March 17, 2010.

Upon exiting the test on September 21th on REV 32651 AOS 12:32 UTC the spacecraft will be reconfigured for normal operation (all three gyros available for ACS control). The spacecraft will be commanded back to nominal mode (all three gyros and sun sensor available for ACS control) on REV 32653 at 15:53 UTC. This is 2 orbits after the end of the Reduced Gyro Mode enhanced flight software test.

Backup dates due to a Critical Weather Day Period cancellation are 12 October 2011 to 13 October 2011 roughly in the same UTC times as above.

Products that use NOAA-18 that will be affected:
ATOVS Polar Soundings
Radiation Budget
Fire Identification Mapping and Monitoring Algorithm (FIMMA) for Hazard Mapping system (HMS) input
CLAVR-X
SST and Coastwatch
Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products (MSPPS)
Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MIRS)
Blended TPW
Ozone: SBUV/2
Ozone: TOAST
Ensemble Tropical Rainfall Potential (eTRaP)
Global Vegetation Index Products (GVI)
AVHRR Winds

Contact Information for Further Information:
ESPC Operations at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov at 301-817-3880
Carl Gliniak at carl.gliniak@noaa.gov at 301-817-4207
Dejiang Han at dejiang.han@noaa.gov at 301-817-4119

Web Site(s) for applicable information: N/A


ppp@nesdis.noaa.gov

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