ATC Space Environment Monitor launched
on NOAA-N
NOAA-N (now NOAA-18) was successfully launched on May 20, 2005.
NOAA-N is the latest in a series of Polar
Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
(LMSSC), under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), with funding provided by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A Boeing Delta II carried the spacecraft
to sun-synchronous orbit.
NOAA-18 carries a Space Environment
Monitor (SEM), provided by Assurance Technology Corporation (ATC). The SEM measures charged
particles over an energy range of 50 eV to several hundred keV. These data provide
knowledge of solar terrestrial phenomena and warnings of solar wind occurrences
that may impair long-range communications, high-altitude operations, damage to
satellite circuits and solar panels, or cause changes in drag and magnetic
torque on satellites. ATC’s Space Instrumentation Group, formerly part of GE/Panametrics,
has provided SEMs for the last four POES spacecraft.
Other instruments on NOAA-18 include the Advanced Very High
Resolution Radiometer (ITT A/CD), the High Resolution Infrared Radiation
Sounder (ITT A/CD), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (Northrup Grumman),
the Microwave Humidity Sounder (EADS Astrium Ltd.) and the Solar Backscatter
Ultraviolet Radiometer (Ball Aerospace). It also carries a Search and Rescue Repeater
(Canada/EMS), a Search and Rescue Processor (CNES/France/Thales), a Data Collection System
(CNES/France/Thales) and Digital Data Recorders (L-3 Communications).
