NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plan to strengthen their satellite ties in the coming fiscal year with the re-establishment of an effort modeled after the Operational Satellite Improvement Program (OSIP) the agencies implemented in the 1970s.

The OSIP "explicitly placed NASA in the role of technology developer and NOAA in the role of sustaining satellite operations," the agencies say in a recent report to Congress. Under the new OSIP program, NASA and NOAA would jointly define instrument requirements for Earth science spacecraft.

NASA would develop and launch new instruments to demonstrate their viability, while NOAA would plan and budget for the transition of those instruments into operational systems, including paying for the operational spacecraft.

As required by NASA's 2005 authorizing legislation, NASA and NOAA jointly prepared the first in an annual series of reports to Congress on their planned coordination on Earth science programs for the coming fiscal year. The report follows criticism of the agencies on Capitol Hill for their lack of any formal plan to develop a follow-on to QuikSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) - an aging NASA research spacecraft whose data on ocean surface winds has proven useful to NOAA hurricane forecasters.

NOAA has since publicly downplayed the importance of QuikSCAT to hurricane forecasting, while assuring lawmakers that it does have a plan for mitigating the loss of data should the spacecraft fail (DAILY, July 20).

"During the coming year, NASA and NOAA will continue to work closely to identify the most appropriate means to meet operational requirements in the post-QuikSCAT era," the report says. Options include securing timely access to scatterometer data from foreign spacecraft such as Europe's ASCAT, and developing plans for flying a new "QuikSCAT-type" sensor whose wind readings would be less affected by heavy rains - a limitation for QuikSCAT that reduces its usefulness once a hurricane actually forms.

From now on, the report says, when NASA considers extending one of its scientific missions beyond their initial duration - typically 3-5 years - the agency will provide an opportunity for NOAA or other federal agencies that make operational use of the satellite's data to make the case for its continued operation and propose joint funding arrangements.

Meanwhile, in response to the National Research Council's recent Decadal Survey on Earth Science and Applications from Space, NOAA and NASA continue to work together on options for mitigating the anticipated data loss resulting from the scaling back of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R programs. Both programs had satellites and sensors cut from them in response to multi-billion dollar cost overruns.

The results of the studies on NPOESS and GOES-R will "inform each agency's FY 2009 and subsequent budget submissions," the report says.