Coming to Miami, Florida, December 8-12 to meet with top NOAA officials to learn more about new equipment and software that will be needed to retrieve data from the next generation of NOAA satellites are weather and climate forecasters, emergency managers and other users of NOAA satellite information. NOAA will host the “2008 Satellite Direct Readout Conference: Transitioning into the Future” at the Hilton Miami Airport Hotel. The term direct readout means users receive data and products broadcast directly from a NOAA satellite instead of through the Internet or other methods. 

At the conference, NOAA experts will focus on helping users change the data-receiving technology they are using for the current geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites to fit the advanced technology of GOES-R and NPOESS. Experts and users also will discuss the continued importance of developing the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. GEOSS seeks to connect the producers of environmental data, including satellite measurements, with users, who apply the information to solving global issues.  Promoting common technical standards, GEOSS will help users access data from thousands of different instruments combined into coherent data sets through the integration of a global and flexible network of content providers.

Representatives from more than 20 countries in the Western Hemisphere and international organizations, including the World Meteorological Organization, have been invited. This is the third Satellite Direct Readout Conference, following similar conferences in 2002 and 2004. NOAA officials hope to continue building on the outcomes.

The new requirements will take effect in the next seven to eight years, once NOAA implements its future satellite missions, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Series R.

“Data from NOAA satellites are critical to understanding weather and our changing climate here and around the world,” said Mary M. Glackin, deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. “We have to help prepare the satellite data users to receive these improved data, without missing a beat.”  Glackin will give the conference keynote address on Monday, December 8 at 1:20 p.m. EST. NOAA satellite data are available to direct readout users throughout the world and support a wide range of meteorological, oceanographic, terrestrial and solar activities. Users will have to modify, or replace, current receiving equipment and basic software as the next generation of NOAA satellites is launched.

“In time, all users will need to make these changes, as we move toward GOES-R and NPOESS,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA Satellite and Information Service. She said the conference would allow a chance to listen to the needs of the user community “to make the transitions as smooth as possible.”

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. To register and learn more access this site.