[SatNews] This contract will find the Company building a special instrument for this NASA developed satellite...

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) will build and deliver the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) for the Joint Polar Satellite Systems (JPSS) under a contract with NASA. JPSS is a system of polar-orbiting satellites to be developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for weather forecasting, storm tracking and climate monitoring. The ATMS instrument is the second flight model and is slated to fly on the first JPSS satellite in 2016. The first ATMS was completed in 2005 and has been integrated on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, which is scheduled to launch in October.

ATMS will provide critical microwave data, including atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, to support weather forecasting for the operational JPSS system. The instrument has 22 channels spanning the frequency band from 23.8 GHz to 183.3 GHz. It was designed to be the functional equivalent follow-on to the Advanced Microwave Sounder Units with improved sampling and coverage.