Artist’s rendering of a weather satellite flying over a hurricane. [Image: Business Wire / L3Harris]
L3Harris Technologies Inc.—an aerospace- and defense-technology provider based in Fort Wayne, IN, USA—won a contract valued at about US$765.5 million to develop an imager for the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program run by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The terms of the contract include the development of two flight instruments as well as options for additional units, according to a press release from NASA, which selected L3Harris on behalf of NOAA. L3Harris is expected to support on-orbit operations for 10 years and on-orbit storage for 5 years—a total of 15 years for each instrument.
The GeoXO Imager
The goal of the GeoXO program is to provide information about the weather, ocean and climate and contribute to weather forecast models and severe weather warnings by monitoring the Western Hemisphere. It is the successor to NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) series, which currently observes environmental phenomena that could affect the region. Just like the satellites for GOES-R, GeoXO’s satellites will be placed in geostationary orbit, which allows a spacecraft to keep pace with the rotation of the Earth while being “parked” over the planet’s equator.
The GeoXO Imager (GXI), the GeoXO system’s primary instrument, will be developed as a multi-channel, passive imaging radiometer, providing real-time, high-resolution visible and infrared imagery and radiometric information. The instrument will be equipped with 18 channels, including 0.91 µm (near-infrared) and 5.15 µm (infrared) channels that GOES-R’s imager lacks. These upgrades will allow for more precise observations and enhanced water-vapor measurements, aiding space-based severe weather monitoring, short-term weather predictions and wildfire tracking.
The GXI will track cloud formation, atmospheric motion, convection, land-surface temperature, fire, smoke, dust, volcanic ash plumes, aerosols, air quality and vegetative health.
Getting started
The contract is categorized as a cost-plus-award-fee contract, which allows the contractor, L3Harris, to recover the actual cost that the completed work incurred, such as the costs of general administration, overhead, labor benefits, and materials, including mark-up. The company can also be awarded a fee based on its performance.
“We’re proud to be a part of NOAA’s GeoXO observing system,” said Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of spectral solutions at L3Harris, according to the company’s press release announcing the contract. “This program continues our 60-year heritage in this mission area, serving to protect the lives and personal property of [the US] citizens.”