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GREENBELT, Md., May 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA has selected two firms for the the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Atmospheric Composition (ACX) Phase A Study. These firms will provide services to help meet the objectives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GeoXO program.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, and Raytheon Intelligence & Space of El Segundo, California will both receive twenty-month firm-fixed-price contracts for approximately $5 million. The work will be performed at the contractors’ facilities.
The principal purpose of this effort is to provide a definition-phase study of a GeoXO ACX instrument. The ACX instrument will be a hyperspectral, ultraviolet through visible imaging spectrometer that is planned to fly on the NOAA GeoXO series of geostationary satellites. The selected firms will develop the instrument concept and mature necessary technologies. The study will help define the instrument’s potential performance, risks, costs, and development schedule. The results of the study will be used to set performance requirements for the ACX instrument implementation contract, which is planned for award in 2024.
Atmospheric composition measurements from geostationary orbit will provide critical data for the air quality forecasting and public health communities. The instrument will monitor air pollutants emitted by transportation, power generation, volcanoes, and wildfires on an hourly basis, as well as pollutants generated from these emissions once they are in the atmosphere. This operational geostationary instrument will represent an important advancement over the once-per-day observations provided by current polar-orbiting instruments. These measurements will improve air quality forecasting and will help to mitigate health hazards resulting from air pollution, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, and neurological…
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