NOAA-20

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is NOAA-20's primary imaging instrument, capable of capturing high-resolution global imagery across 22 spectral bands. VIIRS provides critical data for weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, and disaster response. It also produces the Day/Night Band imagery used to observe nighttime lights, storm clouds at night, and wildfires.

NOAA-20, launched on November 18, 2017, was the first operational satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), a collaborative program between NOAA and NASA. It succeeded the Suomi NPP satellite, which served as a research precursor to the JPSS series. NOAA-21, launched in 2022, is the second JPSS satellite.

NOAA-20 operates in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 824 kilometers, crossing the equator at the same local time each day. It completes roughly 14 orbits per day, circling Earth approximately every 100 minutes. This orbit provides consistent global coverage for environmental monitoring and weather data collection.

While GOES geostationary satellites provide continuous coverage of a fixed hemisphere, NOAA-20's polar orbit enables it to observe the entire globe at higher resolution and across more spectral bands. NOAA-20 carries instruments that measure atmospheric temperature, moisture, and ozone that GOES does not. Together they form the backbone of NOAA's operational satellite observing system.