Insights
  • Success Stories
  • Satellite Science & Environmental Intelligence

Atmospheric Processing System Support

map of globe with swirls of orange around the center and blue around the poles

The NOAA Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) is an operational retrieval algorithm that NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services has been using since 2002. This system generates near real-time atmospheric profiles of temperature, water vapour, and trace gases, as well as Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) needed for weather forecasting. CSS Remote Sensing Scientist supporting the STC Atmospheric Science and Technology Applications team provides science, programming, and algorithm development support for this system.

Major tasks for this effort include

  • Outgoing Longwave Radiation – the longwave radiation emitted to space from the top of Earth’s atmosphere.
  • AWS cloud-based mission-long reprocessing – one-stop place to access all NUCAPS products
  • AEROSE field campaigns – collect and analyze atmospheric temperature, water vapour and ozone profiles, as well as aerosol optical depth and its origins.

For each of these tasks, the CSS remote sensing scientist’s contributions further develop and maintain these critical operations necessary for accurately forecasting and characterization of potentially dangerous weather events.

satellite image of earth on top. Arrow points to a hurricane. Heat map on bottom. Arrow points to a blue blob on bottom indicating the same hurricane as above.
Above is major hurricane Erin, category 4 at the time, shown on the VIIRS true-color image as a typical cloud cover and its correlative NUCAPS top-of-the-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation or OLR observations from NOAA-21 CrIS sensor on August 19, 2025.

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  • Success Stories
  • Environmental Resource Assessment & Management

Expanding Our Offshore Wind Team

We’ve recently added several staff to bolster the offshore wind team at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. With this full team of 13, our employee owners are able to provide more focused support in their areas of expertise, including mapping and spatial modeling, data collection, communications, project management, and partner engagement. Through this…

  • Employee Spotlight, Success Stories
  • Environmental Resource Assessment & Management

Employee Owners Nominated for NOAA Gold Medal Award 

Congratulations to CSS employee owners supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science for their nomination for the NOAA Gold Medal Award! CSS employee owners have been critical members of the team charged with the rapid development of spatial models that aid in offshore wind planning in the Gulf of Mexico. The team has collected…

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  • Success Stories, Uncategorized
  • Environmental Resource Assessment & Management

Monitoring Algal Blooms for Harmful Toxins

CSS employee owners support NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) Sensor Development Team in their efforts to detect and monitor these harmful algal blooms in coastal waters where they are likely to occur. HAB monitoring is critical for detecting harmful toxins produced by some algae. When present in over…