BackForward Satellite Programme: Coriolis 

Programme details
Programme description
  • Single-satellite programme to demonstrate sea-surface wind vector observation by polarimetric passive MW.
  • Risk-reduction programme for the former National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Programme led by the Ministry of Defence (DoD) and implemented by AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) and NRL (Naval Research Laboratory).
  • The platform is actively stabilised over 3 axes.
  • The design life time is 3 years.
  • The satellite is on a sunsynchronous dawn-dusk orbit at 6:00.
  • See detailed description at https://directory.eoportal.org/missions/coriolis.
Data circulation
  • Onboard stored data downlinked to stations of AFRL and NRL.
  • Processing/utilisation centres at the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) of the US Navy, Monterey (California); the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA),  Bellevue (Nebraska); and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of NOAA.
Agencies DoD , NASA
Programme lifetime 2003 - 2020
Associated satellites and instruments

Note: red tag => no longer operational , green tag => operational , blue tag => planned