1. Introduction
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Initial Joint Polar
System (IJPS) System Requirements Review (SRR) is the first major program
milestone for the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES)
program to baseline those new capabilities required for NOAA to fulfill it
responsibilities as part of IJPS. This
report is provided in accordance with the overall guidelines established in the
POES IJPS Organizational Note (December 20, 2001).
1.1 Purpose of Review
The
purpose of the SRR is to obtain an independent assessment of the requirements
data package submitted by NOAA. The SRR
provides NOAA personnel and its partner, the European Organisation for the
Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the opportunity to
ascertain all POES IJPS requirements have been addressed properly, and to
identify and resolve any omissions or concerns. Successful completion of the SRR and resolution of all
discrepancies will provide the baseline of requirements for updating the POES
system to support the IJPS.
1.2 Scope
The
NOAA POES IJPS SRR reviews the new requirements allocated to the POES ground
segment to support the IJPS. The IJPS
is comprised of two independent, but fully coordinated, polar satellite systems. In support of the IJPS, the space segment of
the NOAA POES system will include the NOAA-N and -N’ satellites to be flown
consecutively (one satellite replacing the other) in a polar orbit with an
afternoon equatorial crossing time.
Also in support of the IJPS, the POES ground segment will continue to
conduct all operations with the POES satellites while initiating support for
joint satellite operations between the POES and EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS)
ground segment for commanding, receiving telemetry and global data, and
exchanging data between the two systems.
It is these new requirements allocated to the POES ground segment for
joint operations to support the IJPS that are being reviewed at this SRR.
2. Review board Objectives and results
2.1 Objectives
of Review
The
over all objectives of the SRR are to:
· Obtain independent evaluation of NOAA’s
allocation of IJPS ground segment requirements by organizations not directly
involved with the requirement allocation process;
· Obtain independent evaluation of the
requirement documentation adequacy to address requirement allocations;
· Ascertain and confirm all IJPS requirements
have been addressed and allocated at appropriate levels (System, Segment and
Element) and identify any discrepancies for resolution through the Review Item
Discrepancy (RID) process;
· Ascertain and confirm interface requirements
between NOAA and EPS have been completely allocated and identify any
discrepancies for resolution through the RID process; and
· Confirm NOAA can proceed to the next phase
of activity which includes POES ground segment hardware and software
procurement and implementation.
2.2 Review
Organization
The
Review Board activities were concentrated into the following time periods:
January
9 Received from distribution the
POES IJPS SRR Data Package
January
18 Submitted RIDs to Review Board
secretary
January
30 Received SRR presentations from
IJPS Team and submitted RFAs
January
31 Conducted RFA and RID response
sessions
February
12 Submitted review board report to
Steering Committee
2.3 Reference
Documents
The
Review Board members were provided the following SRR Data Package as a basis
for conducting their reviews:
a. POES System Requirements for the Initial
Joint Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (RDN4);
b. Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite (POES) Ground Segment Command and Data Acquisition and Satellite
Operations Control Center Requirements for IJPS;
c. Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite IJPS System Requirements for Communications Services;
d. Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite IJPS System Requirements for the Ingest and Preprocessing System;
e. Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite IJPS Product Generation and Distribution System Requirements; and
f. Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite IJPS Archive and Access System Description and Requirements for the
IJPS.
2.4 Review Board Members and Assignments
2.4.1 Review Board Members
The
POES IJPS Review Board was comprised of the following members:
|
Chairman
|
Richard
G. Reynolds
|
NESDIS/Office
of Systems Development
|
|
|
|
|
|
Members
|
Yves
Buhler
|
EUMETSAT
|
|
|
Jim
Heil
|
NOAA/National
Weather Service
|
|
|
Katherine
Kidwell
(for
Charles Carpenter)
|
NESDIS/National
Climatic Data Center
|
|
|
Eugene
Legg
|
NESDIS/Office of Satellite Data Processing
and Distribution
|
|
|
Joseph
Mulligan
|
NOAA/Integrated
Program Office
|
|
|
James
Valenti
|
NESDIS/Office
of Satellite Operations
|
|
|
Michael
Weinreb
|
NESDIS/Office
of Research and Applications
|
|
|
|
|
|
Secretary
|
Larry
Deem
|
NESDIS/Office
of Systems Development/ Mitretek Systems
|
2.4.2 Review Board
Assignments
In
preparing to review the IJPS Data Package, the following team assignments were
made by the review board chairman:
|
Document
|
Reviewed
by
|
|
POES
System Requirements for the Initial Joint Polar-orbiting Operational
Satellite System (RDN4)
|
All
team members
|
|
Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Ground Segment Command and Data
Acquisition and Satellite Operations Control Center Requirements for IJPS
|
Yves
Buhler, Charles Carpenter, Jim Heil, Joseph Mulligan, James Valenti
|
|
Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite IJPS System Requirements for
Communications Services
|
Yves
Buhler, Charles Carpenter, Jim Heil, Joseph Mulligan
|
|
Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite IJPS System Requirements for the Ingest
and Preprocessing System
|
Yves
Buhler, Charles Carpenter, Jim Heil, Eugene Legg, Joseph Mulligan, Michael
Weinreb
|
|
Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite IJPS Product Generation and Distribution
System Requirements
|
Yves
Buhler, Charles Carpenter, Jim Heil, Eugene Legg, Joseph Mulligan, Michael
Weinreb
|
|
Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite IJPS Archive and Access System
Description and Requirements for the IJPS
|
Yves
Buhler, Charles Carpenter, Jim Heil,
Joseph Mulligan
|
2.5 Summary of Evaluations
The
results of the Review Board’s analysis of the IJPS POES Data Package resulted
in the following RIDs.
|
RIDs
Generated
|
Breakdown
of Technical RIDs
|
|
174 Technical
|
99
System
|
|
340
Editorial
|
15
CDA/SOCC
|
|
|
3 Comm.
|
|
517 Total
|
22
IPS
|
|
|
34
PGD
|
|
|
1 AAS
|
During
the course of the review, 44 editorial and 44 technical RIDs were closed by the
interaction of the review board members and the IJPS team. Of the remaining 296 editorial RIDs considered open, agreement was reached on
the proposed response and/or the proposed update to the respective reference
document to correct the discrepancy.
Similarly,
of the remaining 130 technical RIDS considered open, agreement was generally
reached on the proposed response and/or the proposed update to the respective
reference document to correct the discrepancy.
Five RIDs considered open are being elevated to the steering committee
for further analysis and decision as discussed later in this report.
During
the presentations by the IJPS Team on January 30, approximately 20 Requests for
Action (RFAs) were prepared by the Review Board to clarify the information
being covered. The IJPS Team provided
answers to these Requests for Action on January 31, prior to starting the RID
review sessions. Three actions remained
open dealing with the establishing additional program reviews as part of the
communications service acquisition, NOAA’s plans for GACizing the METOP AVHRR
data, and NOAA’s continued use of the 4 Km data products.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
The
Review Board has provided the following list of recommendations for
consideration by the Steering Committee during the decision phase of the POES
IJPS SRR.
Recommendation
1 – NOAA Perspective on Potential New Products
RIDs:
118SYSJM, 017PGDMW, 018PGDMW, 030PGDMW, 036PGDGL, 037PGDGL
The
baseline presented at the POES IJPS SRR for NOAA to generate products from the
satellite data retrieved from the METOP satellites only includes those POES
products generated for the current POES morning satellite (as adjusted for the
later equatorial crossing time). NOAA
is receiving the full METOP satellite data stream. However, after ingest and pre-processing of the data, only those
selected data streams are being used for product generation.
The Review Board recommends the Steering
Committee review the referenced RIDs and the individual instrument data streams
and provide guidance for their implementation as part of NOAA’s program to
produce products in the IJPS time period.
Recommendation
2 – POES System Requirements for Timeliness and Quality
RID:
019SYSMW, 083SYSYB
The
POES IJPS SRR data package only identifies those changes to the baseline POES
system to provide support to the IJPS.
Unless there is a stated requirement for change, the requirements of the
baseline POES system still need to be satisfied. This is particularly true for the capability of the POES system
to generate and deliver products to users within existing timeliness
requirements while maintaining quality standards. Although this was included in the POES IJPS requirements documentation,
it was felt stronger and more prominent statements could be included in the
data package to be understood at all levels and in all planned procurement
actions.
The
Review Board recommends all documents in the data package be updated to clearly
state the baseline POES system requirements for timeliness and quality apply to
POES operations in the IJPS time period, unless specifically changed through
the configuration management process.
Recommendation
3 – Planning for Day-2 Product Generation and Distribution
RIDs:
014SYSMW, 015SYSMW, 025SYSMW, 027SYSMW, 028SYSMW, 083SYSYB
NOAA
is planning to receive, ingest and pre-process the Level-1 and Level-2
satellite data from METOP-only instruments for all METOP orbits. However, only the satellite data required
for Day-1 products will be processed by NOAA in generating and distributing
products for users. Although Day-2
products were described as possibly being available at the same time as Day-1
products, no planning was available to reflect when user requirement would be
established and resources made available to make this a viable option.
The
review board recommends clear guidance be established for planning and
implementing Day-2 products for NOAA.
Recommendation 4 – Update
Traceability References with Next Release of Data Package
RIDs:
057SYSYB, 058SYSYB, 075SYSYB, 077SYSYB, 195SYSYB, 198SYSYB, 215SYSYB, 216SYSYB,
042CSUYB 039IPSYB, 047IPSYB, 048IPSYB, 050IPSYB
In
tracing system level requirements to source documents and to the segment and
element levels of the POES system, several corrections were noted by the Review
Board. Since requirements and
traceability references will be used during the life of the program to
implement configuration management and a verification and validation program,
it is recommended these references be reviewed prior to the next release of the
data package.
Recommendation
5 – Prepare Internal Interface Requirements Documents
RIDs:
079SYSYB, 080SYSYB, 156SYSJM, 022COMYB
Clarity
of the system interface requirements were the subject of discussions during the
initial presentations, Request for Action discussions and RID review
sessions. Although the concerns raised
by EUMETSAT pertaining to how NOAA was referencing the agreed to Interface Requirements
Documents (IRD) were discussed and closed (see RID 201SYSYB), those discussions
related to internal system interface allocations remained open until the RID
response was fully implemented.
Documentation of requirements between system elements could be further
improved by requiring the development of Interface Requirements Documents
between system elements. This level of
documentation was not presented in the POES IJPS SRR data package, but needs to
be flowed through the development to implementing contractors to assure full
requirements traceability.
The
Review Board recommends the IJPS Team prepare and coordinate Interface
Requirements Documents (IRD) prior to initiating planned procurement action,
and impose IRD requirements on all implementing Offices and their contractors.
Recommendation
6 – NCEP Timeliness Requirement
RID:
020PGDMW, 024PGDMW
The
Review Board is researching if there is a documented requirement for NCEP to
receiver HIRS and AMSU Level-1 radiances within 165 minutes after observation
as part of the baseline POES system. In
a similar situation, the Review Board is researching data compression
requirement for the IASI radiance data set to be provided to NCEP.
The
Review Board cautions the validation of either or both of these requirements
may be cause for the IJPS Team to revisit the product processing requirement
for NCEP.
4. Analysis
and conclusions
The
Review Board has completed its independent evaluation of the NOAA POES IJPS
data package and provides the following analysis comments and conclusions.
The
Review Board would like to complement the IJPS Team, under the leadership of
James Silva, in preparing a comprehensive data package for presentation at the
NOAA POES IJPS SRR. The data package
was found to clearly capture all new functional requirement being levied on the
POES ground segment to implement NOAA’s role in supporting the IJPS. The data package documented all new
functional requirements for the POES system and then, through the process of
requirements allocation, identified the segment and element level POES
functional areas affected by the new IJPS requirements. This allowed the Review Board to quickly
analyze the proposed changes based on their expert knowledge of the current
POES system baseline and to provide feedback on the clarity and completeness of
the new requirements.
While
recognizing the clarity of the proposed changes to the POES system, the Review
Board did find some areas of concern dealing with the current POES system and
required transitions to satellite operations in the IJPS time period. The data package provided for review only
addresses those changes to support the IJPS agreement. In addition, the IJPS Team has analyzed
these changes and prepared supporting budgets for their implementation. Not addressed are new opportunities NOAA
will have in processing satellite data streams from new instruments with
significant improvements in the resolution of the orbital data sets
Similar
concerns were raised by the Review Board in the areas identified in the data package
as “Day-1 Products” and “Day-2 Products.”
During the IJPS time period, the data package reflects NOAA will be
receiving the complete data stream from the EPS satellites, Meteorological
Operational (METOP) 1 and METOP 2.
However, NOAA only plans to process the orbital data sets required to
produce those products necessary to replace the NOAA morning satellite. These products are collectively called
“Day-1 Products” and are to be available at the time the METOP satellite is
declared operational. The Day-2
products were described as being available on an individual product priority
basis, possibly at the same time as Day-1 products, or much later. The Review Board’s concerns, as described
during the review, is there does not exist a current integrated plan for Day-2
products with coordinated user requirements and planned resources for
implementation. Since these items were judged to be outside the charter for the
IJPS Team, five RIDs were forwarded to the Steering Committee for further
analysis and decision.
POES
system internal and external interfaces were the subject of several questions
raised during the team presentations and during the review sessions for
RIDs. During presentations describing
changes to the POES system and changes to system elements, several questions
were raised on the clarity and completeness of requirement allocations
involving internal interfaces. Part of
this problem was related to the recent signing of the Interface Requirements
Documents between NOAA and EUMETSAT. In
the NOAA documentation approach these changes were required to be integrated
into the system level document and allocated to the segment and element
levels. Following through on the agreed
to RID responses will assist in completing this process. The current state of agreements between NOAA
and EUMETSAT on the communications requirements between the two satellite
systems was described as also contributing to some requirement not be clearly
described at this time. The Review
Board believes the IJPS Team is working towards resolving the problems
described for internal POES system interfaces.
However, the Review Board recommends a series of Interface Requirements
Documents between system elements be created and in place prior releasing any
procurement packages as described in the planned schedules presented at the
SRR.
The
POES system external interface with the EPS was also discussed as an area of
concern by the EUMETSAT member of the Review Board. The concerns raised by EUMETSAT relates to NOAA’s implementation
of the signed interface requirements documents. At the present time, interface requirements between NOAA and
EUMETSAT are referenced in the system level documentation and shown as derived
from the Program Implementation Plan and interface requirements documents. All lower level documents reference the
system level document as the source of their requirements. The Review Board believes the success of
this approach is strongly dependent on implementing the configuration
management processes as described during the POES IJPS SRR. Therefore, the Review Board recommends the
documents in the POES data package be updated with the proposed RID comments
and approved to establish a formal configuration management baseline. This will provide NOAA a basis for
implementing its overall POES responsibilities while providing EUMETSAT
visibility into POES interfaces.
The
Review Board has considered the objectives established for the POES IJPS SRR
and feel, as discussed within this report, all objectives have been
fulfilled. The POES IJPS program
should continue into the next phase of acquisition activities while
incorporating the board’s recommendations as part of their implementation
actions.
Again,
congratulations to the NOAA POES IJPS Team for a job well done in
preparing and presenting the SRR, and
satisfactorily resolving issues during the review.
APPENDIX
RIDs
Packages
