[6] Originally planned for launch five years earlier as a joint NASA/NOAA/DoD project, NPP was to be a pathfinder mission for the larger National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) until DoD participation in the larger project was dissolved.

[10] The Suomi NPP spacecraft has been built and integrated by BATC (Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation) of Boulder, Colorado (NASA/GSFC contract award in May 2002).

In addition, a single-wing solar array is mounted on the anti-solar side of the spacecraft; its function is to preclude thermal input into the sensitive cryo radiators of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) instruments.

NPP is designed to support controlled reentry at the end of its mission life (via propulsive maneuvers to lower the orbit perigee to approximately 50 km and target any surviving debris for open ocean entry).

It collects radiometric imagery in visible and infrared wavelengths of the land, atmosphere, ice, and ocean.

OMPS extends out 40-year long record ozone layer measurements while also providing improved vertical resolution compared to previous operational instruments.

Closer to the ground, OMPS's measurements of harmful ozone improve air quality monitoring and when combined with cloud predictions; help to create the Ultraviolet index.

CERES instrument continues a multi-year record of the amount of energy entering and exiting from the top of the atmosphere of Earth.

It will provide scientists with needed long-term, stable data sets to make accurate projections of global climate change.

[13] The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) has 1305 spectral channels and will produce high-resolution, three-dimensional temperature, pressure, and moisture profiles.

ATMS, a cross-track scanner with 22 channels, provides sounding observations needed to retrieve profiles of atmospheric temperature and moisture for civilian operational weather forecasting as well as continuity of these measurements for climate monitoring purposes.