Harris IT Service’s Omaha, Nebraska operation is responsible for the program. IJPS provides for the upgrade and augmentation of the current National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) ground system located at the Satellite Operations Control Center (SOCC) in Suitland, Maryland, and at the Command and Data Acquisition Stations (CDAS) in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Wallops Island, Virginia.

The purpose of the IJPS CSU (CDA and SOCC Upgrade) program is to facilitate the NESDIS POES ground system’s support of future POES satellites as well as the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Meteorological Operational (MetOp) series of satellites, which are scheduled to be launched beginning in 2005. Under the IJPS agreement, NOAA and EUMETSAT will share resources in a cooperative venture beneficial to both parties and to the world’s meteorological community.