A review of the National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS) and prospects for ocean remote sensing in the near future

Abstract

The concept of sensing oceanic parameters from space has been clearly demonstrated by the data from NASA's SEASAT. As the next step, a triagency team from NASA, NOAA, and DOD developed a program for a national system, the National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS). The NOSS was to be an end‐to‐end system, a five‐year quasi‐operational demonstration to satisfy the most critical of the user agencies (NOAA and Navy) requirements for oceanographic data. Unfortunately, NOSS became an early victim of the Administration's efforts to reduce the Federal budget. The search for less costly (less capable) alternatives continues. In the meantime, the accuracy of our operational forecasts suffers and critical requirements go unsatisfied.