page_title: Suomi NPP
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Suomi NPP / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of most of North America taken from a low orbit of about 826 km altitude. The whole hemisphere is not visible owing to the low orbit, and the horizon is at a distance of about 3,300 km, while the radius of the planet is 6,371 km. The diameter seen from this height is about 125 degrees. An image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's Earth-observing research satellite, Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on 4 January 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on 24 January 2012 to honour the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Suomi NPP carries five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS. Español: Una vista de la mayor parte de América del Norte tomada desde una órbita baja. Esta vista resulta de una altura del satélite que está a unos 826 kilómetros por encima de la superficie de la Tierra. Debido a la órbita baja el hemisferio no es totalmente visible, y el horizonte se encuentra en una distancia de tan sólo aproximadamente 3300 km, mientras que el radio de nuestro planeta es 6371 kilómetros. El diámetro del horizonte visto desde esta altura es de aproximadamente 125 grados.
context_page_description: The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership or Suomi NPP, previously known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project and NPP-Bridge, is a weather satellite operated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was launched in 2011 and continues to operate.
  Suomi was originally intended as a pathfinder for the NPOESS program, which was to have replaced NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites and the U.S. Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Suomi was launched in 2011 after the cancellation of NPOESS to serve as a stop-gap between the POES satellites and the Joint Polar Satellite System which will replace them. Its instruments provide climate measurements that continue prior observations by NASA's Earth Observing System.
  The satellite is named after Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The name was announced on January 24, 2012, three months after the satellite's launch.
  The satellite was launched from Space Launch Complex 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7920-10C on October 28, 2011.
context_section_description: NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) is intended to bridge the gap between old EOS and new systems by flying new instruments, on a new satellite bus, using a new ground data network.
  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 until DOD participation in the larger project was dissolved. The project continued as a civilian weather forecasting replacement for the  NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) series, and ensured continuity of climate measurements begun by NASA's Earth Observing System.
  The spacecraft was launched 28 October 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base via a Delta II in the 7920-10 configuration (Extra Extended Long Tank with RS-27A engine first stage, 9 GEM-40 solid rocket motors, type 2 second stage with Aerojet AJ10 engine, no 3rd stage and a 10-meter fairing). Additionally, the rocket deployed four CubeSats as a part of NASA ELaNa III manifest.
  The VIIRS sensor on board the spacecraft acquired its first measurements of Earth on November 21, 2011.
  NASA also released a high resolution blue marble image of the Earth showing most of North America, which was created by NASA oceanographer Norman Kuring using data obtained on January 4, 2012 by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite, one of five imaging systems aboard the satellite.  That date was chosen because it was a fairly sunny day in most of North America.
caption: Blue Marble 2012, created from Suomi NPP composite imagery
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