Dr. Gerald J. Dittberner Profile

Dr. Gerald J. Dittberner

Founder & President

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Proceedings Article | 26 August 2010 Paper

An overview of the GOES-R ground segment architecture

Dennis Hansen, John Bristow, Satya Kalluri, Allan Weiner, Gerald Dittberner

Proceedings Volume 7813, 781304 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.859882

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Space operations, Data backup, Satellite communications, Product distribution, Data acquisition, Aerospace engineering, Image segmentation, Data centers, Remote sensing

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The next generation of NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system, Series R (GOES-R) provides continuity of the GOES mission and improvement of its remotely-sensed environmental data. The GOES-R system consists of the Space and Ground Segments. The Space Segment consists of spacecraft bus, its remote-sensing instruments, and communications payloads; while the Ground Segment consists of all Earth-based functions, provides satellite operations and instrument product generation and distribution. This paper presents an overview of the GOES-R Ground Segment (GS) architecture as it continues to evolve consistent with the GOES-R Ground Segment Project (GSP) approved requirements documents. The GOES-R Ground Segment operates from three sites. The first is the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, MD which houses the primary Mission Management (MM), and selected Enterprise Management (EM), Product Generation (PG), and Product Distribution (PD) functions. The Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station (WCDAS), located in Wallops, VA, provides the primary space communications services, EM and MM functions, and selected PG and PD functions. The third site is a geographically diverse remote backup facility (RBU) located at Fairmont, WV. The architecture has been developed to allow integrated operation within a geographically distributed framework. Because of the unique configuration of the Mission Management Element, the Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Site will have the ability to assume control of satellite operations in the event of an emergency - when authorized by the primary NSOF controllers. This concept allows the Enterprise Management element to have available a wide range of capabilities governed by operations policy rather than the need for system upgrades. This concept also provides flexibility for addition and deletion of modules for major functions. The use of Service Based Architecture concepts within the Product Generation element (PG) provides service interaction capabilities for product generation with only a fraction of the necessary overhead.

Proceedings Article | 26 August 2010 Paper

The product generation architecture for the GOES-R ground system

Gerald Dittberner, Satya Kalluri, Allan Weiner, Michael Blanton, Anderson Tarpley

Proceedings Volume 7813, 781305 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.859902

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Data storage, Computer architecture, Telecommunications, Data processing, Data communications, Remote sensing, Sensors, Calibration, Heart

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The GOES-R Ground System (GS) will produce a much larger set of products with higher data density than previous GOES systems. This requires considerably greater compute and memory resources to achieve the necessary latency and availability for these products. Over time, new algorithms could be added and existing ones removed or updated, but the GOES-R GS cannot go down during this time. To meet these GOES-R GS processing needs, the Harris Corporation will implement a Product Generation (PG) infrastructure that is scalable, extensible, extendable, modular and reliable. The primary parts of the PG infrastructure are the Service Based Architecture (SBA) and the Distributed Data Fabric (DDF). The SBA is the middleware that encapsulates and manages science algorithms that generate products. The SBA is divided into three parts, the Executive, which manages and configures the algorithm as a service, the Dispatcher, which provides data to the algorithm, and the Strategy, which determines when the algorithm can execute with the available data. The SBA is a distributed architecture, with services connected to each other over a compute grid and is highly scalable. This plug-and-play architecture allows algorithms to be added, removed, or updated without affecting any other services or software currently running and producing data. Algorithms require product data from other algorithms, so a scalable and reliable messaging is necessary. The SBA uses the DDF to provide this data communication layer between algorithms. The DDF provides an abstract interface over a distributed and persistent multi-layered storage system (memory based caching above disk-based storage) and an event system that allows algorithm services to know when data is available and to get the data that they need to begin processing when they need it. Together, the SBA and the DDF provide a flexible, high performance architecture that can meet the needs of product processing now and as they grow in the future.

Proceedings Article | 30 November 2006 Paper

A vision for a national global operational environmental satellite system (NGOESS)

Shyam Bajpai, Gerald Dittberner, Richard Baron, Andrew Gerber, Jr.

Proceedings Volume 6407, 640705 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.694046

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Meteorological satellites, Space operations, Environmental monitoring, Climatology, Sensors, Satellite communications, Microwave radiation, Spectral resolution, Earth's atmosphere

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Proceedings Article | 14 October 2004 Paper

Remote sensing opportunities for coastal management

Edward Howard, John Pereira, Gerald Dittberner, Michael Griffin, Hsiao-hua Burke

Proceedings Volume 5548, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.556323

KEYWORDS: Remote sensing, Sensors, Water, Spatial resolution, Atmospheric particles, Atmospheric modeling, Associative arrays, Ocean optics, Vegetation, Space sensors

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Proceedings Article | 15 September 2004 Paper

Advanced technologies for future environmental satellite systems

Gerald Dittberner, Michael Crison, Shyam Bajpai, Benjamin Diedrich

Proceedings Volume 5549, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.555789

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Solar sails, Sun, Microwave radiation, Sensors, Atmospheric particles, Clouds, Spatial resolution, Environmental sensing

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Environmental satellites today are designed to meet the most requirements possible within the constraints of budget, reliability, availability, robustness, manufacturability, and the state of the art in affordable technology. As we learn more and more about observing and forecasting, requirements continue to be developed and validated for measurements that can benefit from for advances in technology. The goal is to incorporate new technologies into operational systems as quickly as possible. Technologies that exist or are being developed in response to growing requirements can be categorized as "requirements pull" whereas technologies rooted in basic research and engineering exploration fall in to a "technology push" category. NOAA has begun exploration into technologies for future NOAA satellite systems. Unmet requirements exist that drive the need to locate, explore, exploit, assess, and encourage development in several technologies. Areas needing advanced technologies include: atmospheric aerosols; cloud parameters; precipitation; profiles of temperature, moisture, pressure, and wind; atmospheric radiation; trace gas abundance and distribution; land surface; ocean surface; and space weather components such as neutral density and electron density. One of the more interesting ideas in the technology push category is a constellation of satellites at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) altitudes, here described as circular orbits near 11,000 km altitude. Consider the vision of being able to observe the environment anywhere on the Earth, at anytime, with any repeat look frequency, and being able to communicate these measurements to anyone, anywhere, anytime, in real time. Studies suggest that a constellation of MEO satellites occupying equatorial and polar orbits (inclination = 90 degrees) could, in principle, accomplish this task. Also new on the horizon is solar sail technology. NOAA has been looking at solar sails as providing a propulsive system that could be used to maintain a satellite in a position closer to the Sun than L1. L1 is that point between the Earth and the sun where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the sun are equal. The sail would allow the increased gravitational force from the Sun to be balanced by the propulsive force of the solar sail. This capability could increase the lead-time for measuring and predicting the impact of solar events. Solar sails could also allow a satellite to be positioned over the Earth's polar regions continuously, filling a critical gap in current orbital observations and services. The combination of these technologies will enable the NOAA Satellites and Information Service to meet important requirements currently unmet and help satisfy NOAA strategic goals.

Proceedings Article | 28 October 1996 Paper

Technology cooperation between NOAA and NASA in the New Millennium Program

Edward Howard, Gerald Dittberner, Steven Kirkner

Proceedings Volume 2810, (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.255152

KEYWORDS: Space operations, Sensors, Satellites, Imaging systems, Microwave radiation, Aerospace engineering, Data compression, Antennas, Global Positioning System, Meteorological satellites

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Proceedings Article | 18 October 1996 Paper

NOAA's future GOES satellite program

Edward Howard, Roger Heymann, Gerald Dittberner, Steven Kirkner

Proceedings Volume 2812, (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.254079

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Space operations, Microwave radiation, Imaging systems, Sensors, Meteorological satellites, Satellite imaging, Infrared imaging, Spatial resolution, Antennas

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Proceedings Article | 18 October 1996 Paper

GOES program status

Gerald Dittberner

Proceedings Volume 2812, (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.254068

KEYWORDS: Satellites, Imaging systems, Meteorological satellites, Space operations, Satellite imaging, Visible radiation, Atmospheric optics, Infrared radiation, Sensors, Clouds

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