L3Harris
L3Harris is a provider of weather sensors flown by US and international customers such as NOAA’s Advanced Baseline Imager for the GOES-R satellite series. Credit: Nasa.

Aerospace and defence technology manufacturer L3Harris Technologies has won a contract to develop a next-generation geostationary weather imagers concept.

Under this contract awarded by Nasa, L3Harris will design the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary and Extended Orbits (GEO-XO) satellite system imager.

The GEO-XO imager will be equipped with additional spectral bands, advanced spatial resolution, and enhanced data compression algorithms.

By integrating these features with flexible and efficient scan capabilities, the system will be able to provide enhanced severe storm tracking, weather forecasting, and fire/smoke detection.

It will also provide other benefits for government users, scientists and the US.

In addition, L3Harris will be responsible for performing technology development and analysis for the GEO-XO satellite system.

L3Harris space and airborne system president Ed Zoiss said: “L3Harris will leverage its five decades of engineering and manufacturing experience building space-based imaging systems to develop the next-generation weather satellite concept.

“The new imager will support NOAA’s efforts to continually improve Earth observations from geostationary orbit – a critical capability, which protects the lives and property of our nation’s citizens.”

The GEO-XO mission is designed to replace the existing Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) series of weather satellites.

NOAA’s GEO-XO programme is slated to launch in the early 2030s.

L3Harris provides weather sensors, including NOAA’s Advanced Baseline Imager for the GOES-R satellite series, the Cross Track Infrared Sounder for the Joint Polar Satellite System and more.