Beskrivning : New US Generation meteorological satellite.
The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership or Suomi NPP, previously known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) and NPP-Bridge, is a weather satellite operated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Originally intended as a pathfinder for the NPOESS programme, which was to have replaced NOAA`s Polar Operational Environmental Satellites and the US Air Force`s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, Suomi was launched in 2011 after the cancellation of NPOESS to serve as a gapfiller 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.
Vandenberg post stamp.