[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 156 (Friday, August 14, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41127-41128]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-19500]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


 Notice of Modifications for the GOES Data Collection Platform 
Radio Set (DCPRS) Certification Standards at 300 bps and 1200 bps

SUMMARY: NOAA is making a change to the certification standards for the 
transmitters that participate in the GOES Data Collection System (DCS). 
The primary purpose of this change is to enhance the flexibility of the 
system, to provide better messaging capabilities, additional system 
capacity, improve timing and frequency stability, and conform to the 
regulations for out-of-band emissions specified by the National 
Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA). The GOES DCS 
will operate under new certification procedures that will allow new 
data collection platforms to use a frequency channel with half the 
current bandwidth (.75 Hz), though existing platforms will continue to 
use frequency channels with 1.5 Hz bandwidth until suitable 
replacements are ascertained. The owners of the existing platforms are 
invited to upgrade their units as soon as possible. New data collection 
platforms will be assigned a narrow band channel in the restructured 
GOES DCS. These new certification standards may be reviewed on the NOAA 
Web site: http://noaasis.noaa.gov/DCS/docs/DCPR_CS2final.doc.

DATES: Start of service [October 1, 2009].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Comments may be provided to the NOAA 
GOES DCS Program Manager, at [email protected] or you can contact 
her at 301-817-4558.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since the advent of the Geostationary 
Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and the on-board 
transponder, environmental data from remote platforms has been 
collected and relayed in real time to federal and international 
environmental managers and scientists. Known as the GOES Data 
Collection System (DCS), this satellite transmission technology 
consists of over 20,000 Data Collection Platforms (DCPs), dedicated 
satellite receive and transmit capability, and ground/satellite 
processing and distribution equipment. Data collected from DCPs 
measures or monitors such varied parameters as rainfall, river stage 
levels, soil conditions, seismic or tsunami conditions, aircraft flight 
environment and fire conditions. These data are also used to verify and 
serve as ``ground truth'' for other types of remotely sensed data such 
as NEXRAD and satellite-derived precipitation estimates. DCS data 
provides fast, reliable information for flood, fire, tsunami and other 
disaster forecasts and warnings amounting to incalculable savings in 
lives and property damage.
    This system provides critical support to the U.S. Corp of 
Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, the 
National Weather Service and other federal and state agencies to 
monitor and forecast the flood stages in the upper Mississippi

[[Page 41128]]

Valley. Starting in 1975, the GOES DCS opened a vast new capability to 
acquire the needed data in real or near-real time. Many Federal 
Agencies started their own systems for collecting and telemetering 
their data for their own use. In the recent two decades and a half, 
these Federal Agencies have come together to improve the tools and the 
system for better collection, and to modernize the storage and 
dissemination of the in-situ observations to all the users who desired 
them. This GOES Data Collection System (DCS) has become the conduit 
through which remotely sensed observations, the life-blood of the 
Agencies' operations, must pass. The GOES DCS is now a critical 
Infrastructure for most of these Agencies, contributing to billions of 
dollars in damages being averted through flood control measures.
    As the demand for remotely sensed in-situ data has increased, 
certain segments of the system have been threatened with saturation. 
The Federal Agencies as users, and the National Environmental 
Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) as the system 
operator, consistently strive to improve the capabilities of the GOES 
DCS.

Mary E. Kicza,
Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services.
[FR Doc. E9-19500 Filed 8-13-09; 8:45 am]
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