Satellite Operations in a Future Cloud Based Ground System Architecture

One of the Strategic Objectives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is to develop agile, scalable ground capabilities to improve efficiency of service deliverables and ingest of satellite observation data from a broad variety of internal and external sources. In addition to the NESDIS Ground Enterprise Study, which examines the feasibility of various approaches to achieve these Strategic Objectives, NESDIS is also performing ongoing market research such as Requests for Information (RFIs), Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), and Vendor Demonstrations to understand potential on-ramps to more rapidly achieve a ground enterprise architecture that meets this Strategic Objective. In the case of satellite operations, an envisioned future ground enterprise would heavily exploit new cloud-based technologies, capabilities, and resources. Specific study goals include the ability for cloud solutions to enable command and control across several constellations, rapid integration of new satellites and new missions, as well as developing specialized applications in support of new satellites/missions in cloud-based environments. In this paper, we will first present a summary of the most feasible cloud-based enterprise ground system applications identified from the NESDIS Ground Enterprise Study along with the various NESDIS market research activities. We will further identify and provide a description of the most cost-effective alternatives and capabilities in support of satellite operations to date, and how these could impact satellite operations. We will assess the ability to evolve existing systems to incorporate the recommendations of these research activities, consider the use of services-based approaches, and address the system maintainability process with respect to the alternatives under consideration. We will describe specific scenarios under the future enterprise architecture that would enhance existing functionality and how recent market research potentially either increases and or decreases near-term viability of specific NESDIS near-term objectives. We will also critically analyze the feasibility of cloud-based satellite operations capabilities from a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operations perspective, in order to address the impact of a given alternative on NOAA operations staff. Finally, we will identify any lessons learned gleaned from the various cloud-based market research activities and their effects on future LEO ground system alternatives.