L3Harris-Built CrIS Infrared Weather Forecasting Instrument Installed on JPSS-2 Satellite

L3Harris Technologies said its Cross-Tracker Infrared Sounder infrared weather forecasting technology has been launched on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 weather satellite.

JPSS-2 orbits the Earth 14 times a day to gather weather data. The CrIS instrument, a Fourier transform spectrometer, gathers hyperspectral, infrared data that supports NOAA in providing global and long-term forecasts using over 2,000 infrared channels.

The infrared instrument also helps officials understand long-term weather and climate phenomena and greenhouse gas concentration. These pieces of information support the United States’ goal of improving its preparation for future weather events, L3Harris said Thursday.

CrIS is currently installed on the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership and NOAA-20 environmental satellites. The instrument will also fly on JPSS-3 and JPSS-4, which are slated for launch in 2027 and 2032, respectively.

Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of spectral solutions at L3Harris’ Space and Airborne Systems, said the instrument’s ability to improve severe weather detection and forecasting helps people prepare and get out of dangerous situations.

L3Harris also provides avionics, X- and Ka-band payloads for images and scientific data transmission and S-band transceiver uplinks to JPSS-2.