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radio-positioning systems. NOAA is now capable of more 

 productive, more precise, and less expensive bathymetric and 

 hydrographic surveys. The GPS-P has also increased NOAA's 

 ability to reoccupy ocean sites. For example, using precise 

 positioning together with remotely-operated tethered vehicles, 

 NOAA can recover instruments left for months near hydrothermal 

 vents or in sea-floor boreholes. Captain Lewis Lapine, a NOAA 

 officer who heads NOAA's National Geodetic Survey Division, is 

 chairman of the GPS Interagency Advisory Council. He also 

 participates in an Office of Science and Technology Policy 

 Interagency Working Group to develop a Presidential Policy 

 Directive that will set the tone for acceptance of GPS as the 

 worldwide positioning standard. 



POLAR-ORBITING METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE CONVERGENCE 



NOAA and the Air Force are now engaged in the long-term 

 convergence of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program 

 (DMSP) and the NOAA Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite 

 Program. Combining these two weather satellite programs into one 

 system is expected to save up to one billion dollars by the year 

 2006. The combined system, to be operated by NOAA, is called the 

 National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite 

 System (NPOESS) . NPOESS is headed at NOAA by a newly retired Air 

 Force colonel, James T. Mannen, with a NOAA Corps captain as his 

 executive officer. NASA and the Navy are also involved in 

 shaping the NPOESS that will evolve from the present 

 constellation of two NOAA and two DMSP satellites. Additionally, 

 outside advice is being sought on the design for replacement 

 satellites. The interests of ocean scientists will be protected. 

 New NPOESS satellites will build on NOAA's present ocean remote 

 sensing program and will be at least as capable as present 

 satellites of measuring ocean parameters, including sea ice cover 

 and icebergs, cloud cover, sea condition, wind velocity, and sea 

 surface temperature. 



JOINT-TENANT COMMAND AT MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE 



The NOAA Aircraft Operations Center, from which NOAA flies its 

 hurricane research and other missions, is a joint-tenant command 

 at MacDill Air Force Base, near Tampa, Florida. This 

 agreement with the Air Force realizes great cost savings for NOAA 

 over its previous facilities at the Miami International Airport. 



NOAA COOPERATION WITH THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY 



NOAA scientists participated in the Environmental Task Force 

 (ETF) formed by then-Senator Gore and Senator Nunn. And NOAA has 

 continued working with the follow-ons to ETF - the MEDEA project 

 and the Government Applications Task Force (GATE) . As part of 



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