ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ITT Corporation (NYSE:ITT) has been recognized by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with an Outstanding Team of the Year award for its superior efforts and commitment to excellence in building one of the world’s most advanced weather instruments—the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). This satellite weather instrument is part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) program. The exceptional performance of ITT’s ABI team, and in particular, the employees who tested the prototype model, was cited by NASA in the award presentation.
ITT is building the ABI instrument under contract to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the next generation of the GOES-R program.
ABI will monitor and measure three times the number of atmospheric conditions currently measured and will provide enhanced images down to 1,000 meters. The instrument will also make severe weather data and images available to weather forecasters every 30 seconds rather than the current rate of every 7.5 minutes, and full-earth images in five minutes rather than the current rate of 30 minutes. These advancements will provide more accurate and localized forecasts, thereby improving predictions of a storm’s development, path, and intensity.
“ITT is honored to be recognized by our NASA customer for our work on the ABI program,” said Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of ITT Geospatial System’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance business area. This instrument will provide National Weather Service forecasters and climate scientists with new tools—greatly improving weather forecasting. ITT will continue to work hard to further improve the weather instrument as we finalize requirements for the first flight instrument set for delivery in 2012.”
Overall, the GOES-R program is NOAA’s next generation of geostationary weather satellites that are located 22,300 miles above the Earth, providing meteorological and environmental data and images used in weather forecasting. These satellites are critical to monitoring severe weather, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, and are best known as providing many of the images seen on local television weather reports in the U.S. ITT has built every imager and sounder for NOAA’s GOES satellites since 1994, and was awarded the contract to build ABI in 2004. The GOES-R satellite is expected to launch in late 2015.
ITT Geospatial Systems, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., is a global supplier of innovative night vision, remote sensing and navigation solutions that provide sight and situational awareness at the space, airborne, ground and soldier levels. Key applications include image intensification and thermal imaging; advanced power supplies; multi-spectral image systems; weather and climate monitoring; space science; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; GPS-based positioning, navigation and timing systems; and image exploitation software. For more information, visit: www.geospatial.itt.com.
About ITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company operating on all seven continents in three vital markets: water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control. With a heritage of innovation, ITT partners with its customers to deliver extraordinary solutions that create more livable environments, provide protection and safety and connect our world. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company reported 2010 revenue of $11 billion. www.itt.com.