H/T
Jun Okushi, quoting:
Climate measurements stripped out of the budget for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program in 2014 will be gathered by JPSS satellites after all, according to the plan put together by NASA, the new bill-payer for climate research formerly funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
JPSS-1 is set to launch in 2017. It will carry five instruments, including two that will make the sort of climate measurements that Congress, at the White House's request, gave NASA responsibility for as part of the $1.1 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2014 (H.R. 3547), signed in January to fund federal spending through September. NOAA operates U.S. civilian weather satellites, but pays NASA to oversee spacecraft design and development.
After JPSS-1, the climate measurements gathered by that satellite via its Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System become NASA's financial responsibility. NASA plans to fulfill this responsibility by flying three instruments, including two notionally manifested for launch with JPSS-2 in 2021, and one that would be delivered to a commercial satellite company in 2019 to fly as a hosted payload in geostationary orbit
