The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has retired the last two operational satellites in its long-serving POES (Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites) constellation, which has been gathering weather and climate data from around the world for more than 40 years.
NOAA-15 was decommissioned on August 19 and NOAA-19 on August 13, 2025, following the emergency passivation of NOAA-18 on June 6, 2025, after the satellite lost functionality of its transmitter in late May. This brought to an end an environmental satellite mission that had run for 47 years.
The first POES satellite was launched in 1978 to monitor Earth’s weather and environment. Each POES satellite was originally designed to last for five years but many have far outlived those expectations. Flying about 520 miles above Earth and orbiting pole-to-pole 14 times a day, they provided critical observations of Earth’s atmosphere, surface and oceans that improved forecasts for hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other hazards that gave communities more time to prepare. The POES satellites also carried instruments that supported the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system since 1982. By relaying distress beacon signals, they have helped to save more than 24,400 lives around the world, NOAA says.
“POES wasn’t just a weather satellite system, it was a global asset,” said Greg Marlow, NOAA director of satellite and product operations. “From search and rescue to climate monitoring, these satellites supported NOAA’s mission and helped build international partnerships that endure to this day.”
POES satellites also benefited global commerce, agriculture, shipping, aviation and energy production by providing timely reliable weather data, especially in remote parts of the world where they were often the only near real-time source available. For decades, their data fed into NOAA’s numerical weather prediction models, improving three- to five-day weather forecasts and directly assisting the federal, state and local governments in protecting life and property, especially during extreme weather events.
Furthermore, as the POES mission operated for more than four decades, it also contributed to the development of long-term environmental records that have supported research into the changing of global weather patterns. It consistently calibrated observations that enabled scientists to track patterns such as ocean heat waves and ozone depletion. This long-term data continues to support the baseline inputs used in NOAA’s weather models and forecasting systems.
Today, NOAA continues the critical mission of collecting weather observations from low-Earth orbit (LEO) through its next-generation satellite system, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Building on the legacy of POES and working in coordination with other NOAA and partner LEO satellites, JPSS features more advanced instruments, delivers data more quickly and improves the accuracy of weather forecasts.
In related news, the Metop Second Generation A1 (Metop-SGA1) satellite, carrying the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, was successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on August 13. Read the full story here