ENGINEERING

NOAA received the prestigious 2013 Space Achievement Award today from the Space Foundation "for its use of space-based systems in making life-saving predictions and issuing early warnings of calamitous weather conditions."

Sandy MacDonald, director of NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., accepted the award on behalf of NOAA at the Space Foundation's 29th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

"For all of the hard-working scientists, researchers and engineers at NOAA, receiving this award is a high honor coming from such a distinguished organization," MacDonald said. "NOAA will continue to stay true to its mission of protecting lives and property, while helping to increase our understanding of the dynamic changes occurring within Earth's environment."

Each year, the Space Foundation presents the Space Achievement Award to an individual or organization for significant contributions in advancing the exploration, development or use of space.

"While most people recognize the value of weather predictions, many don't realize how NOAA uses space assets to determine the severity and risks of approaching weather events," said Elliot Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation in a press release to announce the award.

NOAA operates two types of spacecraft - the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) - that work in tandem to continuously monitor Earth's air, land and water to track atmospheric conditions that trigger severe weather. NOAA is working with its partner NASA to build the next-generation of advanced geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, called GOES-R and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), respectively.