Defining the Complex JPSS Ground System in Pieces Using DoDAF 2.0 as Implemented with UPDM

NASA is developing the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Ground System for NOAA. The architecture describing this complex system of systems is being modeled using DoDAF 2.0 as described by the Unified Profile for DoDAF and MODAF (UPDM) and by the System Modeling Language (SysML); both of with are based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) developed for the software community. The JPSS Ground System is expected to provide command uplink, data downlink, data reduction, and processed data distribution for a disparate set of satellite missions, each of which provides the data from multiple sets of weather, climate, and environment measuring instruments. The program's ground stations are near the Earth's poles on Norway's Svalbard island and at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The program also plans to make use of NOAA’s Fairbanks station and Kongsberg Satellite Service’s Antarctic station in Troll. These ground systems utilize global networks for sending the received data to several central data processing locations in the United States, as well as distributing select data to Darmstadt, Germany. The complexity of the JPSS program has been decomposed into a set of capability threads that are described diagrammatically in DoDAF capability, operational, and system views. This paper describes the breakdown of the JPSS program into threads, the development of the threads, presents example thread details, and illustrates inter-thread interaction. The use of MagicDraw, the diagramming tool for developing the architecture, will also be discussed.