REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Nov. 10, 2008 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) successfully delivered a key sensor for global climate change measurement one week ahead of schedule and on budget. The sensor is the second to be delivered for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP).

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) sensor will be integrated onto the NPP spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in 2010. NPP is a joint mission between the tri-agency NPOESS Integrated Program Office and NASA providing risk-reduction for NPOESS and will bridge climate measurements between NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) research spacecraft and the operational NPOESS system. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the design, development and delivery of NPOESS system -- and is responsible for overseeing the delivery of three sensors for NPP.

"We modified the CERES Flight Model 5 for NPP in nine months by assembling an expert team of CERES veterans," said Dave Vandervoet, vice president of Civil Systems Division for Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector. "Their experience with the sensor, its construction, software, and intricate calibration processes made this timely delivery possible. CERES will allow global climate measurements that have been gathered continuously for three decades to continue through the middle of the next decade."

Northrop Grumman modified CERES under contract to NASA Langley Research Center.

"The Earth's radiation balance is in many ways the most critical part of the climate system and is directly influenced by changes in atmospheric composition, such as greenhouse gases and aerosols, cloud properties, and surface and atmospheric temperature," said Bruce Wielicki and Norman Loeb, NASA's CERES Principal Investigators. "The CERES instrument on NPP will continue the excellent CERES radiation budget data record collected by the NASA's Earth Observing System satellites and earlier Earth radiation budget satellite missions."

"The long climate record from CERES will ultimately answer a longstanding question in science concerning the role of clouds in amplifying or damping the sensitivity of the Earth's climate system," they concluded.

For more than 25 years, Northrop Grumman has supplied CERES and an earlier generation of similar sensors to measure the reflected solar radiation and emitted thermal radiation over the Earth's surface. The latest sensor, one of six built, underwent electrical and thermal modifications, had updated software installed and was calibrated at the company's manufacturing facilities in Redondo Beach, Calif.

Four CERES sensors are currently operational on NASA's Terra and Aqua Earth Observing System spacecraft. The first CERES sensor to be launched was a part of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission.

CERES sensors measure thermal radiation from the visible/near-ultraviolet to the far infrared wavelength regions, or in simpler terms, the amount of sunlight reflected from the Earth and atmosphere as well as the thermal energy emitted by the Earth and atmosphere. Changes in the radiation budget can cause significant temperature changes, enough to increase or shrink arable lands, lengthen growing seasons, and enlarge cold zones or deserts.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.

About CERES 

  * CERES provides observational climate data records documenting
    changes in the Earth's radiation energy balance.

  * Changes in the radiation budget can cause significant temperature
    changes, enough to increase or shrink arable lands, lengthen
    growing seasons, and enlarge cold zones or deserts.

  * CERES is a scanning broadband radiometer designed to measure
    the emitted thermal and reflected solar radiative energy from the
    surface of the Earth and the atmosphere. The radiometer is made up
    of three sensors, each with its own telescope mounted on a gimbaled
    platform that continuously scans across the Earth in a 6.6-second
    cycle.

  * The CERES shortwave, longwave, and total sensor channels are
    calibrated to an accuracy that allows the reflected and emitted
    light from the Earth to be determined with less than 1%, 0.3%,
    and 0.5% drift over more than 5 years on-orbit, respectively.
    This is 5 to 10 times better than other typical space instruments.
    This is accomplished using an elaborate Radiometric Calibration
    Facility at Northrop Grumman that was designed specifically to
    support CERES calibration. Accuracies of these levels are required
    to allow climate scientists to determine if the Earth is in a
    warming or cooling trend and to measure the effect of clouds on
    this warming or cooling.

  * CERES is providing a systematic and thorough observation of the
    Earth's surface at all latitudes, which is required to accurately
    determine the global amount of radiation received from the sun
    and the amount reflected back to space.

  * The first CERES sensor was launched in 1997.

  * Northrop Grumman's CERES modification contract is valued at
    approximately $7 million.
 
  CONTACT:  Sally Koris
          Northrop Grumman Space Technology
          310.812.4721
          sally.koris@ngc.com