The 1946 kg (4920 lbm) satellite is the latest in the series of advanced TIROS-N spacecraft that provide a platform to support the environmental monitoring instruments for imaging and measuring the Earth's atmosphere, its surface and cloud cover. The spacecraft is the second in a series of five Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) to be built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Sunnyvale, CA. The operational system consists of two polar-orbiting satellites. The polar-orbiting spacecraft serve as complementary satellites to the geosynchronous Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) system. NOAA L also provides a platform for the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system, part of the COSPAS-SARSAT constellation. The Search and Rescue satellites (SARSAT/COSPAR) have been instrumental in saving more than 11,354 lives since the inception of the system.

The instruments onboard the satellite include the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR/3), the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS/3), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A1, A2), the AMSU-B, the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer (SBUV/2), the Space Environment Monitor (SEM/2) and the Data Collection System (DCS/2). The AVHRR/3 is the primary imaging system, which consists of visible, near infrared (IR) and thermal IR channels. The primary sounding suite is the HIRS/3, AMSU-A and AMSU-B, which measures atmospheric temperature and humidity. The SBUV/2 instrument is both an imager and a sounder. As an imager, it produces total column ozone maps. As a sounder, it obtains and measures the ozone distribution in the atmosphere as a function of altitude.

In addition to the weather instruments, the satellite carries two search and rescue instruments, the Search and Rescue Repeater (SARR) and the Search and Rescue Processor (SARP). 

The satellite will be renamed NOAA 16 when it becomes operational. NOAA 16 will replace NOAA 14, which was launched five years ago and has since drifted far enough out of its proper orbit that the information it provides is no longer useful.