NOAA polar satellites


General Information
Specialized data base
Datasets in the FASTEX Central Archive
Information on available data
Satellite imagery selection page
Data selection page

General Information

  • Description
  • Name : NOAA-12 and NOAA-14
  • Operator : NOAA
  • Type: polar orbiting sun-synchronous meteorological satellites
  • NOAA-12 Southbound Equator Crossing Time (Local Time) 07:30
  • NOAA-14 Southbound Equator Crossing Time (Local Time) 02:30
  • orbital period: about 101 minutes.
  • Instruments
  • AVHRR - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
    The AVHRR five channels scanning radiometer with 1.1-km resolution is sensitive in the visible and near-infrared, and the infrared 'window' regions. 
    Channel  Wavelength     Primary Uses
          (microns)
------   ----------     -----------------------------
  1      0.58-0.68      Daytime cloud/surface mapping
  2     0.725-1.10      Surface water delineation, ice and snow melt
  3      3.55-3.93      Sea surface temperature, nighttime cloud mapping
  4     10.30-11.30     Sea surface temperature, day and night cloud mapping
  5     11.50-12.50     Sea surface temperature, day and night cloud mapping
  • TOVS - TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
    TOVS is a three instrument system consisting of the HIRS/2, SSU and MSU.
  • The High-resolution Infrared Sounder (HIRS/2) is a 20 channel instrument for taking atmosphere measurements, primarily in the IR region. The data acquired can be used to compute atmospheric temperature from the Earth surface to 50 mb, water vapor content in three atmospheric layers, and the total ozone content of the atmospheric column.
  • The Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU) is a three channel instrument, provided by the United Kingdom, that uses the selective absorption technique.
  • The Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) is a four channel Dicke radiometer making passive microwave measurements in the 5.5 mm oxigen band.

    •
    • Entry taken from: Rao,P.K., S.J. Holmes, R.K. Anderson, J.S. Winston, P.E. Lehr,
    Weather Satellites: Systems, Data, and Environmental Applications, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1990


    • Specialized data base :

  • Météo-France/CMS for AVHRR HRPT received at Lannion (France) and Halifax (Canada). The Atmospheric Environment Service (Canada) sent HRPT data received at Halifax during FASTEX to the CMS.
  • Météo-France/CNRM for TOVS raw data received from NOAA/NESDIS through ECMWF


    • Data sets in the FASTEX Central Archive:

  • Satellite Imagery
    Orbit by orbit imagery for the AVHRR five channels.
    The NOAA map area shows the domain used for NOAA imagery.
  • Total Ozone content
    deduced from TOVS raw data, prepared by Fernand KARCHER (Meteo-France/CNRM Toulouse France)
  • NOAA TOVS-120
    diffused by NOAA/NESDIS through the GTS.
  • ICI-TOVS
    computed at the Centre de Météorologie Spatiale (Météo-France/CMS) at Lannion (France) from the HRPT NOAA data.
    Satellite upper-air soundings and black body temperature at the sounder resolution (40km).

    • Information on available data in the FASTEX Central Archive
  • Satellite Imagery: summary of the daily data available for each satellite.
    • Dated: 29 Mar 1999
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