Polar-Orbiting Satellite
Data and Information Resource Links
This page contains links of interest for users of NOAA and other polar-orbiting satellite platforms with an emphasis on operational environmental monitoring and forecasting activities.
Quick links to the sections below: NOAA NASA Department of Defense International
Environmental Satellite Resource Center (ESRC)
The ESRC, developed by The COMET ® Program in association with NOAA and NOAA/NESDIS, is a web-based search tool for finding useful satellite information and resources in areas including satellite systems and applications, data products, cases and examples, and education and training materials for both low-earth orbiting and geostationary environmental satellites. The ESRC offers multiple search options for accessing satellite materials for all knowledge levels and is currently available in English and Spanish. We encourage you to use the ESRC!
NOAA Links
Provides information relevant to the AMSU and derived products and includes a capability to browse real-time AMSU products as they appear prior to dissemination to various NWS AWIPS sites.
Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA)
Describes the vision, mission and goals of the JCSDA. JCSDA, with its partners in NOAA, NASA, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, strives to increase and improve the quantitative use of research and operational satellite data in weather, ocean, climate and environmental analysis and prediction models. The site includes links to news, science, meetings and seminars, publications, and related links of interest.
Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Home Page
Provides an overview of NOAA's next generation polar-orbiting satellite program, describing program architecture, proposed instruments, launch readiness, and other program aspects.
NOAA Satellite Launch Schedules
Summarizes current status and future launch schedules for NOAA's GOES and POES operational satellite programs.
NOAA Satellites - Current and Next Generation
Summarizes NOAA's current and next generation satellite programs, with links to imagery, historical information, and more detailed program information covering each system.
NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC
(National Geophysical Data Center) DMSP Web Site
(Select "Data Availability" - left margin)
Provides access to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data archive.
NOAA/NESDIS Forecast Products from Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES)
This Web page provides access to browse imagery products derived from infrared and microwave sounder observations taken with NOAA and Metop polar-orbiting satellites.
This Web site is hosted by the U.S.’ NOAA/NESDIS and provides information on the cooperative effort between NOAA and EUMETSAT known as the Initial Joint Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (IJPS). The goal of IJPS is to ensure coordination of two polar-orbiting satellites systems to provide and improve operational meteorological and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring services worldwide.
NOAA/NESDIS Marine Observing Products
Provides links to real-time SSM/I, Windsat, and scatterometer ocean surface wind data for ASCAT.
NOAA/NESDIS Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products System (MSPPS)
Provides information and product access relevant to NOAA's operational microwave products processing system, MSPPS. MSPPS produces near real-time surface and precipitation products from AMSU-A and -B brightness temperatures. Derived products include total precipitable water, cloud liquid water, ice water path, rain rate, snow cover and water equivalent, sea ice, land surface temperature, and other parameters.
NOAA/NESDIS Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MIRS)
Provides near real time imagery products, instrument and algorithm descriptions, and other relevant documentation for microwave instruments on board the NOAA, Metop, and DMSP satellites.
NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Operations (OSO) Home Page
Provides GOES and POES status reports.
NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Operations (OSO): POES Status Page
Direct link to current NOAA POES spacecraft and instrument status information.
NOAA/NESDIS Office of Systems Development (OSD)
Provides specific news and information covering both current and future operational geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites systems.
NOAA/NESDIS Operational Blended TPW Products
Provides access to real time and archived total precipitable water (TPW) products for regions around the world. Products can be viewed on the site or downloaded. The composite TPW products are the result of a blending of measurements from GPS, GOES sounders, and NOAA, Metop, and DMSP microwave instruments. The site also includes algorithm details, a publication list, and other resources and links.
NOAA/NESDIS Operational Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products
Provides direct access to real-time operational derived product imagery from microwave sensors (AMSU and MHS) on board the NOAA and Metop polar-orbiting satellites. Products covered include rain rate, total precipitable water, cloud liquid water, snow cover, snow water equivalent, sea ice concentration, ice water path, land surface emissivity (23 to 50 GHz), and land surface temperature.
NOAA/NESDIS POES Sounding Product Development
Provides access to atmospheric sounding, cloud, and radiation products and information generated from NOAA and Metop polar-orbiting satellite sounding instruments including HIRS, AMSU and MHS. The site includes status updates on instruments and spacecraft performance, processing statistics, as well as documentation on the processing system and its various components.
Serves as a portal for access to a wealth of POES information and products related to a variety of NOAA operational processing systems (e.g. POES sounding products from the ATOVS system, POES derived product imagery from the MSPSS system, AVHRR and MODIS imagery and vegetation products, ocean products from the Environmental Products System (EPS), cloud track winds, ozone measurements from the Operational Ozone Product System (OOPS), DMSP SSM/I microwave products from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and NOAA Shared Processing Program (SPP)).
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR (Center for Satellite Applications and Research) Home Page
Provides an overview of NOAA satellite applications research for NOAA GOES and POES satellite systems, with links to information and access to online products, both operational and experimental.
NOAA/NESDIS Tropical Products Page & eTRaP (Ensemble Tropical Rainfall Potential)
Serves as a portal to real-time satellite-based products including the eTRaP (Ensemble Tropical Rainfall Potential) product for tropical latitudes around the globe. A link to a separate eTRaP Web page provides product information, an explanation of digital formats and availability via ftp, and browse imagery for both current and past tropical cyclone events dating from 2009 to the present.
A Web based training session on eTRaP is available on the VISIT (Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training) Web site at http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/visit/etrap.html/.
NOAA/NWS Alaska Region: Real-Time Geostationary and Polar-Orbiting Satellite Imagery
Provides browse imagery of real-time geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite products covering the Alaska Region.
NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC (Environmental Modeling Center) Marine Products
Provides links to various operational ocean modeling and analysis products. Discussions and product links specific to POES satellite data can be found under Sea Ice, Marine Meteorology, and Sea Surface Temperature headings.
NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC/OMB (Ocean Modeling Branch) Sea Ice Home Page
Provides links to products and information related to sea ice analysis from satellite and its uses in regional analyses and global modeling. OMB microwave-based sea ice products currently support sea ice analysis efforts at the Anchorage Alaska WSFO, as well as sea ice and weather modeling activities at NCEP. Follow the "Daily Sea Ice Analyses" link for product examples.
NASA Links
EOS Aqua AIRS Instrument Home Page
Mission home page for the NASA AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) hyperspectral sounding instrument. Site includes mission information, instrument descriptions, science objectives, a multimedia gallery, links to browse products and archived data, and links to other relevant resource documents.
Provides a nice pictorial summary of NASA's past, present, and future Earth observing satellites with links to mission home pages, visualizations, and image galleries.
EOS Aqua Spacecraft Home Page - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Provides information about NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua spacecraft (the follow-on to Terra) and instrument suite launched in May 2002. Also included are links to data products, related science, publications, and visualizations.
EOS Terra Spacecraft Home Page - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Provides an overview NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra spacecraft and instrument suite launched in December 1999. Also included are links to data, recent imagery, related science, publications, and interesting visualizations.
EOS Satellite Program: Strategic Vision
Describes NASA's strategic vision of the EOS (Earth Observing System) satellite program, composed of a series of polar-orbiting and low Earth orbiting (leo) satellites for monitoring of Earth's land, ocean, atmosphere, biosphere, and solid Earth. Site includes links to satellite mission profiles, data services, and products.
NASA LANCE (Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS) Home Page
Provides access to near real time data products from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer), AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder), and OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) instruments. The site focuses on applications for users interested in monitoring natural and man-made hazards. All products are freely available.
NASA LANCE - Rapid Response System
A subset of the LANCE Web site, provides access to near real time MODIS imagery and derived products by geographic regions (subsets) and by orbit. Browse imagery includes, true-color and RGB composites, an NDVI product, global fire maps, Arctic and Antarctic mosaics, and a gallery of interesting events. A new interactive "Web Mapping Service (WMS)" display tool allows overlay of imagery from MODIS and other instruments.
MODIS and Other Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents (ATBD's)
This site includes a comprehensive listing of ATBD's for generating level-0 to -4 products from the various remote sensing instruments flying on board NASA's constellation of Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites (including Terra and Aqua). Documents are provided in PDF format.
MODIS Direct Broadcast at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Information about MODIS direct broadcast capabilities with links to overpass prediction software and output, and real-time direct broadcast imagery generated at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA's official MODIS Web site portal, providing links to news, data and products, product algorithm information, presentations, publications, science team Web pages, and related sites.
This site provides information on both the U.S. GOES and the joint U.S.-European Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) programs with links to documentation, products, launch information, and other program specific schedules.
NASA/JPL Ocean Winds Home Page
Highlights NASA's ongoing ocean wind observing activities. The site includes an overview of the scatterometry technology (active remote sensing) used to observe ocean winds, links to recent application highlights, images and animations of interest, publications, educational materials and data access.
NASA/JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)
Provides access to archived data and information relevant to the physical state of the ocean including ocean surface topography, ocean surface winds, sea surface temperature, and other related parameters..
Summarizes and provides links to past, present, and proposed NASA Earth, sun, solar system, and universe observing satellite missions.
NASA NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP)
Describes the NPOESS Preparatory Project. Included is a description of the transition from the current EOS satellite program in the areas of science, technology, instruments, configuration management, and product algorithm development. Also includes mission status and an anticipated launch date.
Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) Home Page
Describes the goals, activities, and lessons learned of the NASA SPoRT program. The SPoRT Center was established to infuse cutting edge satellite observations (e.g. MODIS VIS/IR imager, AMSR-E microwave imager, and AIRS hyperspectral sounder) into National Weather Service forecast operations and demonstrate short-term forecast improvement at the regional and local levels. The site also includes links to samples of real-time polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite products distributed to various NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO's).
Department of Defense Links
NRL Monterey Satellite Meteorology Home Page
Provides a browse capability for near real-time geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite image products for select land and oceanic regions spanning the globe. Links to product tutorials are included as well.
This site offers access to near real-time polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite imagery and derived products over the conterminous United States and Hawaii from several research and operational satellites. Model data overlays from FNMOC (Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center) are also accessible from the site.
The NexSat Web site serves as a public educational resource provided by NRL (Navy Research Laboratory) to preview capabilities of the VIIRS imaging instrument on board the NPP spacecraft to be launched late 2011.
Provides a description for the NPOESS WindSat risk reduction project for microwave remote sensing of ocean surface winds with the future operational NPOESS CMIS sensor. The document summarizes operational needs for wind information, the scientific approach to passive wind retrieval, instrument design, and preliminary data results.
International Links
Visit EUMETSAT’s Web site to view information, documentation, and visualizations on EUMETSAT’s first polar-orbiting operational meteorological satellite system, the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) and Metop satellites. This page also provides links to additional resources on EPS benefits, services, training and education, program background, presentations, and more in-depth technical documentation.
This European Space Agency (ESA) Web site hosts a wealth of information, documentation, and visualizations on the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS).
This Web page is a portal to technical, science, training and education information related to geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological satellite programs and systems from around the world.
WMO Virtual Laboratory for Satellite Training and Education in Satellite Meteorology (VLab)
This site is a portal for links to the various Virtual Laboratory partners, resources and information on training activities for forecasters and other users of operational meteorological satellite data and products across the globe. The Virtual Laboratory is a collaborative effort joining major satellite operators and WMO “Centers of Excellence” at WMO Regional Meteorological Training Centers distributed around the world.