NOAA-11 POLAR ORBITING SATELLITE - AVHRR LAC AND HRPT DATA

US Geological Survey (USA)

Announced availability: 1 November 1993

Data Access

An interactive Information Management System (IMS), called the Global Land Information System (GLIS), has been developed by the USGS to allow online requests for earth science data, including AVHRR data. Users wishing to perform graphic-based query functions can use an X terminal or X terminal emulator package on a PC by telneting to xglis.cr.usgs.gov. Users wishing to perform text-based query functions can use an alphanumeric terminal or a terminal emulator package on a PC by telneting to glis.cr.usgs.gov or 152.61.128.07. More information about GLIS is available from the URL http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/glis/glis.html.

Background

ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER (AVHRR)
The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer is a five-channel scanning radiometer that was installed on the NOAA-11 and NOAA-12 Polar Orbiting Satellites. The radiometer provides day and night imaging in the visible (VIS) and infrared (IR), sea surface temperature (SST) determination, estimation of heat budget components and identification of snow and sea ice. The near-IR channel (channel 3: 3.55-3.99 um) and the two IR channels (channel 4: 10.2-11.5 um; channel 5: 11.5-12.5 um) are used to compute SST.

HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURE TRANSMISSION (HRPT)
Full resolution images for all bands, with a nadir field of view of 1.1 km, digitized to 10-bit precision, and corrected for panoramic distortion, are globally broadcasted as direct readout at VHF and S-band frequencies to local users. This real-time transmission is called High Resolution Picture Transmission.

LOCAL AREA COVERAGE (LAC)
In addition to the HRPT mode, about ten minutes of high-resolution data per orbit may be recorded on board the satellite over any portion of the world as selected by NOAA/NESDIS. These data, referred to as Local Area Coverage data, are then transmitted for playback to the NOAA central processing facility at Suitland, Maryland, through the Fairbanks and Wallops Command Data Acquisition (CDA) stations.

LAC AND HRPT AVHRR DATA ARCHIVED AT THE EROS DATA CENTER
LAC and HRPT AVHRR data acquired by NOAA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) are available from the US Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center (EDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The data archived at EDC include AVHRR HRPT data received at 29 stations worldwide (see below) as well as NOAA LAC data received via the DOMSAT receiving systems, covering areas missed by the HRPT receiving stations. Data collection started on 1 April 1992 and will continue through 20 September 1996.

HRPT-Receiving Stations: 

Station                                  Latitude/Longitude

Casey, Antarctica                        66ø17' S 110ø32' E
Terranova Bay, Antarctica                74ø25' S 164ø04' E
Buenos Aires, Argentina                  34ø24' S 58ø18'  W
Darwin, Australia                        12ø23' S 130ø44' E
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia              42ø48' S 147ø18' E
Perth, Australia                         32ø06' S 115ø53' E
Townsville, Australia                    19ø18' S 146ø48' E
Cachoeira Paulista, Brazil               22ø45' S 45ø00'  W
Prince Albert, Canada                    53ø12' N 105ø55' W
Maspalomas, Canary Islands               27ø46' N 15ø38'  W
Beijing, China                           40ø00' N 115ø00' E
Urumqi, China                            45ø00' N 85ø00'  E
Guanzhou, China                          25ø00' N 115ø00' E
Cairo, Egypt                             30ø00' N 31ø14'  E
La Reunion (France)                      20ø52' S 55ø28'  E
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany                48ø03' N 11ø09'  E
Scanzano, Italy                          37ø54' N 13ø21'  E
Tokyo University, Japan                  36ø00' N 140ø00' E
Nairobi, Kenya                           01ø15' S 36ø45'  E
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia                   48ø00' N 107ø00' E
Niamey, Niger                            13ø32' N 02ø05'  E
Tromsoe, Norway                          69ø39' N 18ø56'  E
Manila, Philippines                      14ø23' N 121ø02' E
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia                    26ø13' N 50ø00'  E
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia                     21ø30' N 39ø15'  E
Hartebeesthoek, South Africa             25ø53' S 27ø42'  E
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA              30ø24' N 91ø10'  W
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA           43ø44' N 96ø37'  W
Wallops Island, Virginia, USA            37ø52' N 75ø27'  W
Each station is responsible for the routine collection of all NOAA-11 observations within its coverage region, quality control of the raw data, and providing the data to EDC in a standard format and on a timely basis. EDC handles data acquisition, archiving, and distribution of the raw AVHRR data. EDC is also responsible for product generation by soliciting and applying internationally accepted processing algorithms to the dataset to produce prototype and operational higher level products for global change research. For more information about AVHRR archiving at EDC, access the URL http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/1KM/paper.html.

For more information, please contact:

US Geological Survey
EROS Data Center (EDC)
GLIS User Assistance
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
USA

email: glis@glis.cr.usgs.gov
Phone: 1-800-252-4547

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