GEOSTATIONARY METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE - IMAGERY (VIDEO)

C. Velden (U. of Wisconsin, USA)

Announced availability: 1 August 1993

Data Access

A VHS video, showing animated GMS imagery for the entire TOGA COARE period, produced by the University of Wisconsin, is available upon request from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Background

GMS-4 is a Japanese satellite in geostationary orbit over the equator at approximately 140E. The satellite is equipped with the Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) imaging sensor, which uses the spin motion of the satellite to scan the earth in the East-West direction. GMS begins a North-South scan every hour on the half hour, with four additional scans daily for wind estimation. At the satellite subpoint, the visible (0.5-0.75 um) channel has a resolution of 1.25 km and the infrared (10.5-12.5 um) channel has a resolution of 5 km. This gives approximately 10,000 visible and 2,500 infrared lines and samples for each full-globe image. The visible channel is digitized at 6 bits and the infrared channel at 8 bits. The S-VISSR telemetry is transmitted digitally at 1.7 GHz with a bit rate of 660 kbps. Detailed documentation on the GMS satellite and the VISSR can be found in the GMS User's Guide.

Data File Information

The VHS video contains three separate segments:

  1. A large-scale overview, showing lower-resolution GMS infrared (IR) imagery in animation for the November-December and January-February periods. The imagery covers a large area (almost full disk) and is presented at six-hour intervals.

  2. COARE-domain overview, showing loops of the highest resolution GMS IR for month-long segments during COARE.

  3. A series of selected animated satellite observations.

For more information, please contact:

UCAR Communications
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, Colorado 80307-3000 USA

e-mail: butterwo@ucar.edu
Phone: (303) 497-8601
Fax: (303) 497-8610

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