DMSP SATELLITES - NESDIS LEVEL 1B SSM/I DATA

NASA/MSFC (USA)

Announced availability: 1 May 1994

Data Access

The NESDIS Level 1B SSM/I data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites F8, F10, and F11 are available upon request from NASA/MSFC.

Background

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
Each DMSP satellite monitors the atmospheric, oceanographic and solar-geophysical environment of the Earth on a twice-daily basis. The visible and infrared sensors collect images of global cloud distribution across a 3,000-km swath during both daytime and nighttime conditions. The coverage of the microwave imager and sounders is one-half the visible and infrared sensors' coverage, thus they cover the polar regions above 60 on a twice-daily basis but the equatorial region on a daily basis. The space environmental sensors record along-track plasma densities, velocities, composition and drifts.

The DMSP program operates a two-satellite constellation, thus providing complete global coverage of clouds every six hours. High-resolution data are averaged, recorded and sent to ground receiving stations once an orbit (101 minutes). Local processing prepares orbital datasets organized as a time series, restores instrumental data that were adversely affected by the ionosphere during transmission, accurately computes and checks the satellite position and provides subpixel geolocation information and/or software.

SSM/I
The SSM/I is a seven-channel, four-frequency, linearly-polarized, passive microwave radiometric system which measures atmospheric, ocean and terrain microwave brightness temperatures at 19.35, 22.235, 37.0 and 85.5 GHz. The data are used to obtain synoptic maps of critical atmospheric, oceanographic and selected land parameters on a global scale. The SSM/I archive dataset consists of antenna temperatures recorded across a 1,400-km conical scan, satellite ephemeris, earth surface positions for each pixel and instrument calibration. Electromagnetic radiation is polarized by the ambient electric field, scattered by the atmosphere and the Earth's surface, and scattered and absorbed by atmospheric water vapor, oxygen, liquid water and ice.

The NESDIS Level 1B SSM/I data from the DMSP satellites F8, F10, and F11 have been subsetted into the outer (30N-30S, 120E-160W) and inner (10N-10S, 140E-180E) regions of the COARE domain and cover the period 1 November 1992 - 28 February 1993. The data, in sensor counts, are available with a utility program that converts the data into either antenna or brightness temperatures. Another program is also available to perform further geolocation subsetting. Global SSM/I data may also be obtained for the same period.

For more information, please contact:

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
EOS Distributed Active Archive Center
User Services Office
Code ES44
Huntsville, AL 35812
USA

email: msfcuser@microwave.msfc.nasa.gov
Phone: (205) 544-6365
FAX: (205) 544-5147

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