Polar Orbiter information - NOAA series
The NOAA satellites are a series of US weather satellites which have evolved over many years of experimental and operational satellite programs beginning with Tiros 1, launched on April 1st 1960. TirosN/NOAA series satellites were introduced in 1978 and subsequently evolved into an advanced generation beginning with NOAA 9. The new satellites carries additional payloads inlcuding independent search and rescue facilities.
| GENERAL INFORMATION | |
| No of spacecraft in series | 9+ |
| Design lifetime | 3 years |
| Launch dates (and launch vehicles) | 9 December 1984 (Atlas) 10 September 1986 (Atlas E) 11 September 1988 (Atlas E) 12 May 1991 (Atlas E) NOAA - D 13 September 1992 (Atlas) NOAA - I 14 June 1994 (Atlas) NOAA - J
NOAA - K 1994
|
| Country/Operator | USA |
| Contractor | General Electric Astro |
| Launch mass | 1420 kg |
| Dimensions | 6.4m (l) 1.22m (w) |
| Stabilisation | 3-axis |
| Orbit | Heliosynchronous 850 km, 98.7 degree inclination, 101 mins period |
| Repetition frequency | 4 times per day with 2 satellites |
| Payload Instruments | |
| Primary | |
| AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer)- 5 channels | |
| Wavebands (micron) | 1: 0.58 - 0.68 (visible) 2: 0.725 - 1.1 (vis/near infra red) 3: 3.55 - 3.93 (near infra red) 4: 10.3 - 11.3 (thermal infra red) 5: 11.3 - 12.5 (thermal infra red) |
| Resolution | 1.1 km |
| Swath width | 3000 km |
| TOVS | Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder - 3 instrument systems |
| HIRS/2 | High Resolution IR Sounder 20 channels in the 0.69 - 14.95 micron band, 17.4 km resolution |
| SSU | Stratospheric Sounding Unit - step scanned far IR spectrometer with 3 channels in the carbon dioxide absorption band (15 micron), 147km resolution |
| MSU | Microwave Sounding Unit - passive 4 channel sounder operating around 55GHz, 109 km resolution |
| Secondary | |
| Solar backscatter UV radiometer (ozone distribution) | |
| ERBE - Earth Radiation Budget Experiment - radiation gains and losses | |
| COSPAS/SARSAT - search and rescue payload: identifies and locates shipping and aircraft in distress | |
| Later NOAA missions will carry microwave temperature and humidity sensors to provide profiles of clouds, surface temperatures etc. | |
| Mission | |
| AVHRR | cloud, snow and ice monitoring, water, vegetation and agricultural surveys, sea surface temperature, volcano, forest fire activity, soil moisture |
| TOVS | temperature and humidity profiles cloud water vapour content, total ozone |
| SSU | temperature profiles of radiation emitted from carbon dioxide in upper atmosphere |
| MSU | temperature soundings through cloud cover |
Page update: January 12th 1999
This version: © St. Vincent College