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At least 217 records · Page 12

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) scanner instrument

Orbital measurements of the earth's longwave emitted radiation, and the sun's radiation reflected by the earth are being made by scanning radiometers on three spacecraft platforms in both high altitude sun-synchronous polar (833 km) and low altitude (600 km) equatorial orbits. These ERBE instruments were carried aboard two TIROS ATN satellites (NOAA-9 and -10) in December 1984, and September 1986, and on the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite launched from Space Shuttle mission 41-G in October 1984. Electronic problems with the scanners on all platforms have halted the reception of data after surpassing the scanner design life. The ERBE instruments have been designed to measure the radiance from earth with an absolute radiometric error of less than one percent. The scanner instrument consists of three broadband radiometer channels, shortwave, 0.25 micron to 3.5 microns, longwave 5.0 to 50 microns; and total, 0.25 microns to more than 50 microns, and use thermistor bolometers as sensing elements. This paper describes the design and operation of the ERBE scanner, an overview of the ground calibration approach, the in-flight calibration stability, and an analysis of on-orbit anomalous behavior.

Kopia, Leonard P.↗

Global oceanic precipitation from the MSU during 1979-91 and comparisons to other climatologies

The construction and general features of a new monthly oceanic precipitation data set compiled from Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) data gathered by TIROS-N satellites are described. Rainfall is estimated from the intensity of warming in MSU channel 1 (50.3 GHz) brightness temperatures above a 15-percent cumulative frequency distribution threshold after correction for airmass temperature. The average channel 1 warming above the threshold is calibrated into precipitation units with five to ten years of monthly accumulations from 132 raingages distributed around the globe. Comparisons between the satellite and raingage measurements of the average annual cycle in monthly precipitation are presented for 75 raingages from different climatic regions.

Spencer, Roy W.↗

Stratospheric Analysis and Forecasting in the Northern Winter of 1999/2000: The NASA DAO's GEOS-3 System

An evaluation is presented of the performance in the northern winter 1999/2000 of the GEOS-3 troposphere-stratosphere data assimilation system (DAS). The impacts of the two main input data types are assessed: upper-air soundings (sondes) provide wind and temperature information and satellite-based (Tiros Operational Vertical Sounders: TOVS) give estimates of the thermal structure. It is shown that in the low stratosphere (300-70hPa) the analyses are generally slightly warmer than the sonde data, but colder than the TOVS data; this relationship reverses between 70 and 10 hPa. There are geographical biases, related to the spatial and temporal coverage of the observation types and to the statistical weights assigned to them in the DAS. Forecasts show a tendency to reduce zonal asymmetries in the atmospheric flow and to suppress stratospheric temperature minima. In the DAS, the analysis increments compensate for this, but it leads to important biases in the multi-day forecasts. The analysis increments are as large as the diabatic forcing in the lower polar stratosphere, indicating a substantial model bias. The results provide important insights into the roles of different data types and the circulation model in producing accurate analyses for studies of polar chemistry and physical processes.

Pawson, Steven↗

Meteorological Satellites and Their Data

This paper presents an overview of the meteorological satellite programs that have been evolving from 1958 to the present and reviews plans for the future meteorological and environmental satellite systems that are scheduled to be placed into service in the early 1980's. The development of the TIROS family of weather satellites, including TIROS, ESSA, ITOS/NOAA, and the present TIROS-N (the third-generation operational system) is summarized. The contribution of the Nimbus and ATS technology satellites to the development of the operational polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites is discussed. Included are descriptions of both the TIROS-N and the DMSP payloads currently under development to assure a continued and orderly growth of these systems into the 1980's.

Vaughn, W.↗

Meteorological satellites

An overview is presented of the meteorological satellite programs that have been evolving from 1958 to the present, and plans for the future meteorological and environmental satellite systems that are scheduled to be placed into service in the early 1980's are reviewed. The development of the TIROS family of weather satellites, including TIROS, ESSA, ITOS/NOAA, and the present TIROS-N (the third generation operational system) is summarized. The contribution of the Nimbus and ATS technology satellites to the development of the operational-orbiting and geostationary satellites is discussed. Included are descriptions of both the TIROS-N and the DMSP payloads currently under development to assure a continued and orderly growth of these systems into the 1980's.

Allison, L. J.↗

Satellite Imagery Via Personal Computer

Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) was incorporated by NASA in the Tiros 8 weather satellite. APT included an advanced satellite camera that immediately transmitted a picture as well as low cost receiving equipment. When an advanced scanning radiometer was later introduced, ground station display equipment would not readily adjust to the new format until GSFC developed an APT Digital Scan Converter that made them compatible. A NASA Technical Note by Goddard's Vermillion and Kamoski described how to build a converter. In 1979, Electro-Services, using this technology, built the first microcomputer weather imaging system in the U.S. The company changed its name to Satellite Data Systems, Inc. and now manufactures the WeatherFax facsimile display graphics system which converts a personal computer into a weather satellite image acquisition and display workstation. Hardware, antennas, receivers, etc. are also offered. Customers include U.S. Weather Service, schools, military, etc.

Source record↗

Survey: National Environmental Satellite Service

The national Environmental Satellite Service (NESS) receives data at periodic intervals from satellites of the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite/Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series and from the Improved TIROS (Television Infrared Observational Satellite) Operational Satellite. Within the conterminous United States, direct readout and processed products are distributed to users over facsimile networks from a central processing and data distribution facility. In addition, the NESS Satellite Field Stations analyze, interpret, and distribute processed geostationary satellite products to regional weather service activities.

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Initial evaluation tests of General Electric Company 26.5 ampere-hour nickel-cadmium spacecraft cells with auxiliary electrodes for the TIROS-N and NOAA-A satellites

This evaluation test program had the purpose to insure that all cells put into the life cycle program are of high quality by the screening of cells found to have electrolyte leakage, internal shorts, low capacity, or inability of any cell to recover its open-circuit voltage above 1.150 volts during the internal short test. Test limits specify those values at which a cell is to be terminated from charge or discharge. Requirements are referenced to as normally expected values based on past performance of aerospace nickel-cadmium cells with demonstrated life characteristics. A requirement does not constitute a limit for discontinuance from test.

Harkness, J. D.↗

A Quasi-Global Presentation of TIROS III Radiation Data

The TIROS III meteorological satellite was equipped with a five-channel medium resolution radiometer to measure the reflected solar radiation as well as the infrared emission of the earth-atmosphere system in five different spectral regions (Reference 1). According to the initial design of this radiation experiment, one of the most useful applications of the infrared measurements was to be the derivation of day and nighttime cloudiness from Channel 2, which was sensitive within the atmospheric "window" region (8 to 12 microns). Several authors already have demonstrated and discussed the principal usefulness of these data for this particular purpose (References 2, 3, and 4). This present study was performed to investigate and demonstrate the utility of the TIROS radiation data for global synoptic analyses.

SYNOPTIC METEOROLOGY↗

Tiros IV Radiation Data Catalog and Users' Manual

The TIROS IV Meteorological Satellite contains a medium resolution scanning radiometer. Two of the channels of this instrument are sensitive to reflected solar radiation and the remaining two respond to emitted thermal radiation from the earth and its atmosphere. The two thermal channels are calibrated in terms of equivalent blackbody temperatures, and the reflected solar radiation channels in terms of effective radiant emittances. The calibration data, along with orbital and attitude data and the radiation data from the satellite, were incorporated in a computer program for an IBM 7090 which was used to produce, in binary form, the "Final Meteorological Radiation Tape" which is the basic repository of all radiation data. After launch, the radiometer displaye d the same degradation of response characteristics as did its predecessors in TIROS II and TIROS III. The onset of degradation results in a departure of the data from the prelaunch laboratory calibration. The cause of degradation has not been determined, and the matter is still being studied at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Before work with the TIROS IV radiation data is attempted, an understanding of the radiometer, its calibration, and the problems encountered in the experiment, especially from response degradation, is essential. The instrumentation design, development work, and the calibrations herein described were performed by the Goddard Space Flight Center Staff, whereas the computer and programming efforts were carried out jointly by the staffs of the National Weather Satellite Center, U. S. Weather Bureau, and the Goddard Space Flight Center. In this Catalog-Manual, the radiometer an d its calibration, data processing, the "Final Meteorological Radiation Tape", the observed degradation patterns, and possible corrections for degradation are discussed. The Catalog-Manual also includes, in two forms, documentation of each orbit of successfully reduced radiation data acquired by TIROS IV. One method of presentation is the Index of Final Meteorological Radiation Tapes and the other is a Subpoint Track, Summary of Available Radiation Data in diagrammatic form.

TIROS IV SATELLITE↗

Magnetospheric Atmospheric X-ray Imaging Experiment (MAXIE)

This report summarizes the activities sponsored by the Office of Naval Research for the Magnetospheric Atmospheric X-ray Imaging Experiment (MAXIE). The MAXIE instrument was developed as a joint activity of Lockheed, The Aerospace Corporation, and the University of Bergen, Norway. Lockheed was responsible for the overall management of the program, interfacing with the appropriate government agencies, the overall electrical and mechanical design, flight software, environmental testing, spacecraft integration activities, on orbit checkout, and data processing activities. The Magnetospheric Atmospheric X-ray Imaging Experiment (MAXIE), the ONR 401 experiment, is the first in a new class of satellite-borne remote sensing instruments. The primary innovation is the ability to obtain rapid, sequential, images with high sensitivity of the earth's X ray aurora from a low altitude polar orbiting satellite. These images can be used to identify dynamic temporal variations in the three-dimensional (energy and position) distribution of electron precipitation into the atmosphere. MAXIE was launched on the TIROS NOAA-13 satellite on 9 August 1993. The experiment performed well during its turn-on sequence; however, the spacecraft bus failed on 21 August 1993. New spacebased technologies successfully used in MAXIE were mixed-mode ASIC microcircuits, a zero torque scanning system with associated viscoelastic damping, a paraffin stow release mechanism, a parallel integrating PHA processor, a low noise Si(Li) sensor telescope, and an advanced thermal cooling system. MAXIE's on orbit operation, control of penetrating particle backgrounds, and scientific data indicated good overall performance.

Imhof, W. L.↗