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GRIP GOES-13 Overshooting Top Table of Contents
GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. They circle the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed matching the Earth's rotation. This allows them to hover continuously over one position on the surface. The geosynchronous plane is about 35,800 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth, high enough to allow the satellites a full-disc view of the Earth. Because they stay above a fixed spot on the surface, they provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms, and hurricanes. When these conditions develop the GOES satellites are able to monitor storm development and track their movements. These GOES-13 "Overshooting Top" KML files were produced during the GRIP Field Experiment for use with the Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) tool. They allow a color coded display of the overshooting tops using Google Earth, a virtual globe, map and geographical information program. Additional information about the GRIP field experiment can be found at the official GRIP web site: http://grip.nsstc.nasa.gov/ The GOES I-M Imager is a five channel (one visible, four infrared) imaging radiometer designed to sense radiant and solar reflected energy from sampled areas of the Earth. By means of a servo driven, two-axis gimbaled mirror scanning system in conjunction with a Cassegrain telescope, the Imager's multispectral channels can simultaneously sweep an 8-kilometer (5 statute mile) north-to-south swath along an east-to-west/west-to-east path, at a rate of 20 degrees (optical) east-west per second. This translates into being able to scan a 3000 by 3000 km (1864 by 1864 miles) "box" centered over the United States in just 41 seconds. The actual scanning sequence takes places by sweeping in an East-West direction, stepping in the North-South direction, then sweeping back in a West-East direction, stepping North-South, sweeping East-West, and so on. These GOES-13 Overshooting Top KML files are named using the format of the sample below:
where,
These data are Keyhole Markup Language(KML) files, used for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within the Google Earth browser. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. Keyhole, Inc. was acquired by Google in 2004. KML is an international standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Google Earth was the first program able to view and graphically edit KML files. There is a PI supplied document, README_GOES_OT_kml_files, which defines the magnitude of the overshooting tops, as well as their color coded scaling. NOTE: These KML files were created near real time during the GRIP mission as "quicklook" data, from non-quality controlled GOES-13 raw data. There are known gaps in these data, where raw data may not have been available. Better quality OT KML files could be generated by requesting the GOES raw data from CLASS and reprocessing. Our data holdings here at the GHRC will remain "quicklook" quality only. Additional information about the GRIP field experiment, and the NOAA satellites can be found at these sites:
The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) User Services Office staff is the point of contact for all questions, comments, and inquiries about these data, and all other GHRC services. You can order data directly through our data ordering system (HyDRO). Contact InformationTo order these data or for further information, please contact:
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