Infrared Global Geostationary Composite
Table of Contents
Summary
This README file contains information on the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) Infrared Global Geostationary Composite dataset. The temporal coverage of this dataset is June 4, 1995 to present.
NOTE: These data are in McIDAS area (image) format, which will require the McIDAS software to properly read/display. McIDAS software is available from the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Introduction
This Aviation Weather Center (AWC) Infrared Global Geostationary Composite dataset contains global composite images from the 11 micron channel of the
geostationary and polar satellites from the GOES-east, GOES-west, GMS, Meteosat
satellites, NOAA-15, NOAA-16, and NOAA-17. The NOAA satellites fill in information in the polar regions and the
geostationary satellites are used elsewhere. Where there is an overlap between
satellite coverage, the most timely satellite data are utilized for that region. The sectors containing data from the Meteosat satellites are restricted to 6 hour coverage by agreement with the original producers of those satellite data. (Therefore, all images across the mosaic are not in time sync.) The satellites and bands currently used in the production of this product are listed below:
Satellite Data Used to Produce WORLD-IR14KM Mosaic
GOES-11 - Southern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR, Northern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR
GOES-12 - Southern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR, Northern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR
Meteosat-7 - Band 8 11.5 um IR
Meteosat-9 - Band 9 10.8 um IR
MTSAT-1R - Band 2 10.8 um IR
NOAA-15 - Band 4 11 micron IR
NOAA-16 - Band 4 11 micron IR
NOAA-17 - Band 4 11 micron IR
NOTE: Some of our earlier data holdings also included data from GOES-8, GOES-9, and Meteosat-6 satellites.
The infrared channel shows the temperature of the clouds. The higher clouds are colder and show up as white. Where there are no clouds the satellite shows the ground temperature with black being relatively warmer.
The data resolution is 14 km spatial with the data remapped into a Mercator projection. The raw data are in the McIDAS area (image) format. This allows for navigation and temperature calibration of the data. However, the data have not necessarily been cross calibrated between sensors. Daily granules are available, which contain global mosaics at half-hour intervals.
The original global datasets at the AWC are used to generate the International Satellite Products available at http://aviationweather.gov/obs/sat/intl/ as well as being used by the forecasters in the generation of the international AWC products.
Further information on weather satellites and available images can be obtained from NESDIS at http://www.goes.noaa.gov/.
AWC Mission Connection
In accordance with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Area Forecast System (WAFS) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), high level significant weather (SIGWX) forecasts are provided by the AWC for the en-route portion of international flights. The AWC provides a suite of SIGWX forecast products for the World Area Forecast Center (WAFC) in Washington, D.C. These products are used directly by airline dispatchers for flight planning and weather briefing before departure, and by flight crew members during flight. These products are generated in sectors defined by the ICAO. As part of the preparation of these forecasts the AWC forecasters utilized satellite image mosaics. The infrared satellite mosaics used by the AWC forecasters have been made into web displayable images. The projection and extent of the satellite images corresponds directly to the projections of the AWC high level SIGWX forecasts. The intent of these satellite images is to allow the users of the AWC international products to better utilize the forecast information through a shared situational awareness of the current conditions in different parts of the world. The satellite data contained in these images has the same values and time as other operational satellite web sites, such as NESDIS, but these images have been remapped and combined into a mosaic to make their information content easier to relate to aviation forecast products.
Data Acquisition
The composite global IR image is produced at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) which is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The data are ingested near real time by the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/ and combined into a daily file for distribution.
File Naming Convention
The file naming convention is:
globiryy.ddd_daily.tar
where
yyddd is the date; year (yy) and day (ddd)
Each file contains one day's data which consists of 48 images. Each image is created from multiple composited and remapped McIDAS areas (see list above).
References
Kidder, S. Q. and T. H. Vonder Haar, Satellite Meteorology An Introduction , Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1995.
Contact Information
To order these data or for further information, please contact:
Global Hydrology Resource Center
User Services
320 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35805
Phone: 256-961-7932
E-mail: support-ghrc@earthdata.nasa.gov
Web: http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/
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