Satellite Data

Geostationary satellite above Earth with the Sun in the background (artist's conception)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages a constellation of geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological spacecrafts. These satellites are distributed among three operational programs: the Suomi NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Program (GOES), and the Polar Operational Environmental Satellite Program (POES). The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites are operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and the data are archived and distributed by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) under the Shared Processing Program.

Geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites provide raw radiance data that are collected by ground stations and archived by NCDC. These continuous global environmental observations are then derived to produce various geophysical variables that help to describe the Earth's atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial domains.

Geostationary satellites help monitor and predict weather and environmental events including tropical systems, tornadoes, flash floods, dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires. Polar-orbiting satellites collect data for weather, climate, and environmental monitoring applications including precipitation, sea surface temperatures, atmospheric temperature and humidity, sea ice extent, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, global vegetation analysis, as well as search and rescue. NOAA's satellite data improve the Nation's resilience to climate variability, maintain our economic vitality, and improve the security and well-being of the public.

• Satellite Data Access by Dataset
  NCDC archives numerous datasets such as sea surface temperature and cloud data.
• Satellite Data Access by Satellite/Instrument
  Access to datasets is sorted by satellite and instrument.
• Satellite Imagery
  Satellite imagery is described with access provided to image browsers, posters, historical imagery, and custom imagery.
• Satellite Datasets in Development
  NCDC continues to steward satellite data—checking dataset quality, producing climate records, and performing analyses. This area provides information to ongoing dataset development work that will become available soon.