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Earth Online Newsletter - 25 October 2024
This issue of the Earth Online Newsletter covers a selection of the latest news and events from ESA
NOAA (POES) AVHRR L1C data products now available
Following the new Heritage Space Programme project on NOAA (POES), AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) level 1C data products are now available to users via the ESA Heritage Missions Dissemination System.
AVHRR L1B/1C Local Area Coverage Imagery
Level-1B This collection is composed of AVHRR L1B products (1.1 km) reprocessed from the NOAA POES and Metop AVHRR sensors data acquired at the University of Dundee and University of Bern ground stations and from the ESA and University of Bern data historical archive. The product format is the NOAA AVHRR Level 1B that combines the AVHRR data from the HRPT stream with ancillary information like Earth location and calibration data which can be applied by the user. Other appended parameters are time codes, quality indicators, solar and satellite angles and telemetry. Two data collections cover the data acquired over Europe and the neighbouring regions in the period of 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2020 in the context of the 1-KM project in the 90s. During the early 1990’s various groups, including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the Commission of the European Communities (CEC), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Science Team and ESA concluded that a global land 1 KM AVHRR data set would have been crucial to study and develop algorithms for several land products for the Earth Observing System. USGS, NOAA, ESA and other non-U.S. AVHRR receiving stations endorsed the initiative to collect a global land 1-km multi-temporal AVHRR data set over all land surfaces using NOAA's TIROS "afternoon" polar-orbiting satellite. On 1 April 1992, the project officially began and lasted up to the end of 1999 with the utilisation of 23 stations worldwide plus the NOAA local area coverage (LAC) on-board recorders. The global land 1-km AVHRR dataset is composed of 5 channels, raw AVHRR dataset at 1.1 km resolution from the NOAA-11 and NOAA-14 satellites covering land surfaces, inland water and coastal areas. Global Land 1 km AVHRR Data Set Project HRPT Ground Station Network (as of 1 April 1992) and Acquisition Areas for LAC Recorded Data Level-1C This data collection consists of measurements from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) at 1.1km full Local Area Coverage (LAC) resolution. It is based on the ESA AVHRR Level 1B European Data Set, a curated collection of AVHRR 1km data from 1981 to 2020 covering Europe, selected areas in Africa and the acquired data out-of-Europe in the context of the 1-KM project in the ‘90s (see the Level-1B description for details). The AVHRR LAC measurements were processed by the Remote Sensing Research Group of the University Bern, Switzerland. A landmark based navigation correction software adjusted time and satellite attitude to improve the georeferencing accuracy. The PyGAC software was used to convert the counts to reflectances for the visible and near-infrared channels 1, 2, 3A, and to brightness temperatures for the infrared channels 3B, 4, 5. The infrared calibration uses on-board calibration data and is satellite specific without cross-calibration between satellites. Due to the lack of on-board calibration data for the visible channels, calculated coefficients from the CIMSS PATMOS-X project, version 2017r1, were used for the visible calibration aiming to minimize spectral differences among the various AVHRR sensors. The data format is NetCDF. The calibrated AVHRR data are accompanied by coordinates, satellite and solar angles, additional metadata, and basic quality indicators. The NOAA nomenclature is used for the data record labelling it as a set of AVHRR L1C data. The new products are conveniently formatted in NetCDF. Free standard tools, such as Panoply, can be used to read NetCDF data. Panoply is sourced and updated by external entities. For further details, please consult our Terms and Conditions page.
Hurricane Danielle, August 1998
View satellite images of Hurricane Danielle from August 1998.
Hurricanes Georges and Jeanne, September 1998
View Hurricanes Georges and Jeanne in September 1998 through satellite imagery.
Hurricane Mitch, October 1998
View satellite images depicting Hurricane Mitch as it impacted Central America in October 1998.
Cyclone Yali, March 1998
See the Tropical Cyclone Yali through satellite images from March 1998.
Fires in Spain, July 1994
See satellite images of fires in Spain in 1994.
ESA's improved Earth system data records: what is in store for the future?
Fundamental Data Records (FDRs) are instrumental in advancing our understanding of Earth systems and for addressing societal challenges effectively. These long-term records contain uncertainty-quantified, calibrated and geo-located multi-instrument/multi-platform satellite sensor data spanning several decades to support climate-related applications.
EO-Summer-School-4-Remote-sensing-of-sea-ice.pdf
This presentation from ESA's EO Summer School 4 describes the remote sensing of sea ice from the air and satellites
EO Summer School 3
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
Space helps monitor Earth’s changing biosphere
Earth’s biosphere is continually changing. Through its pioneering Earth observation missions, ESA is making critical contributions to monitor these changes and their impacts on Earth’s water and carbon cycles.
Data preservation takes centre stage at Living Planet Symposium
Against the backdrop of the famed Rhine River, world-class scientists and Earth observation data-users are gathered this week in the historical city of Bonn, at the Living Planet Symposium (LPS).
COP26 fuels interest in satellite data
As COP26 stimulates action to reduce global warming, the essential role of satellite data in understanding and monitoring climate change is apparent.
AVHRR-Handbook.pdf
The AVHRR user handbook provides details about the content of the consolidated and harmonised data set archived at ESA facilities.
Forty years of heritage data highlight warming European lakes
In the last decade, climate change has taken centre stage in both the public and scientific arenas, as increasingly extreme weather and human impact on the environment have become more apparent.
NOAA POES
NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.
SHARK Technical Reference Manual
The SHARK Technical Reference Manual provides detailed information on the organisation and workings of the SHARK Software Environment and the hardware on which it runs. SHARK is a standalone system that processes HRPT data transmitted from the TlROS-N/NOAA polar orbiting meteorological satellites.
Living Planet Symposium 2019
ESA's Living Planet Symposia are amongst the biggest Earth observation conferences in the world. Scientists present their latest findings on Earth's environment and climate.
MetOp
MetOp is a mission dedicated to improving weather forecasts and monitoring Earth's climate.