Visible Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) and VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) Data from GOES 1-7 and SMS 1-2, Version 2024

The NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series of satellites goal is to monitor the atmosphere for severe weather development such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes. The positioning of the GOES satellites at around 36,000 km (22,000 statute miles) above the equator at a fixed position above the earth allowed them to scan large geographic regions of the Western Hemisphere and as frequently as once every half hour. Coverage is typically provided by two GOES spacecraft, one at -75.0 Longitude (GOES East) and the other at -135.0 Longitude (GOES West). The Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) was flown aboard NOAA Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (SMS-1 and SMS-2) and GOES-1 through GOES-3 from 1974 to 1989. VISSR was modified to become the VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) flown aboard GOES-4 through GOES-7 from 1981 to 1996. The MODE A/AA/AAA format were originally stored on Sony U-matic tapes. The process for reading data from these tapes was not stable and resulted in several issues, such as incomplete files, multiple files and corrupted files. The University of Wisconsin developed 'smart' decoders that detected errors in sync patterns (the binary data used to signal start of each scan from the satellite to the ground station). This resulted in restoring missing data to complete full disk images. Also, noisy images were re-rendered to produce noise-free images. This improved, rescued data replaced the previous data publicly accessible from the NOAA CLASS website in 2024 as a cleaned up data archive.

Tags: 1 km - < 10 km or approximately .01 degree - < .09 degree, 500 meters - < 1 km, and information services, atlantic ocean, atmospheric - upper-air - cloud properties, atmospheric - upper-air - upper-air water vapour, brightness temperature, central america, climate indicators, continent, data, doc/noaa/nesdis, doc/noaa/nesdis/ncei, doc/noaa/nesdis/ospo, earth science, equatorial, geographic region, geostationary operational environmental satellite 1, geostationary operational environmental satellite 2, geostationary operational environmental satellite 3, geostationary operational environmental satellite 4, geostationary operational environmental satellite 5, geostationary operational environmental satellite 6, geostationary operational environmental satellite 7, geostationary operational environmental satellites, goes, goes-1, goes-2, goes-3, goes-4, goes-5, goes-6, goes-7, gov.noaa.class:pre_gvar, gulf of mexico, infrared imagery, infrared radiance, infrared wavelengths, madison, mid-latitude, national centers for environmental information, national environmental satellite, nesdis, noaa, north america, north atlantic ocean, northern hemisphere, ocean, office of satellite and product operations, pacific ocean, sms-1, sms-2, south america, southern hemisphere, space science and engineering center, spectral/engineering, synchronous meteorological satellite 1, synchronous meteorological satellite 2, thermal infrared, tropics, troposphere, u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, university of wisconsin, uwi-mad/ssec, vas, vertical location, visible and infrared spin scan radiometer, visible imagery, visible radiance, visible wavelengths, vissr, vissr atmospheric sounder, western hemisphere
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce