The system will soon be available through the Internet.
Users are free to interrogate one or more inventories of satellite data.
These inventories contain information pertaining to the digital data, such as satellite name, data type, dataset names, areas of coverage and operational times. The system will return this information to the user, along with a size estimate for the order, including the estimated number of output tapes required. This is a convenient method of reviewing NCDC polar orbiter satellite data holdings and for ordering data. The only verbal contact with NCDC is to obtain the cost estimate for the data. However, if a deposit account has been established, the data request may be submitted without the time constraints of telephone calls.