How to get NOAA imagery and data

• No charge online data - Recent data (less than one week old) is available to download free of charge. Archived data is available from CSIRO Earth Observation Centre
• NOAA data is available under Creative Commons License 3.0
• Importing and georeferencing NOAA data
• General terms and conditions

For further information, please contact: Earth Observation Client Services.

Introduction

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the USA operate the series of NOAA satellites which each carry the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor. These sensors collect global data on a daily basis for a variety of land, ocean, and atmospheric applications. Specific applications include forest fire detection, vegetation analysis, weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, global sea surface temperature measurements, ocean dynamics research and search and rescue.

Satellite characteristics

The AVHRR sensor is a five or six channel (depending on the model) scanner, sensing the visible, near-infrared, and thermal infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It provides global on board collection of data over a 2399 km swath. The sensor orbits the earth 14 times each day from an altitude of 833 km.

Geoscience Australia collects direct broadcast AVHRR data (ie. not recorded data) from within our acquisition circle several times every day. A dedicated NOAA antenna in Alice Springs permits acquisition of day and night-time passes. There are normally about two day-time passes per satellite and two night-time passes per satellite.

Spacecraft Parameters

AVHRR Sensor Characteristics

AVHRR Spectral Characteristics

Historical information

The first operational NOAA satellite (NOAA-6) was launched in 1979. This was followed by a series of additional NOAA satellites with the latest launch being NOAA-18 in May 2005.