ACRES NOAA AVHRR Data

Note: This metadata describes the dataset in accordance with the ANZLIC (Australia New Zealand Land Information Council) Core Metadata Guidelines Version 2.

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Dataset citation

ANZLIC unique identifier: ANZCW0703005430

Title: ACRES NOAA AVHRR Data

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Custodian

Custodian: Geoscience Australia

Jurisdiction: Australia

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The AVHRR sensor collects 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. 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-16 in September 2000. NOAA's 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16 are all still transmitting data.

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.

A 7 day old rolling archive is available. Acquisitions older than 7 days are archived by CSIRO Earth Observation Centre.

ANZLIC search words:

PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY Mapping
PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY Remote Sensing Mapping
PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGERY Satellite Mapping

Spatial domain:

locality map

Geographic extent name: AUSTRALIA INCLUDING EXTERNAL TERRITORIES - AUSAAT - Australia - Australia

Geographic extent polygon: 45 -9, 168 -9, 168 -90, 45 -90, 45 -9,

Note: The format for each Geographic extent name is: Name - Identifier - Category - Jurisdiction (as appropriate) See GEN Register

Geographic bounding box:: North bounding latitude: -9 °; South bounding latitude: -90 °; East bounding longitude: 168 °; West bounding longitude: 45 °

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Data currency

Beginning date: 2001-10-01

Ending date: Not Known

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Dataset status

Progress: In Progress

Maintenance and update frequency: As required

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Access

Stored data format:: DIGITAL - Sat.image Satellite imagery

Available format type:: DIGITAL - Sat.image Satellite imagery

Access constraints:

Data files may be downloaded from Geoscience Australia's website at http://www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/noaaprice.htm. The data are subject to Copyright. A licence agreement is required.

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Data quality

Lineage:

The NOAA AVHRR data set is acquired by earth orbiting remote sensing satellites. These satellites carry two types of sensor systems known as "active" and "passive". A "passive" system generally consists of an array of small sensors or detectors which record (as digital numbers) the amount of electro-magnetic radiation reflected and/or emitted from the Earth's surface. NOAA AVHRR is a passive system.

The digital data acquired by the satellites are transmitted to ground stations and can be used to reconstitute an image of the Earth's surface not too dissimilar to an aerial photograph. Data are received through the ACRES antennae at the Data Acquisition Facilities at Alice Springs enabling coverage of the Australian landmass. The recorded data are sent via a high speed communication link daily to the Data Processing Facility in Canberra where it is catalogued and archived for 7 days.

Data are recorded and archived by orbit, or swath. If the region of interest extends across two adjacent paths the appropriate data set from each path will need to be extracted. Because of the orbital parameters of the satellite, adjacent paths are not acquired sequentially and information from each path may differ according to the time delay between the two passes. Data are provided as digital data products which can be viewed and manipulated on a variety of software systems. However, the data transmitted to Earth from an Earth observation satellite are in a form unsuitable for use by customers so ACRES processes this raw data in varying degrees to produce products suitable for use by clients. ACRES processes NOAA AVHRR data within 12 hours of acquisition and places it on the ACRES web pages for ftp download for a limited time. Historical NOAA AVHRR data may be accessed from CSIRO Earth Observation Centre.

Positional accuracy:

Within 1km, after specialised processing.

Attribute accuracy:

Not Relevant

Logical Consistency:

As the data is acquired in seamless north-south swaths each swath is internally consistent.

Completeness:

A new coverage of Australia is obtained every day.

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