NOAA-15 Mission

Objectives and Applications

Meteorology, agriculture and forestry, environmental monitoring, climatology, physical oceanography, volcanic eruption monitoring, ice and snow cover, total ozone studies, space environment, solar flux analysis, search and rescue. NOAA-15 is being used on a limited basis as a "secondary morning orbit" satellite. The EOL date is based on a reliability and health & status analysis; the date shown is at the 60% confidence level.

Mission Summary

Full Name
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - 15
Mission Status
Mission complete
Mission Agencies
Launch Date
13 May 1998
Mission Links
EOL Date
14 Apr 2018
EO Portal Info

Orbit Details

Orbit Type
Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
101.4 minutes
Orbit Sense
Descending
Orbit Inclination
98.6 deg
Orbit Altitude
813 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
7:08
Repeat Cycle
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator

Mission Instruments

A-DCS3 - Argos Advanced Data Collection System3
AMSU-A - Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A
AMSU-B - Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B
ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3) - Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
AVHRR/3 - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3
HIRS/3 - High Resolution Infra-red Sounder/3
NOAA Comms - Communications package for NOAA
S&R (NOAA) - Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking

Mission Measurements

CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
AtmosphereAerosols AVHRR/3
Atmospheric Humidity Fields AMSU-A, AMSU-B, ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), HIRS/3
Atmospheric Winds AMSU-B
Cloud type, amount and cloud top temperature AMSU-A, AMSU-B, ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), AVHRR/3, HIRS/3
Cloud particle properties and profile AMSU-A, AMSU-B, HIRS/3
Liquid water and precipitation rate AMSU-A, AMSU-B, ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), AVHRR/3
Ozone ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), HIRS/3
Radiation budget AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, HIRS/3
Trace gases (excluding ozone) ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), HIRS/3
Atmospheric Temperature Fields AMSU-A, ATOVS (HIRS/3 + AMSU + AVHRR/3), HIRS/3
LandAlbedo and reflectance AVHRR/3
Soil moisture AMSU-A
Vegetation AVHRR/3
Surface temperature (land) AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, HIRS/3
Multi-purpose imagery (land) AVHRR/3
OceanOcean surface winds AMSU-A
Surface temperature (ocean) AVHRR/3, HIRS/3
Multi-purpose imagery (ocean) AVHRR/3
Snow & IceSnow cover, edge and depth AMSU-A, AMSU-B, AVHRR/3
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness AMSU-A, AMSU-B, AVHRR/3

Featured Datasets

NOAA POES and METOP Local Area Coverage Imagery
Jan-2019
This collection is composed of AVHRR Level 1B 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 data collection covers Europe and the neighbouring regions in the period of 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2019. Access is provided through the ESA TPM scheme. - Read more

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