NUMBER 129
DATE: 04/08/94
Sector Processing Center (SPC):
During February, ESA, JMA, and CSU processed greater than 89% of A data into B1/B2 data.
Normal operations for February were reported by JMA and CSU. No report and B2 data were received from AES this month or from NOA since December 93.
ESA reported switching operations from METEOSAT-4 to METEOSAT-5 at 0900 UTC on 4 February. METEOSAT-5 is now the operational satellite at 0 longitude with METEOSAT-4 as backup. Problems with the imaging radiometer on METEOSAT-6 are still being investigated. No replacement for METEOSAT-3 at 75W is planned right now (contrary to earlier information).
AES is investigating the cause of a persistent loss of the 0000 and 0300 UTC images.
Special Area Processing Center (SAPC):
No report received.
Satellite Calibration Center (SCC):
The SCC received AC data for February from GMS-4, METEOSAT-3 and METEOSAT-4 (possibly METEOSAT-5). The backlog of AC for GOES-7 (September 93 through February 94) was also received; however, a number of images were missing (all but one image is missing for December 93). BC data for METEOSAT-3 for October 93 were sent to the GPC.
Global Processing Center (GPC):
The GPC continued to receive B2 data, BC data and correlative data in a routine manner.
Production of NOAA-11 (preliminary) B3 data is current.
Production of NOAA-12 (preliminary) B3 data is current.
Refinement of the visible calibrations of NOAA-7 and NOAA-11 relative to NOAA-9 has been completed. The changes are consistent with those estimated from the long-term record of cloud optical thickness, as well as from calculated surface solar insolation using the cloud optical thicknesses. For the whole NOAA-7 record from September 81 through January 84, we find that the visible radiances need to be decreased by almost 10% but there is a trend (degradation) about half as large as for NOAA-9 that must be removed. For the period from July 83 onwards, the re-normalization and trend correction combine to require a decrease of about 5%. Our original NOAA-11 calibration gave visible radiances that need to be increased by about 11%. Now that we have data from the period after the Pinatubo volcanic eruption, we can confirm a transient 1-2% increase of the global mean visible reflectance of Earth during the period from July 91 through the end of 92. We also confirm that the NOAA-11 radiometer calibration was stable during the first year of operations but radiance values have been increasing slightly since then.
Production of GOES-7 (preliminary) B3 data is current. The processing of the UWS replacement B2 data stopped again when another undocumented format change was encountered in the second month of data (at the time of the switch to the GOES AAA format). This has now been documented, so that processing will resume shortly.
Production of METEOSAT-3 (preliminary) B3 data is current. The processing of B3 data for May 92 through September 93 continues. METEOSAT-3 will NOT be replaced by METEOSAT-5 at 75W.
Production of METEOSAT-4 (preliminary) B3 data is current. METEOSAT-5 has replaced METEOSAT-4 as the operational satellite, while problems with METEOSAT-6 are investigated.
Production of GMS-4 (preliminary) B3 data is current.
Production of all INSAT-1 (preliminary) B3 data has been completed. The calibration correction procedure works pretty well; correction coefficients have been calculated for all months of data. INSAT B3 will be recalibrated when time permits.
Production of the ice/snow and TOVS correlative datasets is current; however, we are still awaiting delivery of the sea ice data for 92.
Full test runs of all the new processing code continue. We still plan to process forwards and backwards from June 1991 so that there is always a continuous dataset available. However, the SRB project has requested that six months (October 86, January/April/July 87, June 91 and June 93) be done first to support their final algorithm testing. These months will be processed first, together with those for the field experiments (FIRE, ASTEX, TOGA-COARE, possibly CEPEX and HAPEX) before routine production commences.
ISCCP Central Archive (ICA):
The ICA continued to receive B1 data from NOA, AES, ESA, CSU and JMA and B3 and C data from the GPC in a routine manner.
The health of GMS-4, METEOSAT-3 (at 75 W), METEOSAT-4, METEOSAT-5, GOES-7, NOAA-11 and NOAA-12 remained good. Contrary to earlier reports, METEOSAT-5 is not moving west to replace METEOSAT-3; rather it has replaced METEOSAT-4 as the operational satellite at 0 longitude. Investigation of the problems with METEOSAT-6 continues. GOES-I is on schedule for launch this month. China may also launch a geostationary satellite this month. The launch date for NOAA-J (to replace NOAA-11 after the loss of NOAA-I) has been set at 28 September 94. SCARAB, a French/German/Russian Earth radiation budget instrument, was successfully launched on METEOR-3/7 and began collecting data on 24 February.
Stage B3: July 83 - June 91
Stage CD: July 83 - December 91
Stage C1: July 83 - June 91
Stage C2: July 83 - June 91
Delivering sea ice correlative data for 92 and 93 to GPC.
Delivery backlog for B3 data = 26 months (with respect to planned schedule). B3 data for 96 months have been archived.
Delivery backlog for C1/C2 data = 26 months (with respect to planned schedule). C1 data for 96 months have been archived.