NUMBER 152

DATE: 03/05/96

Sector Processing Center (SPC):

During January, NOA, CSU and JMA processed greater than 93% of A data into B1/B2 data.

Normal operations for January were reported by JMA and NOA. No formal report was received from EUM (EUMETSAT), but the first B2 data covering the second half of November and all of December 95 were shipped to the GPC.

AES continued collection of GOES-8 data in a test mode through February and expects to be fully operational by mid-March.

CSU collected all of the GOES-7 data for January from its alternate source until satellite operations ceased on 11 January 96 at 1400 UTC. The nine year old GOES-7 was replaced by GOES-9. Only about 78% of the GOES-9 data were collected in January because of continued testing during the satellite's motion towards its operational position at 135W, where it arrived on 22 January 96. GOES-8 for January were successfully collected. A power failure prevented all data collection on 26 and 27 January 96.

Satellite Calibration Center (SCC):

AC data were received for November and December 95 from METEOSAT-5, for December 95 from NOAA-14, and for January 96 from GMS-5, GOES-7 (last data), GOES-8 and GOES-9 (first data). Procedures are being developed for GOES-8 and GOES-9 normalization. BC for February and April 95 for both METEOSAT-3 and METEOSAT-5 were shipped 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-14 (preliminary) B3 is current. Production of final B3 will require normalizing the calibration to the standard, NOAA-9.

Production of NOAA-12 (preliminary) B3 data is current. Final B3 data have been produced through December 94.

Production of GOES-7 (preliminary) B3 data is completed through November 94. Merger of several sources of data beyond November will be required. The last B2 data were obtained in January 96. Final B3 data have been produced through August 94.

GOES-8 B2 data are now being received routinely, but the formatting software has not been written yet.

The first GOES-9 B2 data for January 96 have been received.

Production of METEOSAT-3 (preliminary) B3 data is completed through January 95. The special CD-ROM datasets sent by ESA for February through April 95 have not been processed yet. Final B3 data have been produced through August 94.

Production of METEOSAT-5 (preliminary) B3 data is current. Final B3 data have been produced through August 94. B2 data for the second half of November and all of December 95 have been received from EUM.

GMS-5 B2 data deliveries are current, but formatting software has not been written yet. Production of GMS-4 (preliminary) B3 data is completed through May 95. Final B3 data have been produced through August 94.

Final INSAT-1 B3 has been produced for the period April 88 through March 89.

TOVS correlative data processing has been completed through 95. The revised version of the whole TOVS dataset (July 83 - December 95) will be delivered this month.

Production of the ice/snow correlative dataset has been completed through 94. The revised version of the whole ice/snow dataset (July 83 - December 94) will be delivered this month.

DX/D1/D2 data production suffered a setback when a code error involving the snow dataset was discovered. Four months of already released data (January - April 90) were found to have been processed without snow data, even though the proper amount of snow cover was reported in the D1 and D2 datasets. Re-processing of these data has commenced and they should be replaced by corrected versions by the end of this month. All of the data for 92 were processed correctly, but the amount of snow cover actually reported in the D1 and D2 datasets is incorrect. These data will be replaced by corrected versions within a couple of weeks. About nine months of data for 86 had also been completed, but it must be re-done to correct the error in the snow data. Correcting these problems will cause a two month delay.

Documentation of the Stage D datasets and the revised TOVS and ice/snow correlative datasets has been posted to the ISCCP Home Page. The ISCCP World Wide Web Home Page can be accessed at URL

http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov

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.