Global weather satellites

Environmental Satellites

NWA Remote Sensing Committee

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A network of geostationary and polar satellites provides global coverage of environmental conditions, and continuous updates of climatological variables such as cloud cover, vegetation, and sea surface temperature. In the United States, these satellites are operated by the National Environmental Satellite Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). There are also a number of experimental scientific satellites operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in cooperation with other U.S. agencies, or foreign governments, such as the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM)). The U.S. Department of Defense also operates polar-orbiting spacecraft, known as the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) to satisfy their mission requirements. By the year 2010, the military DMSP and civilian NOAA and NASA polar satellite programs will merge into the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) that will be operated jointly. Resources that provide information on these various systems are listed below:

Check out the new GOES-R Web Site New
Find out about the NWA 2008 Undergraduate Meteorological Satellite Applications Award
Joel Gerth wins 2007 MetSat
All 2007 MetSat Student Papers Now Online New

Latest Launch Schedule (from Spaceflight Now)

NWA Letters of Support for GOES-R Lightning Mapper (March 2004); GOES Microwave Imager (March 2006)


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Red ball Foreign Satellites

Red ball Realtime Imagery and Products (Sample list)

Red ball Microwave Information Red ballCommercial Vendors (For information only; not an endorsement by the NWA) Red ball Additional resources: Arrow up Top of Page


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Last modified - April 10, 2008