ISCCP Sector Processing Center for NOAA
International Satellite Cloud
Climatology
Project (ISCCP) Sector Processing Center
(SPC) for NOAA-14 and NOAA-16
Introduction:
The Satellite Services Branch (SSB) of
NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC serves as the Sector
Processing
Center for NOAA-14 and NOAA-16. On a daily basis, SSB generates ISCCP Level B2 global
longwave and shortwave radiances from AVHRR Level 1b Global Area Coverage (GAC) data for
the NOAA-14 and NOAA-16 polar orbiter satellites.
Data Collection and Analysis:
Three IBM 3480 cartridges containing the ISCCP level B2 data are generated each month for
each satellite. The following briefly describes the procedure used by SSB to create this data:
- Obtain AVHRR Level 1b GAC data. These data are stored on IBM 3590 cartridges. It is
necessary to read one day's worth of files at a time and store them on a temporary
disk file from which the B2 data are processed on a daily basis.
- ISCCP Level B2 data (approximately 30 km resolution) are processed from the GAC data
by
selecting every sixth sample from every eighth scan line. These procedures are identical to
those used in producing B2 data from previous NOAA polar orbiters.
- Quality control each B2 cartridge that is produced. This includes reading the entire
cartridge
and checking for read errors, in addition to manually checking the printouts for obvious errors,
such as the correct number of files and header information.
- Retain a copy of each B2 cartridge at SSB for the ISCCP Central Archive (ICA) and ship
one
copy to the Global Processing Center (GPC) at
NASA/GISS in New York, NY for further
processing into ISCCP level B3 and D data.
Web page is maintained by Kathy Kidwell
NOAA/NESDIS
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)
Climate Services Division
Satellite Services Branch
Tel: 301-457-5100 x106
Email: kkidwell@ncdc.noaa.gov
Updated January 23, 2001