Posted on 12/07/2011 12:29:50 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
NPP Satellite Acquires First VIIRS Image
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An image taken by the NPP Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Nov. 21, 2011.Credit:NASA [click image to enlarge at the wensite....worth the visit]
Or see Link following the article........
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The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, NPP, acquired its first measurements on Nov. 21, 2011. This high-resolution image is of a broad swath of Eastern North America from Canada’s Hudson Bay past Florida to the northern coast of Venezuela. The VIIRS data were processed at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Md.
VIIRS is one of five instruments onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 28. Since then, NPP reached its final orbit at an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers), powered on all instruments and is traveling around the Earth at 16,640 miles an hour (eight kilometers per second). .
"This image is a next step forward in the success of VIIRS and the NPP mission," said James Gleason, NPP project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
VIIRS will collect radiometric imagery in visible and infrared wavelengths of the Earth's land, atmosphere, and oceans. By far the largest instrument onboard NPP, VIIRS weighs about 556 pounds (252 kilograms). Its data, collected from 22 channels across the electromagnetic spectrum, will be used to observe the Earth's surface including fires, ice, ocean color, vegetation, clouds, and land and sea surface temperatures.
"VIIRS heralds a brightening future for continuing these essential measurements of our environment and climate," said Diane Wickland, NPP program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington. She adds that all of NPP's five instruments will be up and running by mid-December and NPP will begin 2012 by sending down complete data.
"NPP is right on track to ring in the New Year," said Ken Schwer, NPP project manager at NASA Goddard. "Along with VIIRS, NPP carries four more instruments that monitor the environment on Earth and the planet's climate, providing crucial information on long-term patterns to assess climate change and data used by meteorologists to improve short-term weather forecasting."
NPP serves as a bridge mission from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) of satellites to the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program that will also collect weather and climate data. NASA Goddard manages the NPP mission for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The JPSS program provides the NPP ground system and NOAA provides operational support.
During NPP's five-year life, the mission will extend more than 30 key long-term datasets that include measurements of the atmosphere, land and oceans. NASA has been tracking many of these properties for decades. NPP will continue measurements of land surface vegetation, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric ozone that began more than 25 years ago.
"The task now for the science community is to evaluate VIIRS performance and determine the accuracy of its data products," said Chris Justice a professor of geography at the University of Maryland, College Park, who will be using VIIRS data in his research.
"These long-term data records are critical in monitoring how the Earth's surface is changing - either from human activity or through climate change."
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/images/first_viirs_large.jpg
Link to Image which can be enlarged...it will be large.
For those not on fast connections plese be aware of download times of some length.
fyi
Cool pic but I guess I don’t see what makes this one different from all the others that exist.
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It was just the very first image.......
The Satellite is loaded with a LOT of Sensors....
Including I would suppose CO2 detection....
Also text says temperature sensors....
I'll see what else I can find out....including whteheer there are more planned...
Engineers begin integration of the Medium resolution Visible and Infra-red Imager or VIIRS into the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite. NPP is the bridge mission between the Earth Observing System and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) earth and weather observing fleet of satellites. Credit: NASA/Ball Aerospace
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The first of a fleet of Satellites.....
Wow, great resolution....even small scale artifacts can be seen, cloud types, snow on the ground, reefs, etc.
Remote sensing is here.....who needs to pay an old school surface weather observer anymore?
Understanding, monitoring, and predicting the course of long-term climate change AND short-term weather conditions remain tasks of profound importance. Economic competitiveness, human health and welfare, and global security all depend in part on our ability to understand and adapt to global environmental changes.
Over the last dozen years, NASA has launched a series of satellites – known collectively as the Earth Observing System (EOS) – that has provided critical insights into the dynamics of the entire Earth system: clouds, oceans, vegetation, ice, solid Earth and atmosphere. Now NASA is helping to create a new generation of satellites to extend and improve upon the Earth system data records established by EOS.
The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) will serve as a bridge between the EOS satellites and the forthcoming series of Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites. NPP represents a critical first step in building this next-generation satellite system. The JPSS satellites, previously called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), will be developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NPP will carry five science instruments and test key technologies for the JPSS missions. NPP is the first satellite mission to address the challenge of acquiring a wide range of land, ocean, and atmospheric measurements for Earth system science while simultaneously preparing to address operational requirements for weather forecasting.
NPP also represents the gateway to the creation of a U.S. climate monitoring system, collecting both climate and operational weather data and continuing key data records that are critical for global change science.
Key science objectives and capabilities of NPP include:
Thanks Ernest. Let us hope the data sent back to earth from it is used in an honest way.
Earnest,
I know you’re far more knowledgeable on the subject but I do recall and I believe it was a Lord Monckton article where it was noted that 20+ years of satellite data for earth surface temperatures utilizing infrared sensors were “calibrated” using surface thermometer readings as they were not designed to measure surface temperature - a kludge as it were.
That being the case the “calibrations” would be subject to the same “adjustments” that Hansen, CRU, etc. and the AGW crew applied to land-based measurements and thus the satellite data - even the latest may be given inordinate credibility.
Sorry - I’ve searched and not found a reference to Monckton and this claim. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. ;-)
Charlie
Honesty on Planet Earth ?
That ship sailed a long time ago.
All data must go through the feel good modifiers, the grant support modifiers and the capitalists are bad modifiers.
We should make a law requiring all data like this be made available in raw unmodified format.
We paid for it, right ?
LOL!
Record cold Brisbane Oz Report
Get some sleep. 2012 is right around the corner. Starting to think those Mayans knew something :> The Pacific is overturning big time right now. Cold upwellings in the Eastern Pacific. We have been very cold here on the West coast. Getting frost warnings in the So Cal valleys. The east coast has been fair because the North Atlantic has not gone into cold mode yet. Florida has been lucky so far, but they will get the usual Late December and January cold blasts. They are coming. Difficult to predict what happens in a solar maximum with weak magnetism. You get more cosmic rays because magnetosphere is weak, but more atmospheric energy because the sun has activity. And some are claiming sunspot size has been decreasing. Would love to see sunspot images from SC 23 compared to SC 24. Tried to find some comparisons last night, but ran out of time. At any rate, just be packing plenty of Coors Lite. Those cold trains are coming.
So what you will be drinking next summer, will depend on the sun. We have progressed very far as a species. From sacrificing humans to the sun gods, to now sacrificing hops and barley. One of these days, we may yet actually get out of this solar system.
Western Europe cooling now and eastern Europe will be warmer then normal. If you believe the 0 point for the anomalies. Tonight a spot on Iceland will have a 32 F or more negative temperature anomaly.
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