NOAA TOVS120: data set description page


Data set source
Information on available Data
Quality Control Processing
Data format
Data selection page
Satellite upper-air soundings and black body temperature from NOAA-12 and NOAA-14 satellites, at a horizontal resolution of 120km.

Data set source

  • TOVS 120 diffused by NOAA/NESDIS through the GTS, from NOAA polar satellites


    • Information on available data in the FASTEX Central Archive

  • from both NOAA12 and NOAA14 satellites
  • over the FASTEX domain (latitude: 20-90N ; longitude: -140:40E)
  • from the 1srt January to the 28th February 1997
  • about 6000 soundings a day for each satellite


    • Quality Control Processing

  • FASTEX Central archive checking:
    Check on no duplicate data
    Comparison with the ICI-TOVS data set for spatial and temporal consistency


    • Data format

    Data provided in daily files, in ASCII format, one line for each message (per site and date), from BUFR messages. The following table provides information on the different parameters.

    PRODUCT DESCRIPTION layers (mb) ACCURACY GOALS SPATIAL RESOLUTION and GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE
    Layer-mean temperatures (K) Sfc-850 +/- 2.5K 20-50 km resolution
    global coverage with 80-300 km spacing depending upon the extent of the meteorological activity
    850-700 850-tropopause: +/- 2.25K
    Tropopause-2 mb: +/- 3K
    700-500
    500-400
    400-300
    300-200
    200-100
    100-70
    70-50
    50-30
    30-10
    10-5
    5-2
    2-1 +/- 3.5K
    1-0.4
    Layer precipitable water (mm) Sfc-700 +/-30% of the true value (or 1mm, whichever is larger)
    700-500
    500-300
    Tropopause pressure (mb)   +/-50 mb
    Tropopause experimental temperature(K)   +/-2.5 K
    Experimental total ozone (Dobson)   +/-15% tropical, +/-50% polar
    Equivalent blackbody temperatures (K) for 20 HIRS/2 stratospheric channels, 4 MSU channels, 3 SSU channels   +/- 2%
    Experimental cloud cover   +/- 20%
    Entry taken from: Rao,P.K., S.J. Holmes, R.K. Anderson, J.S. Wintovn, P.E. Lehr,
    Weather Satellites: Systems, Data, and Environmental Applications, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1990

    Updated: 30 March 1999
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