Satellite characteristics

Launch Date - End 14 May 1991 - 10 August 2007

Status Decommissioned

Orbit type Sun-synchronous circular

Altitude 850

Orbit inclination 98.7

Equatorial crossing time 13:40:00

Orbit period 102

Satellite family: POES (Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites)

The POES satellite system offers the advantage of daily global coverage, by making nearly polar orbits roughly 14.1 times daily.

Data from the POES series supports a broad range of environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, global sea surface temperature measurements, atmospheric soundings of temperature and humidity, ocean dynamics research, volcanic eruption monitoring, forest fire detection, global vegetation analysis, search and rescue, and many other applications.

Sensor characteristics

Sensor name AVHRR 2 (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer 2)
Sensor short description
Sensor type Imaging radiometer (Vis/IR)
Resolution class Very Low (> 1 km)
Swath width (at nadir) 2900 km
Revisit frequency 1 days