VISSRSMS2L1AOIPS: Historical Geostationary Satellite Imagery from SMS-2

VISSR/SMS-2 Level 1 AOIPS data provides calibrated visible and infrared radiance imagery from the second Synchronous Meteorological Satellite. The dataset contains three file types per scene, including radiance data, grid information, and telemetry records, with visible imagery at 0.9 km and infrared at 8 km spatial resolution. Data collection occurred from 1975 to 1980, with the satellite positioned at 135°W, capturing a full-disk scan of the Earth every 20 minutes.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical cloud cover and storm systems based on visible (0.55–0.70 µm) and infrared (10.5–12.6 µm) radiance measurements.
• Calibrating or validating climate models using time-series geolocated imagery from a known orbital position.
• Studying the evolution of satellite sensor technology and data processing systems from the 1970s.
• Reproducing historical 70mm film negatives or 9.5-inch positive prints from the original digital records.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution visible imagery (0.9 km) for its era, with scenes comprising up to 3904 x 4000 pixels.
• Covers a specific historical period from 1975-04 27 to 1980-08-22, documenting early geostationary observations.
• Includes ancillary data such as time, geolocation, orbit, attitude, and telemetry within the file structure.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unknown across all platforms.
• Data has significant gaps, with no observations recorded between 1975-07-31 and 1979-05-10.
• Platforms conflict on the 'last updated' date (2026 vs. 1980), indicating potential metadata freshness issues.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Collection Method

Collected by the Visible Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (VISSR) instrument on the SMS-2 satellite.

Time Range

1975-04-27 to 1980-08-22

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:10:43.363542

Geography

Hemispheric view from geostationary orbit at 135°W (final position), covering the Earth below the satellite.