Abstract:
The SDR (Satellite Data Records) are formatted into the Shared
Processing Data Exchange Format (DEF) at the Fleet Numerical
Oceanographic Center (FNOC), Monterey, They are transmitted to
NOAA/NESDIS via a communication satellite, processed, and given a data
set name to identify it on the NESDIS computer (CEMSCS). There are
approximately 14 orbits acquired during a 24-hour period, but only 10
of
... these orbits will reside on the CEMSCS at any given time. Data is
acquired from each of the 2 DMSP polar orbiting satellites, DMSP F10
and F11.
Upon the generation of the above data set, it is converted from the
DEF to the Intermediate database (IDB) format. Each data set has up to
1725 records of 3348 eight-bit bytes of data and is stored into the
IDB as one of 30 blocks aligned to 1725 records boundaries. The
alignment is based upon the orbit number.
The IDB is generated by processing FNOC data sets into a rotating
database of 30 sequences. The first record of each of the sequences is
composed of 6 data ID blocks from the first DEF text field and put
into a zero filled record of 3348 bytes. The data part of the record
consists of a 12 byte 'Scan Header Block' and 3346 bytes of the 'Data
Block' which are written to a record of 33 bytes. This is repeated
until the end of the data set (1725 lines). This database contains
both Northern and Southern Hemisphere data. The parameters include
latitude, longitude, brightness temperatures at 19, 22, 37, and 85
GHz, and surface type. 
