The Mean Layer Temperature - NOAA CDR V5.0 is a monthly global dataset with 2.5°×2.5° grid resolution covering the period from November 1978 to present. The dataset measures mean layer atmospheric temperatures from the lower-troposphere to the lower-stratosphere. The dataset was inter-calibrated and merged from three generations of microwave sounders, MSU, AMSU-A, and ATMS, with 16 polar-orbiting satellites including TIROS-N, NOAA-6, NOAA-7, NOAA-8, NOAA-9, NOAA-10, NOAA-11, NOAA-12, NOAA-14, NOAA-15, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, MetOp-A, Aqua, SNPP, and NOAA-20. The dataset includes temperature mid-troposphere (TMT, MSU channel 2 merged with AMSU-A channel 5 and ATMS channel 6), temperature upper-troposphere (TUT, MSU channel 3 merged with AMSU-A channel 7 and ATMS channel 8), temperature lower-stratosphere (TLS, MSU channel 4 merged with AMSU-A channel 9 and ATMS channel 10), and temperature lower-troposphere (TLT, derived from combinations of TMT, TUT, and TLS). TLT, TMT, TUT, and TLS measure layer temperatures peaking roughly at 3km, 5km, 10km, and 17km, respectively, above the Earth's surface. Features in the dataset development include a use of backward merging approach, development of an observation- and semi-physically-based algorithm for diurnal drift adjustment, and removal of spurious calibration drifting errors in NOAA-15, NOAA-14, NOAA-12, and NOAA-11 through recalibration. Satellite microwave sounding observations in stable sun-synchronous orbits (Aqua, MetOp-A, SNPP, NOAA-20) were used as a reference in the backward merging process. Bias corrections and satellite recalibration have resulted in inter-consistent CDR records for reliable climate change investigation.

The NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) for Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) brightness temperature in "window channels". The data cover a time period from 1998 to 2015 with preliminary data starting in 2016, updated monthly, at roughly a 48km resolution over the entire globe with 30 observations per scan, using channels 23, 31, 50, 89 GHz. The AMSU-A sensor is flown on NOAA-15, -16, -17, -18, -19 and MetOp-A satellites. Visual inspections and verification of the various corrections were applied to the data to improve data accuracy.

This dataset from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) consists of satellite swath-level brightness temperatures from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). SSMIS measures the natural microwave emission coming from the Earth’s surface in the spectral band from 19 to 85 GHz. There are roughly 15 orbits per day per satillite with a swath width of approximately 1400 km resulting in nearly global daily coverage. SSMIS onboard the DMSP F18 satellite is the first instrument that has been calibrated to the RSS Version 8 standard. The data record covers the time period from March 2010 through the present with a one month latency. Additional DMSP satellites for RSS Version 8 will follow as they are calibrated. This Version 8 is an update to Version 7 of the same product, also archived at NOAA/NCEI. Version 8 has improved calibration for land and ice scenes. The data file format is netCDF-4 with added metadata that follow the Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions and Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (ACDD).

This dataset from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) consists of satellite swath-level brightness temperatures from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). SSMIS measures the natural microwave emission coming from the Earth’s surface in the spectral band from 19 to 85 GHz. There are roughly 15 orbits per day per satillite with a swath width of approximately 1400 km resulting in nearly global daily coverage. SSMIS onboard the DMSP F18 satellite is the first instrument that has been calibrated to the RSS Version 8 standard. The data record covers the time period from March 2010 through the present with a one month latency. Additional DMSP satellites for RSS Version 8 will follow as they are calibrated. This Version 8 is an update to Version 7 of the same product, also archived at NOAA/NCEI. Version 8 has improved calibration for land and ice scenes. The data file format is netCDF-4 with added metadata that follow the Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions and Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (ACDD).

This dataset contains Level 1c inter-calibrated brightness temperatures from the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) sensors onboard nine polar orbiting satellites (TIROS-N, NOAA-6, -7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, and -14) spanning from 1978 to 2006. The dataset was produced by the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), and is a Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) of microwave brightness temperatures in the NOAA CDR Program. MSU is a four-channel microwave radiometer measuring at 50.3, 53.74, 54.96, and 57.95 GHz, and has ground spatial resolution of about 250 km in diameter at nadir. The native MSU Level 1b data were inter-calibrated using the Integrated Microwave Inter-Calibration Approach (IMICA) method to obtain a long-term data product to be used in climate analyses. For comparison, data files also include the operational data used in NWP forecasting along with the IMICA calibrated radiances, which minimize or remove the biases found in the operational calibration. In addition, limb adjusted radiances for both the IMICA and operational calibrations are included for certain type of climate applications, such as atmospheric layer temperature development using the radiance datasets. The orbital swath data files include MSU channels 2 through 4 for the IMICA calibration, and channels 1 through 4 for the operational calibration. The inter-calibrated MSU data are not expected to change for the dataset time period.

The High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) of intersatellite calibrated channel 12 brightness temperature product is a gridded global monthly time series product spanning from 1979 to the most current full month, updated monthly. Among the twenty channels in the HIRS instrument, channel 12 measures upper tropospheric water vapor. Multiple polar orbiting satellites in the NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) and MetOp series have carried HIRS instruments. Due to the independence in calibration of the individual HIRS instruments, biases exist between satellites. Examination of the intersatellite biases shows that the biases are scene brightness temperature dependent. These HIRS channel 12 measurements from the NOAA POES and MetOp series are calibrated to a baseline satellite based on intersatellite bias correction data. The dataset is provided as monthly mean 2.5x2.5 degree latitude/longitude in netcdf format. This CDR is key to understanding water vapor feedback climatology and has been used to study long-term water vapor variability, to evaluate climate models, and to study large-scale atmospheric circulations.