The Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) from Microwave (MW) observations of tropical cyclones worldwide data consist of raw satellite observations. The data derive from the global constellation of geostationary satellites (GOES, Meteosat, MS, and FY2 series) spanning 1987 through 2009. Passive microwave observations provide significant information content given that most clouds are transparent at microwave wavelengths. The HURSAT-MW data set is constructed in largely the same manner as HURSAT-B1. Each time a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite passes over a tropical cyclone, Special Sensing Microwave Imager (SSMI) data are mapped to an equal angle grid (fixed latitude/longitude) centered on the temporally interpolated storm location. HURSAT-MW provides brightness temperatures for all 7 SSMI channels. No product retrievals (e.g., rain rate, total column water vapor, ...) are provided in the data, but are possible (e.g., view the imagery derived from the data). The satellite data were then gridded to 8km, with grid centers fixed on the tropical cyclone center of circulation at 6-hour intervals. Data include hurricanes from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean Basins. Data are provided in a convenient NetCDF format which is self-documenting and follows standard storage and metadata conventions. Version 5 supersedes all other versions.

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites collect visible and infrared cloud imagery as well as monitoring the atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrologic, cryospheric and near-Earth space environments. The DMSP program maintains a constellation of sun-synchronous, near-polar orbiting satellites. The orbital period is 101 minutes and inclination is 99 degrees. The atmospheric and oceanographic sensors record radiances at visible, infrared and microwave wavelengths. The solar geophysical sensors measure ionospheric plasma fluxes, densities, temperatures and velocities. DMSP visible and infrared imagery of clouds covers a 3,000 km swath, thus each satellite provides global coverage of both day night time conditions each day. The field view of the microwave imagers and sounders is only 1,500 km thus approximately 3 days data are required for one instrument to provide global coverage at equatorial latitudes. The solar geophysical instruments make in-situ measurements of ionospheric parameters, some of which vary very rapidly. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly National Geophysical Data Center) receive the complete DMSP data stream from the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska. Data are currently transmitted in near realtime from AFWA directly to the archive via a designated T1 line. Archive processing prepares orbital data sets of calibrated, quality assessed data organized as a time-series, restores data lost during transmission,and accurately computes satellite positions. NCEI maintains an archive of all data recorded on DMSP satellites as relayed to The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly National Geophysical Data Center) by the Air Force Weather Agency. Data from March 1992 to March 1994, are considered to be experimental. After March 1994, the system was fully operational. NCEI archives contain data that are post process reconstructed, positioned and geolocated using the same software.

The CIMSS Tropical Cyclone webpage helps achieve these goals by providing near real-time imagery, derived atmospheric analysis products, and TC intensity estimates from a variety of different satellite platforms for global analysis of TCs and their surrounding environments. Many of the products from CIMSS are developed specifically for use by TC forecasters worldwide to provide unique information in support of their specific TC forecasting missions.

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk Navigation dataset consists of the real-time navigation and housekeeping data that was acquired from various instruments aboard the Global Hawk including the LN-100G IMU navigation system and the Global Hawk flight computer during the HS3 campaign. The goals for HS3 included: assessing the relative roles of large-scale environment and storm-scale internal processes, and addressing the controversial role of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) in tropical storm formation and intensification as well as the role of deep convection in the inner-core region of storms. This dataset was broadcast on the Global Hawk aircraft network by the NASDAT (NASA Airborne Science Data Acquisition and Transmission unit) as 1 Hz Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. These UDP packets were generated in IWG1 format, a type of ASCII format supported by all NASA and NCAR aircraft.

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) dataset includes measurements gathered by the CPL instrument during the HS3 campaign which took place during the hurricane seasons of 2011 through 2014 in the Atlantic Ocean basin region. Goals for HS3 included: assessing the relative roles of large-scale environment and storm-scale internal processes; and addressing the controversial role of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) in tropical storm formation and intensification as well as the role of deep convection in the inner-core region of storms. The CPL instrument returns information on the radiative and optical properties of cirrus clouds and aerosols at a high temporal and spatial resolution. CPL uses the 355, 532, and 1064 nm channels and has a small field of view, which eliminates multiple scattering; it offers 30 m vertical resolution and 200 m horizontal resolution. The CPL instrument measures the total (aerosol plus Rayleigh) attenuated backscatter as a function of altitude at each wavelength. Data is available in netCDF/CF format, from 2012 - 2014.

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Tropics Satellite Data contains browse only data files, including brightness temperature, rain rate, and Red, Green, Blue (RGB) composite imagery, for the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) field campaign. Goals for the HS3 field campaign included assessing the relative roles of large-scale environmental and storm-scale internal processes, addressing the controversial role of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) in tropical storm formation and intensification, and the role of deep convection in the inner-core region of storms. These browse only data files are available for dates between April 22, 2013 and September 30, 2014 in JPG format.

The SSM/I is a seven-channel, four frequency, linearly-polarized, passive microwave radiometric system which measures atmospheric, ocean and terrain microwave brightness temperatures at 19.35, 22.235, 37.0 and 85.5 GHz. The data are used to obtain synoptic maps of critical atmospheric, oceanographic and selected land parameters on a global scale. The SSM/I archive data set consists of antenna temperatures recorded across a 1,400 km conical scan, satellite ephemeris, earth surface positions for each pixel and instrument calibration. Electromagnetic radiation is polarized by the ambient electric field, scattered by the atmosphere and the Earth's surface and scattered and absorbed by atmospheric water vapor, oxygen, liquid water and ice. The SSM/I instrument consists of an offset parabolic reflector that is 24 x 26 inches fed by a seven- port horn antenna. The reflector and feed are mounted on a drum which contains the radiometers, digital data subsystem, mechanical scanning subsystem and power subsystem. The drum assembly rotates about the axis of the drum. A small mirror and a hot reference absorber are mounted on the assembly. The instrument sweeps a 450 cone around the satellite velocity vector so that the Earth incidence angle is always 540. Data are recorded during the 102.40 of the cone when the antenna beam intercepts the Earth's surface. The channel footprint varies with channel energy, position in the scan, along scan or along track direction and altitude of the satellite. The 85 GHz footprint is the smallest with a 13 x 15 km and the 19 GHz footprint is the largest at 43 x 69 km. Because the 85 GHz footprint is so small, it is sampled twice as often, i.e., 128 times a scan. One data cycle consists of 4 85 GHz scans and 2 scans of the 19, 22 and 37 GHz channels. The complete cycle takes 28 seconds and it must be complete to process the data. The SSM/I processor is queried once a second by onboard computer and the data are placed into the "TS SSP" data field. Data is ingested as sent from AFWA on a T-1 line. At the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly National Geophysical Data Center), the "TS SSP" data are decommutated, deinterleaved, bit flipped, reordered and restructured into orbits beginning with the equatorial crossing as the satellite travels from south to north. Satellite ephemeris are computed using a physically-based, orbital mechanics model. SSM/I pixels are geolocated using the satellite ephemeris and satellite attitude corrections. Antenna temperatures are computed from instrumental counts by a linear equation, i.e., the conversion is reversible. In the decommutation step, we encountered bit reversals that occurred 1.8 - 3.4% of the time and are probably caused by ionospheric scintillation. These are identified through careful checking procedures and corrected. Archive files contain metadata by orbit and geolocated antenna temperatures.

The Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) is a seven-channel linearly polarized passive microwave radiometer that operates at frequencies of 19.36 (vertically and horizontally polarized), 22.235 (vertically polarized), 37.0 (vertically and horizontally polarized), and 85.5 GHz (vertically and horizontally polarized). The instrument was carried aboard Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites F8, F10, F11, F12, F13, and F15. The Temperature Data Records (TDRs) from SSM/I contain calibrated and earth-located data prior to the (irreversible) antenna pattern correction process. These SSM/I TDRs in network Common Data Format (netCDF) have embedded temperature and geolocation flags as well as a climatology flag that calculates deviations from a climatological norm for each radiance footprint or z-score. The original radiance and geolocation data are not changed. Variable orbital files from the originating TDR dataset have been aggregated into 3-hourly files for ease of use.