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NOAA Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Global Visible and Infrared Band Data from ESSA (1966 - 1972) and NOAA (1972 - 1978) Satellites, Version 1

Published by NSIDC | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: February 21, 2026 | Last Modified: 2026-02-17
This data set consists of daily visible-band (VIS) imagery and infrared-band (IR) imagery derived from the Environmental Sciences Service Administration (ESSA) satellites, the Improved TIROS Operational System 1 (ITOS 1) satellite, and the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites covering December 1966 through March 1978 (IR data begins in December 1972). The data set was created by scanning the analog imagery from these satellites held in the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) physical archives in Asheville, NC. Images on 35 mm film, glossy prints, or paper halftone prints were scanned, processed, and then converted to NetCDF format.

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