NOAA Satellites - How Weather Satellites Work

The phrase weather satellites is commonly used to refer to a whole family of satellites that can tell us something about the air, water and land in which we live. As such, they are more correctly called environmental satellites. These satellites are operated by the United States, the government agencies of other countries, and commercial businesses. This page provides links to information about the satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as other agencies and governments.

If you have found this page using a link from another web site, visit our Home Page (below) to get more details about the NOAA satellites, or more information about NOAA.

General overview of the U.S. NOAA geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite systems.

A brief description of the new KLM series of polar-orbiting satellites that began with the 1998 launch of NOAA-15 (NOAA-K).

Other United States and Non-U.S. Satellites

METEOSAT, the European geostationary satellite from the ESOC site; USA access to encrypted Meteosat data. Also, learn about METEOSAT Second Generation (MSG).
METEOR-- Russia's polar orbiting satellites: METEOR-3/TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) data archive, 1991-1994. General METEOR APT information note.
Landsat, a high resolution Earth observation satellite operated by NOAA and private industry.
SeaWiFs oceanographic satellite.
Earth Observation Satellite EOS AM-1.
METOP, the European polar-orbiter to be launched in 2003.
RADARSAT: Canada's Satellites
MOS-1,1b, JERS-1, ADEOS, GMS: Japan's Satellites