Welcome to the Product Systems
Branch Soundings Area.

What is a sounding?
A sounding, for our use, is a vertical atmospheric temperature or moisture profile derived from radiances measurements. The radiance measurements are from a variety of instruments flown on weather satellites. NESDIS currently generates soundings from geostationary and polar weather satellites. This section will only address the polar soundings, for more information about the geostationary soundings products, try Operational Products Development Branch - POES.

The Product Systems Branch (PSB) currently generates sounding products from 4 operational polar satellites. Each polar orbiting satellite provides full global coverage each day, hence data from polar satellites are useful for anybody requiring global coverage. Each sounding product generated by the Products Systems Branch has its own section in the web site.

The products are:

• Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS) temperature and moisture profiles from NOAA-15 satellite.

Last revised: 27 March 2007 (gs)