The Center for Satellite Applications and Research
(STAR) is the science arm of the NOAA Satellite and Information Service
(NESDIS), which acquires and manages the nation's operational Earth-observing
satellites. STAR's mission is to accelerate the transfer of
satellite observations of land, atmosphere, ocean, and climate from
scientific research and development into routine operations, enabling NOAA
to offer state-of-the-art data, products, and services to decision-makers.
STAR Scientists Produce First Light Image From GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager
2 February 2017 - The ABI Imagery Team lead by STAR produced the First Light Images which were released to the press on 23 January 2017. This 16-panel image shows the continental United States in the two visible, four near-infrared, and 10 infrared channels on ABI. These channels enable us to distinguish among clouds, water vapor, smoke, ice and volcanic ash. GOES-16 has three times more spectral channels than earlier generations of GOES satellites. Read more.
Brad Pierce Receives the Prestigious NOAA Administrators Award
15 November 2016 - Brad Pierce from the Advanced Satellite Products Branch received the prestigious 2016 NOAA Administrators award at a ceremony that was held on 15 November 2016 in Silver Spring, MD. He received the award "For providing robust, real-time, simulated data of next generation geostationary satellite images, reducing risk in post-launch operations". STAR congratulates Brad for his excellent work.
Atmospheric Gravity Waves over the Atlantic Ocean
3 October 2016 - On April 27, 2016, a striking true-color image acquired by MODIS NASA's Aqua satellite showed several groups of very well structured arc cloud patterns, indicating atmospheric gravity waves, aligned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa, extending over 2,000 km. The unique feature of this observation is that the scale of the atmospheric gravity waves are an order of a magnitude larger than previously reported in the literature. The August issue of Acta Oceanologica Sinica featured this image on its cover, which was submitted by STAR's Xiaofeng Li and several co-authors. Read more.
2016 Gold Medal Award Winners -
Tom Smith and Ken Pryor
27 September 2016 - STAR's Tom Smith (CoRP / SCSB)
and Ken Pryor (SMCD / OPDB) were honored today with Dept. of Commerce Gold Medal awards for
Scientific and Engineering Achievement. The highest honor award of the DOC, the Gold Medal has
been presented since 1949 by the Secretary of Commerce for distinguished performance.
STAR Scientists and the NASA IceBridge Mission:
Underflying Sentinel-3A's Track for Cal/Val
21 April 2016 - The NOAA Hurricane Hunter "Miss
Piggy" and the NASA Operation IceBridge team arrived on site at Thule Air
Base, Greenland on Monday 4-18, and quickly departed for the first science
mission of the season Tuesday morning, 19 April 2016. Using a suite of
remote sensing instrumentation, the aircraft surveyed shore-fast ice at
Ellesmere Island, Canada. NOAA/STAR and CICS scientists are participating
in the NASA Operation IceBridge Spring 2016 mission, including today's attempt
to underfly the Sentinel-3A satellite, a cal/val flight which the NOAA-LSA team proposed. read more.
Latest STAR Publications
Updated: Thu, 09 Feb 2017
- Title:
- Ocean Upwelling Along the Yellow Sea Coast of China Revealed by Satellite Observations and Numerical Simulation
- Authors:
- Bao SW, Li XF, Shen DL, Yang ZZ, Pietrafesa LJ and Zheng WZ
- Journal:
- IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55(1):526-536.
DOI: 10.1109/tgrs.2016.2610761
- Date:
- Jan 2017
- Title:
- A Salient Region Detection and Pattern Matching-Based Algorithm for Center Detection of a Partially Covered Tropical Cyclone in a SAR Image
- Authors:
- Jin SH, Wang S, Li XF, Jiao LC, Zhang JA and Shen DL
- Journal:
- IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55(1):280-291.
DOI: 10.1109/tgrs.2016.2605766
- Date:
- Jan 2017
- Title:
- Sea Fetch Observed by Synthetic Aperture Radar
- Authors:
- Li XF, Zheng WZ, Yang XF and Pietrafesa LJ
- Journal:
- IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55(1):272-279.
DOI: 10.1109/tgrs.2016.2605670
- Date:
- Jan 2017
- Title:
- The Convective Transport Of Active Species In The Tropics (Contrast) Experiment
- Authors:
- Pan LL, Atlas EL, Salawitch RJ, Honomichl SB, Bresch JF, Randel WJ, Apel EC, Hornbrook RS, Weinheimer AJ, et al.
- Journal:
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 98(1):106-+.
DOI: 10.1175/bams-d-14-00272.1
- Date:
- Jan 2017
- Title:
- Improved scheme for Cross-track Infrared Sounder geolocation assessment and optimization
- Authors:
- Wang L, Zhang B, Tremblay D and Han Y
- Journal:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 122(1):519-536.
DOI: 10.1002/2016jd025812
- Date:
- Jan 2017
View all of STAR's latest research articles.