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Full catalog/amsua16sp
amsua16sp·v1·dataset

Microwave temperature soundings of the air (NOAA-16)

ADVANCED MICROWAVE SOUNDING UNIT-A (AMSU-A) SWATH FROM NOAA-16
land NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 2 netCDF-3HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. Microwave readings used to build vertical profiles of air temperature and moisture from the surface up to about 45 kilometers high. Data come as swaths along the satellite's track.

How it's made. Collected by the AMSU-A microwave radiometer aboard the NOAA-16 satellite, with one file per day holding all 15 channels plus location and time.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational sounding measurement that feeds weather forecasting and atmospheric studies, generally used through downstream products rather than directly.

What's measured

Spectral/Engineering › Microwave › Brightness TemperatureAtmosphere › Atmospheric Temperature › Upper Air Temperature › Vertical ProfilesAtmosphere › Atmospheric Water Vapor › Water Vapor Profiles

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2001-05-27 → 2009-07-30
  • Measured byNOAA-16 (AMSU-A)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -89.91, 180, 89.73
  • FormatsnetCDF-3, HDF-EOS2
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

AMSU-A, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, is a 15-channel passive microwave radiometer used to profile atmospheric temperature and moisture from the earth's surface to ~45 km (3 millibars). All orbits beginning in the day (00:00:00 - 23:59:59 UTC) are stored in one daily HDF-EOS file. Each file contains 15 (channel) arrays, as well as corresponding latitude, longitude, and time. AMSU flies on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar orbiting spacecraft as part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Launched on 21 September 2000, NOAA-16 is in a sun synchronous near polar orbit.

Get the data

amsua16sp_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="amsua16sp",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.