STAR Portfolio / Product Catalog

Atmospheric products provide important information on the Earth's atmosphere, including winds, aerosols, trace gases, retrieved temperature and water vapor profiles, and lightning detection. They are used to determine atmospheric stability, to forecast severe weather, to assess the intensity of tropical storms, to study climate change, and to monitor and help predict air quality.

Cryosphere products provide information about the Earth's surface where water is in solid form and include snow cover and sea ice. Snow products are used to better understand the hydrologic cycle and to determine areas that have the potential for disastrous flooding. They are used for numerical weather prediction and climate monitoring. Sea ice products are important to ocean navigation and for studying climate change.

Hydrometeors include cloud and precipitation products. Cloud products are used for Nowcasting severe weather, to better understand tropical systems, and to determine potential aviation hazards. They are also used by numerical weather prediction models for model verification and data assimilation. Precipitation products are important for assessing threats from extreme rainfall events, particularly flash flooding.

Imagery products are used to detect weather systems and forecast their movement. The products help identify cloud and atmospheric features during the day and at night. Products include visible, infrared, and water vapor imagery. Imagery is composited with multiple sources to support tropical uses, high latitude needs, and day-to-day forecasts.

Land products include Active Fires, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Land Surface Emissivity, Soil Moisture (SM), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Land products can be applied to hydrological models to predict flooding events, as well as monitor drought or overall vegetative health. They are also used to detect and monitor fires and smoke, prescribed burns, deforestation, and other agricultural applications.

Level 1 products include radiances and brightness temperatures. They are assimilated into numerical weather prediction models for improved forecasts and are used to generate other environmental products. Microwave radiances are available in all weather conditions while infrared radiances are cloud cleared to provide accurate information of the atmosphere below the clouds.

Ocean products include Sea Surface Temperature (SST), Sea Surface Height (SSH), Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), Ocean Color, Ocean Surface Wind Vector (OSWV), and Sea Surface Emissivity. Ocean products have a variety of applications, from navigation to monitoring ENSO events, to detecting algae blooms or coral bleaching.

Radiation budget products describe the distribution of the incoming and outgoing radiation at the surface and the top of the atmosphere. These products include absorbed and available solar energy, outgoing longwave radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, and total solar radiation.