WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument AVCS

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Instrument: AVCS

Instrument details

Acronym	AVCS
Full name	Advanced Vidicon Camera System
Purpose	Cloud imagery
Short description	Single-channel camera operating in the VIS range (0.45-0.65 µm)
Background	First installed on Nimbus 1 and 2, then on the operational ESSA series and the first ITOS and NOAA satellites. Designed for diferred transmission after on-board storage
Scanning Technique	Snapshot and then scanning of 800 lines x 800 pixels/line. Three parallel cameras on Nimbus, for a total swath of 3500 km. Single camera on ESSA, for a swath of 3000 km
Resolution	Ranging from 0.9 km s.s.p. (Nimbus) to 3.7 km (ESSA) depending on the satellite orbital height and the number of parallel cameras
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage each day, in daylight
Mass		Power	Data Rate

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period:	1964 to 1964-09-23
Last update:	2017-03-26

Detailed characteristics

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

TIROS Operational System (NOAA)
- ESSA-3 (see instrument status) Oct 1966 - Dec 1968
- ESSA-5 (see instrument status) Apr 1967 - Feb 1970
- ESSA-7 (see instrument status) Aug 1968 - Mar 1970
- ESSA-9 (see instrument status) Feb 1969 - Nov 1972
Nimbus (NASA)
- Nimbus-1 (see instrument status) Aug 1964 - Sep 1964
- Nimbus-2 (see instrument status) May 1966 - Jan 1969
NOAA 3rd generation / Improved TIROS Operational System (NOAA)
- ITOS-1 (TIROS-M) (see instrument status) Jan 1970 - Jun 1971
- NOAA-1 (see instrument status) Dec 1970 - Aug 1971

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
Moderate resolution optical imager

WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Cloud cover

Secondary mission objectives

Sea-ice cover
Snow cover

Opportunity objectives

Fire fractional cover

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Tentative Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Cloud cover	5 - marginal	Daylight only.. Dense cloud only.	VIS channel(s)
Fire fractional cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Coarse spatial resolution.. Daylight only.	VIS channels
Sea-ice cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channel(s)
Snow cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channel(s)