WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument VCS-WA

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Instrument: VCS-WA

Instrument details

Acronym	VCS-WA
Full name	Vidicon Camera System - Wide Angle
Purpose	Cloud imagery
Short description	Television camera, single VIS channel, 104° field of view
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Depending on satellite stabilisation mode. For TIROS-9 and ESSA-1 (cartwheel stabilisation) snapping when camera points at the Earth's surface. For all other fixed pointing spin-stabilised satellite, when viewing the Earth at appropriate times. Frame: 1200x1200 km2 when pointing normal to the Earth surface
Resolution	3 km at image center when pointing normal to the Earth surface
Coverage / Cycle	For cartwheel satellites: nearly global in 2 days. For all others: discontinue, in average in 5 days for latitudes < 60°
Mass		Power	Data Rate

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	1960 to 1968
Last update:	2017-03-27

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-1 (see instrument status) May 1966 - Mar 1967
Television and Infra-Red Observation Satellite (NASA)
- TIROS-1 (see instrument status) Jul 1960 - Jun 1960
- TIROS-2 (see instrument status) Feb 1961 - Dec 1961
- TIROS-3 (see instrument status) Oct 1961 - Feb 1962
- TIROS-4 (see instrument status) May 1962 - Jul 1962
- TIROS-5 (see instrument status) Sep 1962 - Nov 1963
- TIROS-6 (see instrument status) Jan 1963 - Oct 1963
- TIROS-7 (see instrument status) Sep 1963 - Jun 1968
- TIROS-8 (see instrument status) Mar 1964 - Jul 1967
- TIROS-9 (see instrument status) Apr 1965 - Jun 1968
- TIROS-10 (see instrument status) Oct 1965 - Jul 1967

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

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
Note: * Primary mission objective.

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
Snow cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channel(s)
Sea-ice cover	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channel(s)