SSM/I, SSMIS: Special Sensor Microwave/Imager and Sounder

Climate Data Guide

The SSM/I and SSMIS satellites are operated by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and are part of NASA's Pathfinder Program. The instrumentation has been flown on a number of satellites: F-8 (1987), F-10 (November 1990), F-11 (December 1991), F-12 (August 1994), F-13 (March 1995), F-14 (April 1997) and F-15 (January 2000). Instrument failures have occurred. The SSM/I instrumentation was replaced by the SSMIS on satellites F-16 (November 2005), F-17 (March 2008) and F-18 (March 2010). Satellite failures have occurred and, until recently, there has been little impact on the suite of hydrological products.

The SSMIS data have been carefully intercalibrated on the brightness temperature level with the previous SSM/I and therefore extend this important time series of ocean winds, vapor, cloud and rain values.

Please cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions
Suggested Data Citation
Dataset DOIs
None
Hosted Climate Index Files
None
Data Access
  1. SSMI and SSMIs data products at Remote Sensing Systems
  2. SSMI and SSMIs global and polar brightness temperature grids at NSIDC
Usage Restrictions
None

Other Information

Earth system components and main variables
Atmosphere, Precipitable water, Precipitation, Water Vapor, Wind
Type of data product
Satellite Data Products, Platforms, Other, SSMI, SSMIS
Dataset collections
None

Years of record
to
Metadata ID
http://nsidc.org/collections/NSIDC-0032
Data time period extended
Yes, data set is extended
Timestep
Daily, Monthly, Weekly
Domain
Global
Formats:
binary
Input Data
None
Vertical Levels:
None
Missing Data Flag
Missing data present
Ocean or Land
Ocean & Land
Spatial Resolution

0.25 x 0.25

Model Resolution (reanalysis)
None
Data Assimilation Method
None
Model Vintage (reanalysis)
None

Key Publications
Not available...