Satellite Data

True color images look similar to a “photograph” of the earth and lakes from a space-borne satellite perspective.

Sea surface temperature, or lake surface temperature, is used to understand how the lake communicates with the Earth’s atmosphere.

Researchers and stakeholders use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Node to monitor the ice conditions.

Data from the NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Node to monitor six different types of ice, ice thickness, and ice cover.

Chlorophyll is an estimation of the concentration of the phytoplankton pigment, chlorophyll-a, at the lake surface and it is used as a proxy for the amount of phytoplankton in the surface water.

Utilizes MERIS, MODIS, or SeaWiFS satellite data to estimate chlorophyll (chl), dissolved organic carbon (doc) and suspended minerals (sm), the three primary Color Producing Agents (CPAs).

Utilizes MERIS, MODIS, or SeaWiFS satellite data to estimate chlorophyll (chl), dissolved organic carbon (doc) and suspended minerals (sm), the three primary Color Producing Agents (CPAs).

Utilizes MERIS, MODIS, or SeaWiFS satellite data to estimate chlorophyll (chl), dissolved organic carbon (doc) and suspended minerals (sm), the three primary Color Producing Agents (CPAs).

The Great Lakes SAR wind data files produced at National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) SAR term and hosted at the CoastWatch Great Lakes node.  

Contour maps of each port region are also hosted on the Great Lakes CoastWatch node and are in near-real time when the satellite passes over the Great Lakes (up to 18 images a day from different satellites).

Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis full resolution images of the day.

Present day average compared to prior years.

Lake surface temperatures are updated daily with information from the cloud-free portions of the previous day’s satellite imagery

Data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) aboard a series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES).

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a sensor designed and manufactured by the Raytheon Company on board the polar-orbiting Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) and NOAA-20 weather satellite.

MODIS is a key instrument aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. Terra’s orbit around the Earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning, while Aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon.

GOES satellites continually view the Western Hemisphere from approximately 22,300 miles above Earth. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) builds and launches the GOES, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates them.

The Sentinel-1 mission comprises a constellation of two polar-orbiting satellites, operating day and night performing C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, enabling them to acquire imagery regardless of the weather.

Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) is the NOAA Enterprise SST system. NOAA CoastWatch co-gridded VIIRS SST products are Level 3 daily composites in compatible format and projection with other CoastWatch Level 3 sector and global products.