Weather Satellites: TIROS-N

TIROS-N - Television InfraRed Operational Satellite - Next-generation

Launch date: October 13, 1978

Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Launch vehicle: Atlas E/F

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE:

To provide higher resolution, day and night quantitative environmental data on local and global scales with technologically superior instrumentation than that which was available on the ITOS/NOAA satellites.

SATELLITE DESCRIPTION:

The spacecraft was rectangularly shaped (146" long by 74" high) with one large solar panel attached. The satellite was Earth oriented, three-axis stabilized and weighed 1594 pounds.

TIROS-N was an experimental satellite which carried an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) to provide day and night cloud top and sea surface temperatures, as well as ice and snow conditions; an atmospheric sounding system (TOVS - TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder) to provide vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor from the Earth's surface to the top of the atmosphere; and a solar proton monitor to detect the arrival of energetic particles for use in solar storm prediction. For the first time, this satellite also carried a data collection platform used to receive, process and store information from free floating balloons and buoys world-wide for transmission to one central processing facility.

TIROS-N was placed in a near circular, (470nm) polar orbit. The craft and its systems operated successfully, providing high resolution scanned images and vertical temperature and moisture profiles to both operational meteorologists and private interests with APT and HRPT capability. TIROS-N remained operational for 868 days until deactivated by NOAA on February 27, 1981.

PARTICIPANTS:

NASA, RCA AstroElectronics, NOAA, US Weather Bureau.