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The US Air Force, US Navy, and NOAA participate in a interagency program referred to as the Shared Processing Program (SPP). The term "Shared Processing" has been applied to the sharing of data, products and associated information derived from the polar environmental satellite programs of the DOD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), and NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program.
The image products shown below use EDR data from the last 14 polar orbits of the DMSP satellites (F17). The areas shaded gray represent either data gaps or indeterminate data. The data gaps (diamond-shaped) result from incomplete satellite coverage, and the indeterminate data (described for each product below) results from the inability to do retrievals over certain surface types.
The water vapor product is a measurement of the water vapor concentration over the oceans. Indeterminate data in the product below usually results from the inability to take accurate measurements from the polar ice caps and areas of rainfall. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated every four hours.
The current wind speed product is a measurement of the wind speed over the oceans. Indeterminate data in the product below usually results from the inability to take accurate measurements from the polar ice caps and areas of rainfall. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated every four hours.
The rain rate product is a measurement of the rainfall intensity over the Earth's surface. Indeterminate data can result from the polar ice caps or certain areas in the Sahara desert. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated every four hours.
The surface temperature product measures the temperature at the surface in land regions. Indeterminate data can be a result of snow, ice, and water covered areas, and certain warm regions of the Sahara and Australia. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated every 4 hours.
The surface type product describes the environment-type of the land regions. See the legend below for to identify the environment-types. Indeterminate data can be the result of certain warm regions in the Sahara or Australia. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated once per day at 8 UTC.
| Legend | ||||||
| Flooding or saturated land | Desert | |||||
| Dense vegetation | Water / vegetation mix or wet soil | |||||
| Vegetation | Rain over vegetation or soil | |||||
| Moist or dry arable land | Wet snow, dry snow, glacial or ice | |||||
| Semi-desert | ||||||
The snow depth product measures the depth of recently accumulated dry snow. Snowfall amounts in excess of 40 cm are considered erroneous. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere and North America. This product is updated once per day at 8 UTC.
The soil moisture product gives the percentage of moisture for the land regions. Values in excess of 70 percent are considered erroneous. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere and North America. This product is updated once per day at 8 UTC.
The ice concentration product measures the percentage concentration of ice over the oceans. Values exceeding 100 percent are considered erroneous. Regions on display include the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. This product is updated once per day at 8 UTC.
