HURSAT- Hurricane Satellite Data

The NCDC Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) data set consist of raw satellite observations derived from the ISCCP B1 data centered on historical tropical cyclones (TC).

Current Data Set Version	3
Updates	To be updated as needed. See revision plans for more information.
Number of storms	2482 tropical cyclones
Number of storm observations	205,199
Temporal coverage	May 30, 1978 to Dec. 18, 2006
Temporal resolution	3 hourly imagery
Spatial coverage	Global coverage: all storms are visible from the geostationary constellation (except some early storms in the Indian Ocean)
Basins	Cyclones are grouped into 5 basins: North Atlantic,Indian Ocean, Southern Pacific, Eastern Pacific, Western Pacific
Spatial resolution	~8km
Data set grid	0.07 deg lat/lon grid centered on the storm location at the time of image with 301x301 pixels (spans ~1100km from the storm center)
Spectral coverage	Visible (~0.6um) and infrared window (~11um) and other channels when available: water vapor (~6.7 um), near IR (~3.9 um) and split window (~12 um)
Satellites	SMS-2, GOES-1 to 12, Meteosat-2 to 8, GMS-1 to 5, MTSAT-1R, FY2-C
Format	netCDF Each netCDF file is a snapshot of the storm from one of the satellites. Multiple netCDF files are possible when a storm is visible by two satellites at the same time.
Data set generation	Hurricane database (HURDAT) and "best track" information (from the JTWC) were temporally-interpolated to match the 3-hourly satellite resolution. The satellite data were then gridded to 8km, with grid centers fixed on the tropical cyclone center of circulation.
Data set details	Knapp and Kossin, 2007

Calibration

The ISCCP data were tested to determine their long-term stability of infrared observations. This was performed by comparing geostationary-based observations with HIRS footprints. See Knapp (2007) for the details of the calibration.