ATTENTION FAMILY OF SERVICES SUBSCRIBERS/NOAAPORT USERS
SUBJECT CHANGE OF GMS-5 OBSERVATION AREA - LOSS OF DATA
OVER ANTARCTICA
DUE TO THE BUILD UP OF LUBRICANTS IN THE SCAN MOTOR OF THE
GMS-5 SATELLITE... 64 LINES OF THE OBSERVATION AREA WERE
REDUCED ON MAY 29... 2000 AND AN ADDITIONAL 64 LINES WILL BE
REDUCED FROM THE OBSERVATION AREA ON JUNE 5... 2000.
ACCORDING TO THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY... THIS CHANGE
IS NECESSARY TO CONTINUE THE STABLE OPERATION OF VISSR /VISIBLE
AND INFRARED SPIN SCAN RADIOMETER/ DATA OF GMS-5 FOR THE
NEXT FEW YEARS.
WITH THIS TOTAL REDUCTION OF 128 SCAN LINES... THE SOUTHERNMOST
PART OF THE EARTH WILL BE OUT OF THE OBSERVATION AREA OF
GMS-5... ROUGHLY FROM 68 DEGREES SOUTH LATITUDE TO THE
SOUTH POLE... DEPENDING ON ORBITAL CONDITIONS OF EACH
OBSERVATION. THESE LATITUDES CORRESPOND MOSTLY WITH THE
AREA OF THE EARTH COVERED BY ANTARCTICA.
TOM RENKEVENS
SATELLITE ANALYSIS BRANCH /SAB/
SATELLITE SERVICES DIVISION /SSD/
NOAA/NESDIS
THOMAS.RENKEVENS/AT SYMBOL/NOAA.GOV
END
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