EARS-ATOVS

Vertical profiles of temperature and humidity in the atmosphere

EARS-ATOVS provides the European meteorological community with sounder data covering data-sparse areas, within 30 minutes of the instrument observations.

Last Updated

31 May 2022

Published on

28 April 2020

Sounder data is produced by a set of the instruments known as ATOVS, Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounders.

This set, comprising the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units A and B (AMSU-A and AMSU-B) and complemented by the High Resolution Infra-red Sounder (HIRS/3) instruments, is used to obtain information about the vertical profiles of temperature and humidity in the atmosphere.

The radiation measurements from the ATOVS instruments can be assimilated directly in numerical atmospheric models using advanced techniques, developed for operational use over the last decade. This vertical profile information is vital to the performance of all numerical forecasting model systems.

HIRS instrument
AMSU-A instrument
MHS instrument

EARS-ATOVS service specification

Satellites supported

N18, N19, Metop-B and Metop-C as shown on the tables on the Regional Data Service/EARS webpage.

Product processing

AAPP as provided by the NWP SAF, configured and run by EUMETSAT.

Product segmentation

One file per station pass, instrument and processing level.

Products via EUMETCast Europe

Level 1c per ATOVS instrument, data on original instrument grid, BUFR format.
Level 1d ATOVS product including AVHRR derived cloud mask, data on HIRS instrument grid, bzip2 compressed.

Timeliness via EUMETCast

30 minutes.

Products via RMDCN/GTS

Level 1c per ATOVS instrument, data on original instrument grid, BUFR format.

Archived in EUMETSAT

None.

Further information

For more information on EARS-ATOVS see TD 14 - EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service Technical Description

Full details on products can be found in the Product Navigator:
ATOVS Regional Data Service – Multimission

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EARS-AVHRR

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EARS-CrIS

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EARS-IASI

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EARS-MERSI

EARS-MERSI complements the Metop and the US POES and SNPP/JPSS satellites currently covered by EARS.

EARS-MWRI

EARS-MWRI complements the Metop, POES and SNPP/JPSS satellites currently covered by EARS.

EARS-NWC

EARS-NWC provides near-real time availability of high resolution cloud products.

EARS-VASS

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EARS-VIIRS

The EARS-VIIRS service collects data from the VIIRS instrument onboard the JPSS spacecrafts.