NOAA 14 (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) Weather Satellite:
Objectives:
To continue the Advanced TIROS-N program by working as a
companion with NOAA-10, 11 and 12 in order to provide
... continuous
coverage of the Earth and to provide high-resolution global
meteorological data.
NOAA-14 is the sixth operational satellite in the Advanced
TIROS-N series (NOAA 13 never officially became operational as
it failed during its 21 day checkout period). The satellite
carried the AVHRR, TOVS, and the solar proton monitor. All of
which were present on previous NOAA satellites. The ERBE
instruments, the SBUV radiometer and the SARSAT systems were
also flown on this satellite. NOAA-14 was placed in a near
circular, (470nm) polar orbit.
NOAA 14 replaced NOAA 11 whose cloud cover imaging instrument
had failed a few months before this launch. Besides an imaging
radiometer, it carries optical sounders to monitor temperature
and moisture content in the atmosphere, and counters to measure
energetic electrons and protons.
A gas leak caused some difficulties in attitude control shortly
after launch, but this has been resolved. The motor for the
Microwave Sounding Unit on the NOAA 14 spacecraft has stopped
working. Records show the unit is from a delivery made to Martin
Marietta dating back to 1984! The microwave sounder returned to
normal operation in May 1995 after a software patch was
installed to cope with any repeat failure. Its life expectancy
remains uncertain.
In Feb 1995, the SARP failed, the SBUV/2 Cloud Cover Radiometer
(CCR) failed, and DTR 4A/B was deemed inoperable.
Specifications:
Designation: 23455 / 94089A
Launch date: 30 Dec 1994 at 10:02 UT
Country of origin: United States
Perigee/Apogee: 847/861 km
Inclination: 98.9°
Period: 02 min
Launch vehicle: Atlas E
Launch site: Vandenberg SLC3
Prime contractor: GE Astro
Platform: evolved from NOAA 2nd generation
Mass at launch: 1420 kg
Mass in orbit: ~1050 kg
Dimension: 4.18 m long x 1.88 m diameter
Stabilization: 3-axis
Design lifetime: 3 years
APT downlink freq: 137.620 MHz (standby)
HRPT downlink freq: 1698.0 MHz
Beacon: 136.770 MHz
Payload:
AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer):
Wavebands: 0.58-0.68 µm (visible): cloud, snow and ice monitoring
0.725-1.10 µm (near IR): water, vegetation and agriculture surveys
3.55-3.93 µm (near IR): sea surface temperature, volcano, forest fire activity
10.3-11.3 µm (thermal IR): sea surface temperature, soil moisture
11.3-12.5 µm (thermal IR): sea surface temperature, soil moisture
Resolution: 1.1 km
Swath width: 3000 km
TOVS (Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder):
HIRS/2 (High Resolution IR Sounder): 20 channels in the 0.69 -
14 - 95 µm band; 17.4 km resolution SSU (Stratospheric Sounding
Unit): step-scanned far IR spectrometer with 3 channels in the
CO² absorption band (15 µm);147.3 km resolution MSU (Microwave
Sounding Unit): passive 4-channel radiometer operating around 55
GHz; 109 km resolution
[Summary provided by NOAA and The Satellite Encyclopedia] 
