The AWE instrument contains four cameras which produce images in three spectral bands and a "background" image approximately every 1.2 seconds. For each orbit of the ISS, only those images where the instrument is looking down at the portion of the earth in shadow, are useable. Calibration corrections are applied to those images, then they are regridded to produce distortion-corrected images with pixels coincident between cameras, then coadded to reduce noise.
Coadded images from the four cameras (Level 1 data) are used to produce temperature and band intensity images (Level 2 data). Temperature and band intensity images are then used to produce temperature and band intensity swaths (Level 3 data) for one orbit.
AWE data is made available in Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) files. Each NetCDF file contains usable images from one orbit of the ISS. Filenames are in the form awe_level_YYYYDOY_filter_orbit_version.nc. Where: level is one of the data levels listed below; filter is p12, p14, q20 or bkg; YYYYDOY is the UTC year and day-of-year at the start of the orbit; orbit is an orbit id unique to the AWE data; and version is a version number for the file. The file version number will be incremented if data is reprocessed for any reason. NetCDF attributes in the files contain values needed to interpret the contained images.
Each level builds on previous data, enabling comprehensive atmospheric analysis from raw coadded images to detailed temperature and radiance mappings.
Each L1 file contains regridded, coadded images from one of the cameras for a single orbit. Four L1 files (one per spectral band and one background) are generated per orbit.
Each file provides temperature map images for one orbit.
Each file includes band intensity map images for one orbit. Coming soon.
Contains temperature swath images representing a full orbit.
Provides band intensity swath images for one orbit. Coming soon.
Each file contains a q line radiance swath image for one orbit.