The archive is available to Unidata sites through a passworded HTTP account on idd.ssec.wisc.edu. The near realtime data are stored on line for at least 60 days, and data older than that will be loaded in from tape (a limited number of days of data at a time) upon request. Once loaded, historical data sets will be kept on line for approximately 7 days (depending on demand and disk space availability). The archive naming conventions for the datasets are listed below.
Requests for historical data sets should be sent to <datacenter@ssec.wisc.edu> specifying the day(s) of the data needed. You will be notified when the data are accessible and on what machine. All products for the days requested are loaded.
Please be reasonable in your requests and quick to retrieve the data. Also, let the operator know when you have retrieved the files you need so they can make room for other requests. Please remember that this machine is to be used only for archive retrieval, not as a source for realtime data. If you need realtime data, you should get it using the IDD.
For further details on how to access the archive machine (username and password), please contact Unidata User Support <support-datastream@unidata.ucar.edu>. Please note that this service is available to Unidata sites only.
When you log in to 'idd.ssec.wisc.edu', you have the option of retrieving data from either of two directories:
neartime
urequest
The 'neartime' directory contains the 'near realtime' archived data for at least the past 20 days. The 'urequest' directory is where data older than what is maintained online that is requested by a user. In both directories, the data are arranged in subdirectories by date. The format of the subdirectory name is:
ccyymmdd
^ ^ ^___ dd - day number (01, 02, 03, ...)
| |_____ mm - month number (01=January, 02=February, ...)
|_______ ccyy - year (1999, 2006, ...)
So data for August 10, 2017 would be located in directory 20170810. If this day was online when you log in, you would:
cd neartime/20170810
If you requested the operator to load these data and received acknowledgement that the data were loaded on 'idd.ssec.wisc.edu', then you would:
cd urequest/20060121
In each day directory, files are stored as:
ccyymmddhh(mm).type
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^____ type of data*
| | | | |_________ mm - minutes (optional)
| | | |____________ hh - hour (01, 02, 03, ....)
| | |______________ dd - day number (01, 02, 03, ....)
| |________________ mm - month number (01=January, 02=February, ....)
|___________________ ccyy - year
*The types are:
goesXvis - GOES-X Visible (where X is the satellite number)
goesXirs - GOES-X Shortwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
goesXwv - GOES-X Water Vapor (where X is the satellite number)
goesXir - GOES-X Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
goesXirl - GOES-X Longwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
goesXco2 - GOES-X Longwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
NB: the Mollweide global composites were increased in size from 350x640 to 700x1280 on March 22, 2014
mollwv - Global Water Vapor Composite in Mollweide projection
mollir - Global Infrared Composite in Mollweide projection
NB: the following products were added to the archive starting on March 22, 2014
arcticvis - multi-satellite Visible composite over the arctic
arcticirs - multi-satellite Shortwave IR composite over the arctic
arcticwv - multi-satellite Water Vapro composite over the arctic
arcticir - multi-satellite Thermal IR composite over the arctic
arcticirl - multi-satellite Longwave IR composite over the arctic
antarcticvis - multi-satellite Visible composite over the antarctic
antarcticirs - multi-satellite short wave infrared composite over the antarctic
antarcticwv - multi-satellite Water Vapor composite over the antarctic
antarcticir - multi-satellite Thermal IR composite over the antarctic
antarcticirl - multi-satellite long wave infrared composite over the antarctic
globalwv - multi-satellite global Water Vapor composite
globalir - multi-satellite global Thermal IR composite
goesewvis - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Visible composite
goesewirs - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Shortwave IR composite
goesewwv - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Water Vapor composite
goesewir - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Thermal IR composite
goesewirl - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Longwave IR composite
goeswhvis - 1 km GOES-East Visible composite
NB: the following products were added to the archive starting on June 24, 2017
soundercape - multisensor satellite convective available potential energy product
sounderctp - multisensor satellite cloud top pressure product
sounderli - multisensor satellite lifted index product
sounderozone - multisensor satellite ozone product
sounderpw - multisensor satellite precipitable water product
soundersst - multisensor satellite sea surface temperature product
NB: the MDR images were dropped from the UNIWISC IDD datastream
mdr - Manually Digitized Radar (low resolution CONUS radar)
NB: the floater images were dropped from the UNIWISC IDD datastream in fall, 2006
floater - Educational Floater I
floater2 - Educational Floater II
NB: the following were available before July, 1999
sfctxt - UNIDATAS file
sfcobs - Surface MD file
raobman - RAOB Mandatory MD file
raobsig - RAOB Significant MD file
research - Research Floater (rarely available)
ngm - NGM Model Grid file
mrf - MRF Model Grid file (analysis)
Example: the 1815 GMT GOES-12 Visible image for January 21, 2006 would be found in the file 200601211815.goes12vis.
NOTEs: