NOAA 7
Country: United States of America
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
NOAA-7 launched on June 23, 1981 as a polar-orbiting weather satellite. Its AVHRR/2 imager worked alongside infrared and microwave sounders, particle detectors, and the Argos data collection system. The mission combined weather observations with environmental measurements that could not be read from a cloud photograph alone.
The sounders supplied information beyond cloud patterns
WMO identifies HIRS/2, MSU, and SSU in NOAA-7's payload, separately from AVHRR/2. These were atmospheric sounding instruments, not additional interchangeable imaging cameras. Choosing a historical dataset starts with the variable and instrument needed, rather than treating every NOAA-7 product as a picture of the surface.
A surviving orbit is not a surviving weather service
WMO lists NOAA-7 as inactive and records June 7, 1986 as its operational endpoint. The platform's historical mission and its later catalogued trajectory are different records. Any displayed orbital prediction does not establish present-day reception of weather data.
Mission reference: WMO OSCAR: NOAA-7 launch, payload and operational endpoint. Editorial review: .
Five spectral channels are not a natural-colour camera
The AVHRR/2 specification separates red and near-infrared measurements from three thermal-infrared bands. Its fourth and fifth bands cover approximately 10.3-11.3 and 11.5-12.5 micrometres. Display colours can represent these separate measurements rather than what a human observer would see. NASA lists a nominal 1.1 km nadir sampling for the instrument; a coarser archived or mapped product does not inherit that full sampling merely because it originated with AVHRR.
Reference: NASA Ames CHAART: AVHRR/2 band ranges and sampling.
NOAA-7 anchors an early part of the polar climate record
The 2016 AVHRR Polar Pathfinder paper assigns NOAA-7 data to January 1, 1982 through December 31, 1984 in its multi-satellite record. The product uses twice-daily composites on a 5 km polar grid, combining observations from multiple passes rather than taking one instantaneous photograph of a pole. The paper also explains that changing equatorial crossing times complicate consistent time series. Its selected NOAA-7 interval is a product boundary, not the spacecraft's shutdown date.
Reference: Key et al. (2016): AVHRR Polar Pathfinder selection, compositing and orbital-time drift.
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 824 km at perigee to 842 km at apogee, a difference of 17 km. The orbital period is about 101.6 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00121 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.
Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.
Ground track is not sensor coverage
An inclination of 98.79 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 81.2 degrees north and south. This is a retrograde orbit, moving against the direction of Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.
Accuracy and missing information
The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.
Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 12553 · GCAT: S12553 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.
Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)