NOAA 9
Country: United States · Also known as: NOAA-F
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
NOAA-9 launched on December 12, 1984 as an Advanced TIROS-N weather satellite. Beyond operational meteorology, its payload contributed to atmospheric chemistry, Earth radiation studies and space-weather observations. Those activities produced different kinds of data with different useful lifetimes, not one interchangeable stream of weather pictures.
A weather platform carried several kinds of environmental evidence
WMO identifies both meteorology and substantial Earth-radiation research among NOAA-9's roles. Images describe spatial patterns, whereas chemical and radiative measurements answer questions about the atmosphere and energy budget. Understanding the instrument behind a product is more useful than treating every observation as a conventional satellite photograph.
End of operation is not an orbital disappearance
WMO lists NOAA-9 as inactive, with end of operation on February 13, 1998. This is a mission-service milestone, not a reentry date. Archived measurements remain scientifically useful, but neither those archives nor a cataloged orbit establish that NOAA-9 is transmitting usable weather data today.
Mission reference: WMO OSCAR: NOAA-9 mission, payload inventory and end of operation. Editorial review: .
Ultraviolet backscatter supported ozone measurements
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center identifies NOAA-9 as the start of its SBUV/2 ozone-monitoring series in December 1984, following the earlier Nimbus instruments. Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet measurements support estimates of total ozone and its vertical distribution. NOAA also documents drift toward later ascending equator crossings; descending passes were subsequently used for ozone observations. A Sun-synchronous design did not prevent the local observation time from changing over the mission.
Reference: NOAA CPC: SBUV/2 measurement purpose and NOAA-9 orbit drift.
A long ozone archive did not mean uniform viewing conditions
The 1998 ozone assessment describes a recalibrated NOAA-9 SBUV/2 record covering April 1985 through December 1996. It also identifies poor viewing conditions from 1989 to 1992 caused by orbit precession. The assessment used NOAA-9 measurements for February 1994 through December 1996 within its combined record. That distinction matters: dates present in an archive are not automatically the dates selected for a particular trend analysis.
Reference: Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 1998, chapter 4: NOAA-9 calibration and sampling.
ERBE measured radiation rather than identifying cloud shapes
NOAA-9 also carried Earth Radiation Budget Experiment instruments. The scanner design used three broadband channels for shortwave, longwave and total radiance, separating reflected sunlight from Earth's thermal emission. A NASA Langley instrument paper describes calibration and electronic anomalies that eventually stopped scanner data on the ERBE platforms. Scanner performance must therefore be evaluated separately from the spacecraft's overall operating lifetime and its other instruments.
Reference: Kopia and Lee: ERBE scanner channels, calibration and in-orbit anomalies.
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 824 km at perigee to 846 km at apogee, a difference of 22 km. The orbital period is about 101.6 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00155 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 99.10 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 80.9 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 15427 · GCAT: S15427 (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)