NOAA 10

About This Satellite

NOAA-10 launched on September 17, 1986 as the third Advanced TIROS-N spacecraft. It supported operational weather observation and Earth-radiation research from a near-polar orbit. WMO describes a nominal morning descending equator crossing at 07:30 local time, helping distinguish its observing role from afternoon platforms.

Local crossing time is part of the observing strategy

WMO lists a nominal altitude near 810 kilometres and a Sun-synchronous orbit. The local equator-crossing time describes when an observation samples the daily cycle; it is not a universal UTC pass time for every ground location. Present-day orbital elements should not be substituted for the historical observing schedule.

Mission retirement and individual data records have different endpoints

WMO records NOAA-10 as inactive, with end of operation on August 30, 2001. Specific instrument failures and archive intervals can end earlier. This mission date should not be used to imply that every sensor supplied uninterrupted measurements until retirement, or that retirement itself caused reentry.

Mission reference: WMO OSCAR: NOAA-10 orbit, mission and end-of-operation record. Editorial review: 2026-09-15.

NOAA-10 did not inherit the five-channel imager from NOAA-9

The AVHRR Polar Pathfinder research paper identifies NOAA-10's instrument as AVHRR/1 with four spectral channels, whereas NOAA-9 carried the five-channel AVHRR/2. Its channel table shows that the extra independent thermal band was absent from AVHRR/1. Consequently, an analysis requiring two separate thermal-window measurements cannot simply treat these instruments as spectrally identical because their satellite numbers are adjacent.

Reference: The AVHRR Polar Pathfinder Climate Data Records: instrument generations and spectral channels.

ERBE could return numbers while failing to execute its scan programme

NASA's failure analysis dates the ERBE scanner malfunction to May 22, 1989. Radiometric and housekeeping data appeared valid, but scan-mode commands and programmed calibration sequences did not execute correctly. The investigation implicated internal address decoding in a ROM chip. This illustrates why plausible telemetry alone cannot demonstrate a healthy science instrument: the commanded observing and calibration sequence must also work.

Reference: NASA-TM-102661: NOAA-10 ERBE scanner malfunction and ROM diagnosis.

An archive interval describes a product, not the entire spacecraft

NOAA CLASS lists a NOAA-10 AVHRR Level 1b interval from November 17, 1986 through September 16, 1991. That is the coverage stated by this particular archive listing, not a replacement for the mission end date. Its browse images help users check cloud cover and geographic coverage before selecting data. A gap or endpoint in one product listing does not by itself prove that all spacecraft operations stopped.

Reference: NOAA CLASS: AVHRR Level 1b availability and browse-image purpose.

Reading this orbital snapshot

Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-04. Estimated altitude ranges from 785 km at perigee to 804 km at apogee, a difference of 19 km. The orbital period is about 100.8 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00130 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 98.71 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 81.3 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 16969 · GCAT: S16969 (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)

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