Recalculated pre-launch saturation temperatures of the AVHRR 3.7 m sensors on board the TIROS-N to NOAA-14 satellites

Previously published values of pre-launch Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 3.7 m channel saturation brightness temperatures (Robinson 1991) show inter-satellite differences as large as 10 K between AVHRRs on board National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites from TIROS (Television Infrared Observation Satellite)-N to NOAA-11. We redid the computations using pre-launch AVHRR calibration data up to NOAA-14. Our results show that 3.7 m channel pre-launch saturation temperatures for the TIROS-N, NOAA-6, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12 and-14 satellites are within ~0.5 K of each other while NOAA-7 differs by ~1 K from the others. We believe that the AVHRR 3.7 m channel pre-launch saturation temperatures listed in Robinson (1991) are actually the ypre-launch saturation temperatures for the AVHRR 10.8 m channel. To check our hypothesis, we computed TIROS-N to NOAA-11 10.8 m channel pre-launch saturation temperatures; the values are within 0.5 K of the values listed in Robinson (1991).