Topic: Retirement of Metop-B HIRS L1b Data and Metop-B/C AVHRR L1b Granule Data

Date/Time Issued: July 20, 2026 1429Z

Product(s) or Data Impacted:

ProdShortName	Product Filename
METOP_HIRS-4_Level_1b_NSS.HIRH	NSS\.HIRH\.M\d\.D\d{5}\.S\d{4}\.E\d{4}\.B\d{7}\.[A-Z]{2}$
METOP_HIRS-4_Level_1b_NSS.HIRX	NSS\.HIRX\.M\d\.D\d{5}\.S\d{4}\.E\d{4}\.B\d{7}\.[A-Z]{2}$
METOP_Level_1_Granules_AVHRR_FRAC	G1B\.FRAC\.M\d\.D\d{5}\.S\d{4}\.E\d{4}\.B\d{7}\.[A-Z]{2}$

Date/Time of Initial Impact: September 21, 2026 1500 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End: NA (Termination of Product)

Length of Impact: NA

Details/Specifics of Change:

Effective September 21, 2026, NESDIS will retire Metop-B HIRS L1b data and Metop-B/C AVHRR L1b granule data from its legacy systems.

HIRS Data: The HIRS instrument on Metop-B stopped operating on March 17, 2023. Legacy systems continue to produce and check this data, but this process will permanently end.
AVHRR Granule Data: Delivery of Metop-B/C AVHRR L1b granule data through legacy systems will terminate as those systems are decommissioned at the end of the fiscal year.
Unaffected Services: Metop-B/C AVHRR L1b data services, including both FRAC and GAC, will continue uninterrupted.

Contact Information for Further Information: Please email User Services at spsd.userservices@noaa.gov for additional information or feedback.

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