BackForwardInstrument:  MW radiometer 

Instrument details
Acronym MW radiometer
Full name Microwave radiometer
Purpose Water vapour correction for the radar altimeter
Short description 3-frequencies:18.7, 23.8 and 34 GHz
Background New development
Scanning Technique Nadir-only viewing, associated to the supported radar altimeter
Resolution 30 km
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 2 weeks for 70-km cells
Mass 27 kg Power 31 W Data Rate 100 bps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2023 to 2026
Last update: 2022-07-27
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive microwave radiometer
  • Cross-track, special or non-scanning microwave radiometer
WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)*4 - fairOver sea only.. Along-track only.MW channel(s) in the water vapour band around 23 GHz