BackForwardInstrument:  MWR (Envisat) 

Instrument details
Acronym MWR (Envisat)
Full name Micro-Wave Radiometer
Purpose Water vapour correction for the radar altimeter (RA on ERS-2, RE-2 on Envisai)
Short description 2 frequencies, 23.8 and 36.5 GHz
Background Evolution of the MW radiometer embedded in the ATSR flown on ERS-1.
Scanning Technique Nadir-only viewing, associated to the supported radar altimeter
Resolution 20 km
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 1 month for 30 km average spacing, or in 10 days for 100 km average spacing
Mass 25 kg Power 23 W Data Rate 16.7 kbps

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 1995 to 2012
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