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Instrument: 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 2011-07-06
Last update:
2012-09-11
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
Tentative 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
Variable Relevance for measuring this variable Operational limitations Explanation
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) 4 - fair Over sea only.. Along-track only. MW channel(s) in the water vapour band around 23 GHz