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Instrument details
Acronym
NEMS
Full name
Nimbus-E Microwave Sounder
Purpose
Nearly-all-weather temperature profile
Short description
5-channel MW radiometer. Two units: one for water vapour (2 channels), one for temperature (3 channels) [see detailed characteristics below]
Background
First MW temperature sounder from space
Scanning Technique
Nadir only
Resolution
180 km
Coverage / Cycle
Nearly global in one week
Mass
22.6 kg
Power
35 W
Data Rate
60 bps
Providing Agency
NASA
Instrument Maturity
Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:
1973 to 1983-03-29
Last update:
2019-11-14
Detailed characteristics
No.
Central frequency (GHz)
Bandwidth (MHz)
NEΔT
1
22.235
220
0.24 K
2
31.400
250
0.23 K
3
53.650
250
0.29 K
4
54.900
250
0.29 K
5
58.800
250
0.24 K
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
Secondary mission objectives Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) Opportunity objectives Freezing level height in clouds Melting layer depth in clouds Show all Show fewer
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
Atmospheric temperature 3 - high Very coarse vertical resolution.. Along-track only. A few MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Nearly all-weather sounding
Freezing level height in clouds 4 - fair Along-track only. MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Inference fron the temperature profile
Melting layer depth in clouds 4 - fair Along-track only. MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Inference fron the temperature profile
Instrument: NEMS