BackForwardInstrument:  NEMS 

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
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
  • Subcomponent 1
  • MW sounders [in SSO]
  • MW sounder [in SSO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Atmospheric temperature
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
Atmospheric temperature*3 - highVery coarse vertical resolution.. Along-track only.A few MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Nearly all-weather sounding
Freezing level height in clouds4 - fairAlong-track only.MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Inference fron the temperature profile
Melting layer depth in clouds4 - fairAlong-track only.MW channels in the 54 GHz band. Inference fron the temperature profile