BackForwardInstrument:  PMR 

Instrument details
Acronym PMR
Full name Pressure Modulator Radiometer
Purpose Atmospheric temperature profile in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere (40-85 km)
Short description Composed of two similar radiometric channels with pressurised CO2, one for the altitude range 40-60 km, the other for the range 60-90. The height of the weighting function is changed by modulating the CO2 pressure in the cells, and exploiting the Doppler shift by tilting the telescope along-track
Background Follow-on of SCR flown on Nimbus-5
Scanning Technique Nadir pointing, with along-track tilting capability in the range from -15 to +15 degrees
Resolution 500 km
Coverage / Cycle Global in 3 days
Mass 12.5 kg Power 5 W Data Rate 10 bps

 

Providing Agency UKSA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 1975 to 1983
Last update: 2012-09-12
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 optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • Cross-nadir infrared sounder, possibly including VIS channels
WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
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*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Very coarse vertical resolution.. Inaccurate in low troposphere.. Along-track only.TIR in the CO2 15 micrometer band