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Instrument details
Acronym
SSU
Full name
Stratospheric Sounding Unit
Purpose
Stratospheric temperature sounding
Short description
Pressure-modulated spectrometer, operating around the wavelengths 14.92, 14.93 and 14.94 µm
Background
Follow-on of SCR flown on Nimbus-4/5 and PMR flown on Nimbus-6. Part of the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) package
Scanning Technique
Cross-track, swath 1470 km
Resolution
150 km at s.s.p.
Coverage / Cycle
Global, each day
Mass
Power
Data Rate
480 bps
Providing Agency
UKSA
Instrument Maturity
Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period:
1979 to 1981-02-27
Last update:
2012-09-14
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
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 4 - fair Cloud sensitive.. Very coarse vertical resolution.. Inaccurate in low troposphere. TIR in the CO2 15 micrometer band
Instrument: SSU