BackInstrument:  WIVERN Doppler Radar 

Instrument details
Acronym WIVERN Doppler Radar
Full name WIVERN Doppler Radar
Purpose To measure wind profiles within clouds (not just around them) and profiles of cloud water, rain, snow and ice. Also snow cover and sea-ice cover.
Short description
  • A dual-polarisation Doppler radar operating at 94 GHz
  • Conical scanning antenna
  • Operates with WIVERN radiometer.
Background

A new development.
Scanning Technique
  • Conical scanning antenna with a swath width of 800 km. 
Resolution The spatial resolution of the level 1B product will be no greater than 1km along the track of the radar.
Coverage / Cycle Revisits every 20X20 km^2 area every 1.5 days.
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2033 to 2038
Last update: 2025-09-29
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
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Cloud and precipitation radar
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • Precipitation radars and cloud radars
  • Precipitation radar and cloud radar
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Cloud ice
  • Cloud liquid water (CLW)
  • Wind (horizontal)
  • Wind (vertical)
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
Wind (horizontal)*1 - primaryCloud or water vapour tracers needed.W-Band allows the inside of clouds to be viewed and the doppler effect allows winds to be calculated
Wind (vertical)*1 - primaryCloud or water vapour tracers needed.The 94 GHz doppler radar allows winds in clouds to be observed