BackForwardInstrument:  WVR 

Instrument details
Acronym WVR
Full name Water Vapor Radiometer
Purpose Atmospheric correction for the GEOSat.FO altimeter (GFO-RA)
Short description Dual-frequency MW radiometee, 22 and 37 GHz. Sharing the antenna with the radar altimeter
Background Consolidated technology
Scanning Technique Nadir-only viewing, continuous sampling along track
Resolution 25 km
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 1 month for 30 km average spacing, or in 10 days for 100 km average spacing
Mass Power Data Rate 160 bps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 1998 to 2008
Last update: 2012-09-17
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 microwave radiometer
  • Cross-track, special or non-scanning microwave radiometer
WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)
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
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)*4 - fairOver sea only.. Along-track only.MW channel(s) in the water vapour band around 23 GHz