| Satellites |
SNPP (Launched 28 Oct 2011), NOAA-20 (Launched 18 Nov 2017),
NOAA-21 (Launched 10 Nov 2022). |
| Mission |
To obtain high resolution vertical profiles of atmospheric
temperature and water vapor in nearly all weather conditions using
22 different passive microwave channels ranging from 23 to 183 GHz.
Also sensitive to precipitation. |
| Main Features |
- 22 quasi-vertical (QV) and quasi-horizontal (QH) passive microwave channels ranging from approximately 23 to 183 GHz
- Window (i.e., surface) channels at 23.8
(ch 1), 31.4 (ch 2), 50.3 (ch 3), 88.2 (ch 16), and 165.5
(ch 17) GHz
- Temperature Sounding channels at 51.76
(ch 4), 52.8 (ch 5), 53.596 ±0.115 (ch 6), 54.4 (ch 7), 54.94
(ch 8), 55.5 (ch 9),
57.290344 (ch 10), ±0.217 (ch 11), ±0.3222 ±0.048 (ch 12),
±0.3222 ±0.022 (ch 13), ±0.3222 ±0.010 (ch14), ±0.3222 ±0.0045
(ch15)
- Water vapor/humidity sounding channels at
183.31 ±7.0 (ch 18), ±4.5 (ch 19), ±3 (ch 20), ±1.8 (ch 21),
±1.0 (ch 22)
|
| Scanning Technique: |
- Cross-Track: 96 Field of Views (FOVs) per scan line (3 FOVs per step × 32 steps), sweeping ±52.5° off-nadir;
- Swath Width: ~2300 km
- Along Track: One 16 km line every 8/3 seconds
|
| Coverage/Cycle: |
Near-global coverage twice per day. Sun-synchronous
orbit with an inclination of 98.7° and a mean period
of 101 min (about 14 orbits/day). |
| Spatial Resolution: |
Horizontal resolution of ~16km per FOV at
nadir for channel frequencies between 165-183 GHz.
Resolution per FOV at nadir decreases to ~32 km
for channel frequencies between 50-90 GHz and ~75
km for channel frequencies between 23-32 GHz. |
| Resources |
Mass: 85 kg. Average power: 130 W. Average data rate: 32 kbps. |
| Instrument Type: |
Cross-track scanning microwave radiometer |
| More Details: |
ATMS instrument |
