CEOS Instrument: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A
| Instrument: | AMSU-A |
| Agencies: | NOAA [Primary] |
| UKSA | |
| Missions: | NOAA-16 |
| NOAA-17 | |
| NOAA-18 | |
| NOAA-15 | |
| Metop-B | |
| Metop-C | |
| Metop-A | |
| Status: | Operational |
| Type: | Absorption-band MW radiometer/spectrometer |
| Description: | All-weather night-day temperature sounding to an altitude of 45 km |
| Spatial Resolution: | 48 km |
| Swath Width: | 2054 km |
| Wavebands: | Microwave: 15 channels, 23.8 - 89.0 GHz |
| Technology: | Absorption-band MW radiometer/spectrometer |
| Description: | Radiometers operating in bands of absorption from O2 (typical, ~ 54 GHz) and from H2O (typical: ~ 183 GHz) enable measuring the atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles in nearly-all-weather conditions. Cross-nadir scanning is utilised, though also conical scanners use to include channels in absorption bands. Radiometric accuracy is a driver for profiling, thus scanning speed must be relatively slow, that implies coarse resolution (typical, 50 km for 54 GHZ, 15 km for 183 GHz, horizontal; the vertical, referring to the product, is ~ 2 km). Applicable in LEO; however by adding higher frequencies (e.g. 118 and 425 GHz for O2 and 380 GHz for H2O) sounding is also possible from GEO. |
Measurement List:
(select measurement name to view details)
CEOS Systems Engineering Office (SEO)
CEOS Data Base Version: 17 - Created: 2012-01-18