MHS

Microwave Humidity Sounder Unit

Satellites

NOAA 18 to 19 - MetOp 1 to 3

Status

Operational - Utilisation period: 2005 to ~ 2014 on NOAA, 2006 to ~ 2020 on MetOp

Mission

Humidity sounding in almost all-weather conditions. Also precipitation rate

Instrument type

5-channel MW radiometer

Scanning technique

Cross-track: 90 steps of 16 km s.s.p., swath 2180 km - Along-track: one 16-km line every 8/3 s

Coverage/cycle

Near-global coverage twice/day

Resolution (s.s.p.)

16 km IFOV

Resources

Mass: 63 kg - Power: 93 W - Data rate: 3.9 kbps

Central frequency (GHz)

Bandwidth (MHz)

Polarisation

Radiometric accuracy (NEΔT)

89.0

2800

V

0.22 K

157.0

2800

V

0.38 K

183.31 ± 3.0

2000

H

0.42 K

183.31 ± 1.0

1000

H

0.57 K

190.311

2000

V

0.45 K