Paper
22 September 2009 Progress in developing a geostationary AMSU
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The "Precipitation and All-weather Temperature and Humidity" (PATH) mission is one of the 15 NASA "decadalsurvey" missions recommended by the U.S. National Research Council in 2007 and will implement the first microwave sounder in geostationary orbit. This is possible with a new sensor being developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR). Adequate spatial resolution is achieved by using aperture synthesis instead of a large parabolic reflector as is used in conventional systems. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed at JPL in 2005 under the NASA Instrument Incubator Program and used to demonstrate that this new concept works well at sounding frequencies. Another IIP effort is now under way to advance key technology required for a full space system. The maturity of the concept and technology is now such that mission development could be initiated in 2010-11. The possibility of flying GeoSTAR as an "instrument of opportunity" on NOAA's new series of "GOES-R" geostationary weather satellites is being actively pursued. Other low-cost options are under study as well. PATH/GeoSTAR will provide a number of measurements that are key in monitoring and predicting hurricanes and severe storms - including hemispheric 3-dimensional temperature, humidity and cloud liquid water fields, rain rates and rain totals, tropospheric wind vectors, sea surface temperature, and parameters associated with deep convection and atmospheric instability - everywhere and all the time, even in the presence of clouds - and will also provide key measurements related to climate research.
© (2009) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Bjorn Lambrigtsen "Progress in developing a geostationary AMSU", Proc. SPIE 7474, Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites XIII, 74740E (22 September 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.830515
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KEYWORDS
Receivers

Microwave radiation

Clouds

Antennas

Spatial resolution

Prototyping

Radar

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