14

Passive microwave space missions

The rapid introduction of microwave sensing methods and means into airspace
observations in the last 10±15 years was a consequence, as we have shown above,
of the signi®cantly new (in relation to optical and infrared bands) physical informa-
tion content of microwave sensing in studying terrestrial objects (the surface and the
atmosphere). The development and evolution of instruments and research missions
of microwave sensing has occurred, certainly, in a quite inhomogeneous and
irregular manner. Nevertheless, at the present time none of potential large-scale
satellite missions on earth investigation fails to employ passive and active radio-
physical instruments in some con®guration. The present chapter analyses some
historical elements of the development of microwave missions (including the issues
of instrument development), the state of the art and some prospects for the future.

14.1 ELEMENTS OF MICROWAVE RADIOMETRY HISTORY

The study and understanding of microwave patterns of the terrestrial surface±

atmosphere system has cardinally changed both the con®guration of existing
satellite systems designed for sensing the Earth, and the character and informative
saturation of the whole remote sensing area. However, microwave radiometry was
initially born in the entrails of radio-astronomy as some kind of an auxiliary
direction invoked to satisfy the needs of ground-based radio-astronomy, which
had passed through stages of build-up and vigorous development in the 1940s and
1950s of the past century. This required, ®rst of all, eliminating the in¯uence of a
disperse component (and, then, also of a gaseous component) of atmosphere
radiation in the microwave band on high-precision radio-astronomical measure-
ments carried out from the earth's surface. Some special techniques of performing
radio-astronomical experiments (such as the diagram modulation method) (Esepkina
et al., 1973) have been directed to solving this problem. For these reasons the earliest
532 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

microwave investigations were entirely based on an instrumental foundation and on

the methodological basis of radio-astronomy.
The ®rst microwave investigations of radio-emission of the atmosphere at the
wavelength of 1.5 cm were carried out by Professor Dicke in 1946 by means of the
modulation method of measuring the noise signal proposed by himself. This
technique, as well as the method of designing the instruments, underwent ecient
development and improvement by radio-astronomers in quite various bands of the
electromagnetic spectrum (Troitskii, 1951, 1954).
However, the further development and exploration of the short-centimetre and
millimetre wavelength bands has put on the agenda the problems of the detailed
spectral study of the characteristics of radiowave propagation in the atmosphere and
in plasma-like media and of thermal radiation of geophysical media in these bands
(Zhevakin and Naumov, 1967; Basharinov et al., 1968). Both the instrumental base
of radio-astronomy, and the measurement techniques began to undergo serious
reconstruction. This was associated, ®rst of all, with the brevity of the time for
observing an object under study (a small accumulation time) and with the
prominent polarization properties of geophysical objects. The problem also arose
of manufacturing the small-sized instruments and antenna systems that have to be
installed on moving platforms and ¯ight vehicles. The existing stationary radio-
astronomical instruments and the techniques of stationary (ground-based) measure-
ments would obviously not have satis®ed the necessary requirements. It may seem
surprising, but historically the ®rst extra-vehicular operation of microwave instru-
ments was the launching of the Mariner-2 spacecraft in 1962 (Table 14.1), designed
to study the structure and physicochemical content of the cloudy layers of Venus. It
was, in fact, searching for water vapour by means of a two-frequency technique,
which subsequently became a fully standard and conventional method in the system
of space sounders of the terrestrial atmosphere (see Chapter 12 and below). The
natural (as we know now) negative scienti®c result of this mission has been, never-
theless, an important step in the planetary research; and it con®rmed the scienti®c
signi®cance of microwave sensing in onboard implementation.
A dicult stage of the establishment of microwave sensing as an independent
discipline began in the middle of the 1960s: a series of air-based radiometric instru-
ments was produced for meteorological investigations and military±technological
applications (see the review by Khodyrev et al., 1972). An important step at this
stage was the development, for the ®rst time in the USSR, of multifrequency
onboard radiothermal instruments and their installation on the `Cosmos-243'
satellite that was launched in 1968 (Table 14.1). The signi®cance of this space-
based experiment can hardly be exaggerated. In essence, the principal possibility
was demonstrated of receiving physical and geophysical information from outer
space by means of radiothermal systems. In addition, some serious scienti®c
results were obtained concerning the relation between the global integrated
content of water vapour and liquid-drop water in the atmosphere, as well as some
other results (see Chapter 12). This space-based experiment was repeated in 1970 on
the `Cosmos-384' satellite. However, these experiments have also revealed some
limitations of the measurement methodology used ± namely, a purely track mode
Sec. 14.1] 14.1 Elements of microwave radiometry history 533

of measurements employing nadir-viewing antennas. Under such an observation

mode it was impossible to obtain a spatial map of the distribution of the radiation
®eld of geophysical objects and to ®nd their polarization characteristics.
An important step in this direction was the development and launching of
panoramic scanning radiothermal instruments ESMR on the Nimbus-5 satellite in
1972. Its characteristics were as follows: the frequency, 19.35 GHz; the swath-width
of scan, 3000 km; and the instantaneous spatial resolution, 29 km. The scanning was
performed in the cross-track mode by means of an electronically scanned phase
array. The second item of instrumentation was the ®rst version of the radiothermal
probe (Table 14.1), which included three channels in the 5-mm line of oxygen and
two channels for sensing according to the two-frequency technique (Chapter 12).
This set has operated in the track mode. At this stage, in essence, there took place the
formation and separation of microwave observation systems into three types: track-
type systems, systems of panoramic (or scanner) type (the imagers), and measure-
ment systems (or atmospheric sounders). This tendency has strengthened subse-
quently. However, each of these channels, in its turn, has continued operating in
the mode of mono-con®guration type, that is, one frequency/one polarization/one
angle. Apart from using the centimetre band, in 1973 an attempt was undertaken to
build an onboard radiometre of decimetre band (at the wavelength of 21 cm) with an
angular resolution of 15 , and to operate this system onboard the Skylab spacecraft.
Radiothermal instruments of centimetre band with a parabolic-type antenna system,
having a considerable aperture (the diametre of 117 cm) and mechanical scanning,
were installed on the same station.
The next step in microwave sensing was the inclusion of polarization measure-
ments on the Meteor satellite (1974) in a track mode, and panoramic-type ESMR
instruments (37 GHz) of have operated on the Nimbus-6 satellite in the two-
polarization mode. The SCAMS sounder has also already operated in the scanner
mode. It is important to note that in the microwave ESMR system the phase array
was used for the last time as a scanning antenna system. The reason for this was, ®rst
of all, the high electromagnetic losses in the beam control system and, accordingly,
the great noise contribution to the measured signal. Besides, the specialists had some
doubts concerning the chosen cross-track type of scanning. This is associated with
the fact that the elements of the surface under investigation are considered in a single
frame at various angles, and, since the earth's surface and the sea surface have
prominent polarization properties in the microwave band, a serious uncertainty
arises in interpreting the microwave images. This problem was solved by developing
and introducing a new type of scanning, namely, conical-type scanning, where all
elements of the surface under investigation are observed at a strictly ®xed viewing
angle. Then the multifrequency (®ve frequencies), two-polarization (vertical and
horizontal) panoramic SMMR instruments set was developed and launched in
1978 on two spacecraft simultaneously ± Nimbus-7 and Seasat (Njoku et al.,
1980). Whereas the Seasat spacecraft has operated for three months only,
Nimbus-7 has successfully functioned for nine years (up to 1988). According to
the radiothermal SMMR system data, a set of interesting results was obtained on
studying the state of the World Ocean surface, on the state of snow and glacial
 Table 14.1. History of microwave radiometry in space.

Year Spacecraft Instrument Frequencies Sensitivity Swath Antenna Angle and Principal parameters
of acronym (GHz) (response width of type spatial measured or inferred
launch time, s) scan (km) resolution

1962 Mariner-2 Ð 15.8 2 (1 s) Planetary Mechanically 1300 km Limb darkening;

(Venus ¯y by) 22.2 scanned parabola; temperature; H2 O
diameter 50 cm vapour

1968 Cosmos-243 Ð 3.5 0.7 (1 s) Nadir Parabolic horn 8.6 H2 O vapour and
1970 Cosmos-384 8.7 0.7 (1 s) viewing 3.5 liquid; sea ice
22.2 2.0 (1 s) 3.5 concentration; sea
37 2.0 (1 s) Lens-loaded horn 3.5 temperature
(15±50 km)

1972 Nimbus-5 ESMR 19.35 1.5 (0.05 s) 3000 Electronically 1.4 Rain and H2 O vapour
scanned phase (29 km) maps; ®rn and ice
array; 50 scan concentration and
classi®cation
NEMS 22.35 0.3 (2 s) Nadir Five lens-loaded 185 km Temperature pro®le;
31.40 0.4 (2 s) viewing horns H2 O vapour and
53.65 1.2 (2 s) liquid; ®rn and ice
54.90 0.6 (2 s) classi®cation and
58.80 0.7 (2 s) snow cover

1973 Skylab S-193 13.9 180 Mechanically 2.8 Soil moisture

scanned parabola; (16 km)
diametre 117 cm
S-194 1.41 0.5 (1 s) Nadir Phase array 15 Soil moisture
viewing (115 km)

1974 Meteor Ð 37 Dual 40  60 km H2 O precipitation

polarization and vapour
35 from
nadir
1975 Nimbus-6 ESMR 37 1.0 (1 s) 1300 Dial polarization 0.7  0.95 Same as Nimbus-5
electronically (20  43 km) ESMR
scanned array
SCAMS 22.2 2700 Three rotating 150 km Same as Nimbus-5
31.6 hyperbolic mirrors NEMS
52.8
53.8
55.4

TirosN, MSU 50.3 2300 Dual rotating 110 km Temperature pro®le

1978 NOAA-5 53.7 mirrors maps
1979 NOAA-6 55.0
57.9

1978 Nimbus-7 SMMR 6.6 0.7 (0.1 s) 800 Conical scan single 95  148 km Same as ESMR;
(1988) 10.69 0.8 (0.06 s) Incidence oscillating mirror; 70  109 km sea state (wind speed),
18.0 0.9 (0.06 s) angle 50.3 dial polarization; 43  68 km sea temperature, snow
21.0 1.0 (0.06 s) diameter 0.79 m 36  56 km cover; soil moisture
37.0 1.4 (0.06 s) 18  27 km

1978 Seasat SMMR 6.6 0.9 (0.1 s) 600 Conical scan single 4.2 Same as SMMR
10.7 0.9 (0.06 s) Incidence oscillating mirror; 2.6 Nimbus-7
18.0 1.2 (0.06 s) angle 48.8 dial polarization; 1.6
21.0 1.5 (0.06 s) diameter 0.79 m 1.4
37.0 1.5 (0.03 s) 0.8

1979 Salyut-6 KRT-10 2.5 (12 cm) Single parabolic Thermal maps of soil
0.42 mirror; diameter and sea surface
(72 cm) 10 m
536 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

covers, on humidity conditions among others. Doubtless, the successful operation of

the radiothermal SMMR instruments has marked by itself the termination of the
primary stage (1968±1978) and the beginning of the contemporary stage of
microwave space-based sensing in the centimetre and millimetre bands.
However, attempts to advance into the decimetre (and even into the metre) band
with acceptable spatial resolution are continuing. So, the deployable KRT-10 space
radiotelescope with an antenna mirror diametre of 10 m was successfully launched
and operated at wavelengths of 72 and 12 cm on the Russian `Salyut-6' manned
space station in 1979 (Danilov et al., 1979). This achievement gave, at the end of
the 1970s, Russian and Western specialists a reason to hope for a rapid realization of
ambitious projects on building giant radio-antennas with a mirror diametre of 100 m
to 10 km (!) (Bujakos et al., 1978; Card et al., 1978; Blume et al., 1978). These
instruments should be designed for radio astronomy and microwave radio sensing
applications. These hopes could not be realized, however. And only in the most
recent times have similar projects became the subject of active discussion in the
literature (Wilson et al., 2000); and the `Radioastron' project (Kardashiov, 2000)
is at the stage of industrial implementation now.

14.2 ONGOING MISSIONS AND TENDENCIES OF THEIR

DEVELOPMENT

Below we shall brie¯y outline a series of ongoing space missions studying and
monitoring geophysical and meteorological systems of the earth. A key element of
each mission is the inclusion of passive microwave instruments as a major integral
part of the space observational system.

14.2.1 DMSP mission

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) is a Department of Defense
(DoD) program (Asrar and Dokken, 1993). The DMSP program was developed in
an e€ort to study oceanographic, and solar±terrestrial physics environments. DMSP
satellites are in a near-polar orbiting, Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of
approximately 830 km above the earth. Each satellite crosses any point on the
earth twice a day and has an orbital period of about 101 minutes thus providing
complete global coverage of clouds every six hours. Earth DMSP satellite monitors
the atmospheric, oceanographic and solar±geophysical environment of the earth.
Visible and infrared sensors collect images of global cloud distribution across a
3,000 km swath during both daytime and night-time conditions. The coverage of
the microwave imagery and sounders are one-half the visible and infrared sensors
coverage; thus they cover the polar regions above 60 on a twice-daily basis but the
equatorial region on a daily basis. The space environmental sensors record along
track plasma densities, velocities, composition and drifts. Visible and infrared
imagery from DMSP Operational Linescan System (OLS) instruments are used to
monitor the global distribution of clouds and resolution, global coverage, and high
Sec. 14.2] 14.2 Ongoing missions and tendencies of their development 537

resolution, regional coverage, imagery recorded along a 3,000 km scan, satellite

ephemeris and solar and lunar data. IR pixel values vary from 190 to 310 kelvins
in 256 equally spaced steps. Onboard calibration is performed during each scan.
Visible pixels are currently relative values ranging from 0 to 63 rather than
absolute values in watts per square metre. Instrumental gain levels are adjusted to
maintain constant cloud reference values under varying conditions of solar and lunar
illumination. Telescope pixel values are replaced by photomultiplier tube (PMT)
values at night. A telescope pixel is 0.55 km at high resolution and 2.7 km at low
resolution. Low-resolution values are the mean of the appropriate 25 high-resolution
values. A PMT pixel is 2.7 km at nadir. In addition to cloud images, ground-based
sources, such as ®res, and upper atmospheric sources, like the Northern Lights,
night-time imagery records the aurora, city lights, manmade and natural ®res and
natural gas ¯aring. The TC images are the most prominent examples of the eciency
of the optical and IR OLS system.
The main element of the DMSP observing system is passive microwave
instrumetation. The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) aboard the
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft is a seven-channel,
four-frequency, linearly polarized, passive microwave radiometric system which
measures atmospheric, ocean and terrain microwave brightness temperatures at
19.35, 22.235, 37.0 and 85.5 GHz (Table 14.2). The data are used to obtain
synoptic maps of critical atmospheric, oceanographic and selected land parameters
on a global scale. SSM/I data are used to derive geophysical parameters; notably,

Table 14.2. SSM/I characteristics (DMSP mission).

Observation frequency (GHz) 19.35 22.235 37.0 85.5

Polarization (V/H) V, H V V, H V, H

Sensitivity (K) 0.5 0.7 0.4 0.8

Bandwidth (MHz) 250 250 1000 1500

Antenna beam width (degrees) 1.87 1.65 1.1 0.45

Spatial resolution along and across scan (km) 69  43 60  40 37  29 15  13

Scan period (s) 1.9

Antenna offset angle (degrees) 51.2

Earth-inclination angle (degrees) 53

Swath width (km) 1400

Mass (kg) 48.5

Power (W) 45
538 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

ocean surface wind speed, area covered by ice, age of ice, ice edge, precipitation over
land, cloud liquid water, integrated water vapour, precipitation over water, soil
moisture, land surface temperature, and snow cover.
The Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature (SSM/T-2) sensor is a ®ve-channel,
total power microwave radiometre, three channels situated symmetrically about the
183.31 GHz water vapour resonance line and window channels. This instrument was
¯own on all DMSP Block 5D-2 satellites starting with F11 launched in 1991. SSM/
T-2 is designed to provide global monitoring of the concentration of water vapour in
the atmosphere under all sky conditions by taking advantage of the reduced sensi-
tivity of the microwave region to cloud attenuation.
This exciting and developing technology appears to be the logical synergistic
consolidation of the imager and sounder type of instrument as SSMIS instruments
onboard the DMSP F16 satellite and instruments being developed ± the Conical
Scanning Microwave/Sounder (CMIS) (Flaming, 2000).

14.2.2 TRMM
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) (Simpson et al., 1988;
Kummerow et al., 1998, 2000) is a joint space mission between Japan and the
United States, with the cooperation of several other nations (TRMM Oce,
1990). As originally planned, TRMM is a synergistic complement of three
instruments ± active and passive microwave and optics sensors. A key feature is
the ®rst rain radar to be ¯own in space. The other instruments are a
multichannel, dual polarized, passive microwave radiometre and a high-resolution
visible/infrared radiometre.
TRMM can be regarded as a `¯ying rain gauge' because the improved measure-
ment capability of the microwave instruments can be used to calibrate techniques
based on infrared brightness temperatures. The calibrations are likely to be di€erent
in di€erent climate regimes. After calibration, the improved IR techniques can be
applied to ®ll in between TRMM swathes using geosynchronous data, and to
upgrade many of the past rain estimations which used the proxy variable
approach. A basic TRMM data product will be mean monthly rainfalls over areas
50 by 50 km for climate studies. The orbit has been selected to optimize the e€ec-
tiveness of the instruments. The low 350-km altitude obtains good resolution for the
instruments (the 19-GHz channel of the passive microwave instrument will have a
resolution of about 10 km). The orbit inclination of 350 ensures over¯ights at
di€erent local times every day, covering the entire 24 hours in a month, permitting
documentation of the diurnal variability of tropical rain. More extensive discussion
of the TRMM motivation, design and scienti®c results are provided in the Report of
the Science Steering Group (Simpson, 1988), and in annual publications of the
TRMM Oce (TRMM Oce, 1994) and in publications (Simpson et al., 2000).
The Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard TRMM is the ®rst spaceborne rain
radar. Major objectives of PR are: (1) to provide three-dimensional rainfall
structure, (2) to achive quantitative rainfall measurement over land as well as the
Sec. 14.2] 14.2 Ongoing missions and tendencies of their development 539

Table 14.3. TMI characteristics (TRMM).

Observation frequency 10.7, 19.4, 21.3, 37 and 85.5 GHz

Polarization vertical/horizontal (21.3 GHz channel: horizontal only)

Horizontal resolution 6±50 km

Swath width about 760 km

Scan mode conical scan (49 degrees)

Data rate 8.8 kbps

Weight 65 kg

Power consumption 50 W

ocean; and (3) to improve the accuracy of TMI measurements by providing rain
structure information.
The TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) is a multi-channel/dual-polarized
microwave radiometre which provides data related to rainfall rates over the ocean
(Table 14.3). The TMI data together with PR data is the primary data set of
precipitation measurements.
The Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS) is a passive cross-track scanning radio-
metre which measures scene radiance in ®ve spectral bands operating in the visible
through the infrared spectral regions. The VIRS data provide information about
convective cloud ®elds (cloud type, convective conditions).
The Cloud and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is a passive
broadband scanning radiometre which has three spectral bands in the visible
through the infrared spectral regions and measures the earth's radiation budget
and atmospheric radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of the
earth.
The Light Imaging Sensor (LIS) is an optical telescope and ®lter imaging system
which will acquire and investigate the distribution and variability of both intracloud
and cloud-to-ground lightning over the earth. The LIS data will also be used with
PR, TMI and VIRS data to investigate the correlation of the global incidence of
electrical activity with rainfall and other storm properties (including tropical
cyclones).

14.2.3 Aqua mission

Earth Observing System PM1 (Aqua) was developed by NASA to investigate the
mechanism of the earth's environment systems, such as atmosphere, cloud, snow ice,
water and vegetation. The development and operation of Aqua are conducted as an
international project. Aqua satellite was launched into orbit on May 4 2002. Orbit
540 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

Table 14.4. AMSR-E characteristics (Aqua mission).

Frequency (GHz) 6.9 10.7 18.7 23.8 36.5 89.0

Bandwidth (MHz) 350 100 200 400 1000 3000

Sensitivity (K) 0.3 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 1.1

IFOV (km) 75  43 48  27 27  16 31  18 17  8 64

Sample spacing (km) 10 10 10 10 10 5

Integration time (ms) 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.6 1.3

Beam ef®ciency (%) 95.3 95.0 96.3 96.4 95.3 96.0

Antenna diametre (m) 1.6

Scan period (s) 1.5

Antenna offset angle (degrees) 47.4

Earth-inclination angle (degrees) 54.8

Orbit type Sun-synch., 98.2 incl., 705 km alt.,

1:30 pm equator crossing

Swath width (km) 1445

parameters are the following: Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km;

inclination is 98.2 ; and period is 100 minutes.
Aqua carries ®ve sensors: Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometre (AMSR-
E) developed by NASDA; atmospheric microwave sounder Humidity Sounder for
Brazil (HSB) developed by INPE, Brazil, as well as NASA's Atmospheric Infrared
Sounder (AIRS); Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU); Clouds and the
Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES); and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spec-
troradiometre (MODIS).
AMSR-E instruments (Table 14.4) were modi®ed for Aqua from the design used
for AMSR, which was onboard ADEOS-2 at a later time. AMSR-E and AMSR are
microwave sensors capable of accurately acquiring weak radiation from land surface
and atmosphere with its wide frequency bands and obtaining the necessary data for
the study of earth hydrologic circulation. Microwave sensors, unlike optical sensors,
can continuously observe night and day, regardless of weather. Allocating AMSR on
a morning orbit and AMSR-E on an afternoon orbit allows observation of everyday
changes of the earth's environment, and it is expected to contribute to the study of
the earth's environmental system (Shibata, 2000; Njoku et al., 2000a; Koike et al.,
2000).
The EOS Aqua AMSR will measure geophysical parameters supporting several
global change science and monitoring e€orts. Of particular importance to its success
Sec. 14.2] 14.2 Ongoing missions and tendencies of their development 541

is an external calibration design, which has proved suitable in other satellite

microwave instrumentation for long-term monitoring of subtle changes in tempera-
ture and other variables.
The science objectives of AMSR-E are the following:

. Precipitation: Precipitation has extremely important roles, through provision of

water to the biosphere and as an air-conditioning agent that removes excess heat
from the surface (through evapouration) and makes earth habitable. The AMSR
will measure rain rates over both land and ocean. Over the ocean, the AMSR
microwave frequencies can probe through smaller cloud particles to measure the
microwave emission from the larger raindrops. The AMSR will provide sensi-
tivity to oceanic rain rates as high as 50 mm/hour. Over land, the AMSR can
measure the scattering effects of large ice particles which later melt to form
raindrops. These measurements, though less direct as a measure of rainfall
intensity, are converted to a rain rate with the help of cloud models.
. Sea surface temperature: Over the ocean, AMSR will provide sea surface tem-
peratures (SST) through most types of cloud cover, supplementing infrared-
based measurements of SST that are restricted to cloud-free areas. SST ¯uctua-
tions are known to have a profound impact on weather patterns across the
globe, and the AMSR's all-weather capability could provide a signi®cant
improvement in our ability to monitor SSTs and the processes controlling them.
. Total integrated water vapour: The total integrated water vapour of the atmo-
sphere will be measured over the ocean, which is important for the
understanding of how water is cycled through the atmosphere. Since water
vapour is the Earth's primary greenhouse gas, and it contributes the most to
future projections of global warming, it is critical to understand how it varies
naturally in the earth's system.
. Wind speed: Ocean surface roughness is also measured by AMSR, which will be
converted into a near-surface wind speed. These winds are one important
component of how much water is evapourated from the surface of the ocean.
The winds help to maintain the water vapour content of the atmosphere while
precipitation continually removes it.
. Cloud liquid water: AMSR cloud water estimates over the ocean will help
studies of whether clouds, and their ability to re¯ect sunlight, increase or
decrease under various conditions. This could be an important feedback
mechanism that either enhances or mitigates global warming, depending on
whether clouds increase or decrease with warming.
. Sea ice: Monitoring of sea ice parameters, such as ice type and extent, is
necessary to understand how this frozen blanket over the ocean acts to
change climate through its ability to insulate the water against heat loss to the
frigid atmosphere above it, and through its ability to re¯ect sunlight that would
otherwise warm the ocean.
. Snow cover: In much the same way as the AMSR can see large ice particles in
the upper reaches of rain systems, it also measures the scattering effects of snow
cover. These measurements are empirically related to snow cover depth and
542 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

water content based upon ®eld measurements. Like sea ice, snow cover has a
large in¯uence on how much sunlight is re¯ected from the earth. It also acts as a
blanket, keeping heat from escaping from the underlying soil, and allowing deep
cold air masses to develop during the winter. It further provides an important
storage mechanism for water during the winter months, which then affects how
much surface wetness is available for vegetation and crops in the spring. AMSR
monitoring of snow cover will allow studies and monitoring of how snow cover
variations interplay with other climate ¯uctuations.
. Soil moisture: Wet soil can be identi®ed in the AMSR observations if not too
much vegetation is present. The AMSR will provide the most useful satellite
data yet for determination of how well low-frequency (6.9 GHz) microwave
observations can be used to monitor surface wetness. Surface wetness is
important for maintaining crop and vegetation health, and its monitoring on
a global basis will allow drought-prone areas to be monitored for signs of
drought.
The Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) is a 15-channel
microwave sounder designed primarily to obtain temperature pro®les in the upper
atmosphere (especially the stratosphere) and to provide a cloud-®ltering capability
for tropospheric temperature observations. The ®rst AMSU was launched in May
1998 on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's)
NOAA-15 satellite. The EOS AMSU-A will be part of a closely coupled triplet of
instruments that include the AIRS and HSB. A passive multichannel microwave
radiometer obtained 15-channel microwave sounder with a frequency range of 15±
90 GHz provides atmospheric temperature measurements from the surface up to
40 km. AMSU instrument characteristics are the following: instrument instanta-
neous ®eld of view is 3.3 ; linear scan ®eld of view is 49.5 ; swath width is
1650 km; spatial resolution at nadir is 40 km. The AMSU instrument measures air
temperatures at ®ve levels in the atmosphere.

14.2.4 ADEOS-II mission

Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II), also known as Midori-2, is a
Japanese (NASDA) remote sensing spacecraft launched December 14 2002
(H ˆ 805 km,  ˆ 98; 69 , T ˆ 100:99 min). The 3.7-tonne (with fuel), 5-kW space-
craft carries ®ve instruments to monitor global climate trends (Kondratyev and
Tanaka, 1997; Shibata, 2000). One, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometre
(AMSR) monitors water vapour, precipitation, sea surface temperature, wind and
ice by means of the microwave emission emanating from the earth's surface and
atmosphere (see above). It is a radiometre that operates in eight frequency bands
covering 6.9 to 69 GHz and monitors the horizontal and vertical polarizations separ-
ately. With a dish of 2-m aperture, the spatial resolution is 5 km in the 89 GHz band
degrading to 60 km at 6.9 GHz (Table 14.5) (Shibata, 2000). The Global Imager
(GLI) is an optical sensor to observe solar radiation re¯ected from the earth's
surface and to map vegetation, clouds, etc. The data are acquired in 23 visible/
Sec. 14.2] 14.2 Ongoing missions and tendencies of their development 543

Table 14.5. AMSR Characteristics (ADEOS-II mission).

Frequency (GHz) 6.9 10.65 18.7 23.8 36.5 89.0 50.3 52.8

Spatial resolution (km) 50 25 15 5 10

Bandwidth (MHz) 350 100 200 400 1000 3000 200 400

Polarization horizontal and vertical vertical

Incident angle (degrees) about 55

Cross polarization (dB) under 20

Swath width (km) 1600

Dynamic range(K) 2.7±340

Absolute accuracy (K) 1 (1)

T (K) 0.3±1.0 (1) 2 (1)

Quantization (bit) 12 10

near-infrared and 13 far-infrared channels. Scanning is accomplished by a rotating

mirror covering 12 km along track and 1600 km a cross track at a resolution of
1.0 km. SeaWinds is a scatterometre that provides wind speed and direction by
observing the microwave backscattering from ocean surfaces. With its 1.0-m dish,
it scans the surface along conical surfaces at 18 rpm. It provides speed at an accuracy
of 2 m/s, wind direction at an accuracy of 20 , both with a spatial resolution of 5 km.
ILAS-2 (Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometre 2) maps the vertical distribution
of O3 , NO2 , HNO3 , H2 O, CFC-11, CFC-12, CH4 , N2 O and ClONO2 , as well as the
distribution of temperature and pressure, all in the stratosphere. It observes the
absorption spectrum in the earth's atmospheric limb in the 3±13 mm wavelength
band, and in the 753±784 nm band of the occulting Sun. The altitude resolution is
100 m. POLDER (POLarization and Directionality of Earth's Re¯ectances)
measures the polarization, and spectral characteristics of the solar light re¯ected
by aerosols, clouds, oceans and land surfaces. Eight narrowband wavelengths
(443, 490, 564, 670, 763, 765, 865 and 910 nm) are covered by the instrument
which facilitates identi®cation of the physical and optical properties of the
aerosols and their role in radiation budget.
NASDA will use Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) to contribute
process study and prediction of global change phenomena and preservation of global
environments for 15 years with ADEOS-II (Sobue et al., 2000; Shimoda, 2000).
There are three main goals of GCOM: (1) understanding the material energy
cycle, and documenting and predicting global warming, (2) understanding atmo-
sphere±ocean interaction, radiative forcing and documenting and predicting
544 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

medium-to long-term climate changes, and (3) understanding ozone and the GHG
circulation mechanism, and documenting and predicting ozone layer and atmo-
spheric composition variabilities. The GCOM will consist of the GCOM-A
satellite series, the GCOM-B satellite series and ground infrastructures. The
GCOM-AI satellites will measure the ozone layer and greenhouse gases while the
GCOM-BI satellites will observe the material and energy cycles. The main GCOM-
BI instrument will be AMSR Follow On.

14.3 FUTURE PASSIVE MICROWAVE SPACE MISSIONS

In this section we shall brie¯y outline a series of potential space missions on studying
and monitoring geophysical and meteorological systems of the earth. Each of them is
at a completely di€erent preparation stage ± from a ¯ight model ready for launching
up to the engineering design stage. Each of these missions is directed at the solution
of various geophysical and hydrometeorological problems; but, here, a key element
of each mission is the inclusion of passive microwave instruments as a major integral
part of a space observational system.

14.3.1 MTVZA-OK mission

The present mission is the combined optical±microwave imager/sounder MTVZA-
OK (Russia) of spacecraft `Sich-1M' (Russia/Ukraine), which will be launched in
2003 on Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 650 km (Cherny and Chernyavsky,
2001).
MTVZA-OK will be used as the meteorological imaging/sounding system for
the remote sensing of the ocean and the land surface, as well as for measuring global
atmospheric temperature and water vapour pro®les. The instrument is the next
version of the microwave imager/sounder MTVZA deployed on spacecraft
`Meteor-3M' (Cherny and Raizer, 1998).
MTVZA-OK combines both optical and microwave systems deployed on a
single scanning platform. Field of view (FOV) is common for optical and
microwave imaging and sounding channels. MTVZA-OK microwave performance
characteristics are given in Table 14.6. The microwave radiometre MTVZA-OK is
based on the technology of combining in space and time multifrequency and polar-
ization measurements. MTVZA-OK operating frequencies are located both in the
transparent windows of atmosphere, 6.9, 10.6, 18.7, 23.8, 31, 36.5, 42, 48, 89 GHz,
and in absorbing lines of oxygen 52±57 GHz and water vapour 183.31 GHz. In
addition, the MTVZA-OK includes some complementary non-typical operating
frequencies especially for oceanographic research. The instrument will provide
measurements of atmosphere temperature pro®le to approximately 42 km and
water vapour pro®le to 6 km.
All microwave radiometre channels are switched to single feed-horn antenna.
The antenna system consists of an o€set parabolic re¯ector of dimension 60 cm,
illuminated by broadband feed-horn antenna. To retain the invariant viewing
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 545

Table 14.6. MTVZA-OK microwave frequency channel characteristics.

Channel Centre frequency No. of Band- Effective Imagery Sensitivity Approximate
no. (GHz) pass- width FOV pixel (K/pixel) peak
bands (MHz) (km  km) (km  km) sensitivity
altitude (km)

1 6.9 1 350 112  260 24  24 0.3 Ð

2 10.6 1 100 76  177 24  24 0.5 Ð

3 18.7 1 200 45  104 24  24 0.4 Ð

4 23.8 1 400 36  86 24  24 0.3 Ð

5 31 1 1000 30  69 24  24 0.3 Ð

6 36.5 1 1000 26  60 24  24 0.3 Ð

7 42 1 1000 22  53 24  24 0.4 Ð

8 48 1 1000 21  47 24  24 0.4 Ð

9 52.28 1 400 18  43 36  36 0.4 2

10 52.85 1 400 18  43 36  36 0.4 4

11 53.33 1 400 18  43 36  36 0.4 6

12 54.40 1 400 18  43 36  36 0.4 10

13 55.45 1 400 18  43 36  36 0.4 14

14 57.290344  0.3222 4 50 18  43 48  48 0.4 20

15 57.290344  0.3222 4 20 18  43 48  48 0.7 25

16 57.290344  0.3222 4 10 18  43 48  48 0.9 29

17 57.290344  0.3222 4 5 18  43 48  48 1.3 35

18 57.290344  0.3222 4 3 18  43 48  48 1.7 42

19 89 1 4000 12  28 12  12 0.6 surface

20 183.31  7.0 2 1500 7  16 24  24 0.5 1.5

21 183.31  3.0 2 1000 7  16 24  24 0.6 2.9

22 183.31  1.0 2 500 7  16 24  24 0.8 5.3

Channels 1±8, and 19 operate on both vertical and horizontal polarization, while other remaining channels operate on
vertical polarization only.

angle and polarization in the scanning sector, the re¯ector and feed-horn antenna are
mounted on a scanning platform containing the radiometres, digital data subsystem,
power and signal transfer assembly, which rotates continuously about an axis
parallel to the local spacecraft vertical.
546 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

The MTVZA-OK scanning platform rotates continuously about an axis parallel

to the local spacecraft vertical with a period of 1.8 s during which the subsatellite
point travels 12 km. The scan direction is from the right to the left when looking in
the forward direction of the spacecraft, with an active scanning sector of 120 ,
resulting in a swath width of 2000 km. The viewing angle is 55.4 and the
incidence angle with respect to the earth's surface is 65 . The sampling rate is
12  12 km for all microwave channels.
Russian specialists hope (Cherny and Chernyavsky, 2001; Grankov et al., 2000)
that MTVZA-OK will provide some very interesting and powerful capabilities for
complementary studies of the ocean±atmosphere system. By combining optical and
microwave observations in the same instrument, some mutually bene®cial advan-
tages for determining geophysical parameters are obtained. Both atmospheric tem-
perature pro®le and atmospheric humidity pro®le, sea surface temperature and near-
surface wind speed, ocean colour and processes of the active ocean layer will be
observed concurrently, enabling ¯ow visualization and upwelling area to be better
observed as well as estimates of the ocean±atmosphere interaction.

14.3.2 CLOUDS mission

The cloud and radiation monitoring satellite (CLOUDS) is a project co-funded by
the EC, conducted by 12 European partners (7 scienti®c institutes and 5 industrial
companies), also cooperating with NOAA/ETL (Bruzzi, 1995; Bizzari and Spera,
2000; Bizzari et al., 2000). It is the mission study of a monitoring satellite to perform
measurements necessary to describe cloud±radiation interaction in operational
models for climate and long-term weather prediction (Arkin and Xie, 1994; Asrar
and Dokken, 1993; Houze, 1993; IPCC, 2001). Complementary to missions for
process study, CLOUDS addresses the monitoring aspect. Therefore it has to
comply with requirements of suciently frequent observing cycle, and operational
sustainability. This prevents using active systems (radar and lidar) and leads to
considering passive radiometry only, but exploiting as much as possible of the
electromagnetic spectrum, with more polarizations and more viewing geometries.
The objective of the CLOUDS project was to study the mission of a new satellite
to provide accurate, comprehensive, consistent and frequent information on cloud
structures and on the associated radiative parameters. The information would be
used by meteorological services and research centres to improve weather forecasting
and climate modelling.
CLOUDS is proposed as a monitoring mission. Its strategic objective is to
extend the overall European service of climate monitoring from space, beyond
what is achievable by the instrumentation at present foreseen for MSG and
METOP/EPS, whose mission de®nition has been driven by nowcasting and short±
medium-term weather prediction.
User requirements were established, specifying a list of geophysical parameters
to be measured in the areas of:
. the `classical' cloud parameters, mostly referring to the top surface, with
emphasis on ice/liquid discrimination and size;
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 547

. the cloud interior, speci®cally water phase (ice or liquid) and whether drop-size
is likely to produce precipitation;
. the outgoing radiation from the top of atmosphere to space;
. the main parameter impacting with both clouds and radiation in the 3-D atmo-
sphere, i.e. aerosols;
. the primary source of clouds, i.e. water vapour, also primary factor of radiative
processes in the 3-D atmosphere;
. the indicator of ®nal removal of water from the atmosphere, i.e. precipitation.

The mission requirements established for CLOUDS were strongly conditioned

by the monitoring objective, which implies compliance with long-term sustainability
requirements, and the requirement for an observing cycle consistent with routine use.
The key aspect of the CLOUDS mission is the exploitation of the widest range of
the electromagnetic ®eld to collect as many `signatures' as possible of the di€erent
parameters to be measured. The spectral range utilized spans from 340 nm to 4.3 cm,
i.e. over ®ve orders of magnitude. Six instruments are described, operating,
respectively, in narrow channels of the UV/VIS/NIR/SWIR, the TIR/FIR, the
sub-millimetre waves and the MW, in broadband channels from UV to FIR, and
in a relatively large-band channel of VIS/NIR. Several channels have three or four
polarizations, all take images fore and aft (conical scanning), one has multi-angle-
viewing capability. The overall system size is estimated as 900 kg mass, 1600 W
power, 1.1 Mbps data rate for real-time S-band transmission, and 30 Mbps data
rate for global data recovery in X-band.
An important instrument requirement to note is that all channels in CLOUDS
must have consistent scanning mechanism, so as to ensure compatible viewing
geometry and make possible accurate co-registration, for a true multi-spectral
approach, as necessary when dealing with fractal ®elds. Since most channels
require di€erential polarization, conical scanning is most suitable.
The CLOUDS mission is implemented by six instruments:

. the CLOUDS Integrated Optical Payload (CIOP), composed of four instru-

ments:
Ðthe Clouds and Aerosol Short-wave Imaging Radiometre (CASIR);
Ðthe CLOUDS Infra Red Imaging Radiometre (CIRIR);
Ðthe Broad-band Earth Radiation Imaging Radiometre (BERIR);
Ðthe Multi-Angle VIS Imaging Radiometre (MAVIR);
. the MW/sub-millimetre instruments:
Ðthe Cloud Ice and Water-vapour Sub-mm Imaging Radiometre (CIWSIR);
Ðthe Cloud Liquid-water And Precipitation Microwave Imaging Radiometre
(CLAPMIR).

The two instruments covering the MW/sub-millimetre range perform conical

scanning with the same speed of 1 scan per 2 s. The viewing geometry is the same
as for the optical payload (45 o€-nadir observing the scene under the zenith angle
53.2 , with two arcs of over 45 fore and aft for a swath of nearly 1400 km).
548 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

The CIWSIR instrument includes channels in the sub-millimetre and very-high

frequency MW range. Their main purposes are:
. to observe cloud ice with higher penetration in the cloud interior as compared
with what is possible in the shortwave and in IR;
. to discriminate water phase in the cloud interior;
. to infer convective penetration in the troposphere through differential water
vapour optical depth.
CIWSIR is a 6-frequency, 13-channel microwave radiometreÐ7 channels in
the millimetre- (water vapour) and 6 channels in the sub-millimetre-range (ice
clouds).
To be synergistic with the optical package and with CLAPMIR, the same
viewing geometry is adopted. The main instrument features of CIWSIR, and its
expected performances compared with requirements, are reported in Table 14.7.
The CLAPMIR instrument includes microwave channels in window and absorp-
tion bands. The main purposes are:
. to observe cloud liquid water, precipitating and non-precipitating, with inference
of drop size;
. to discriminate water phase in the cloud interior and total-column water vapour;
. to infer a gross vertical pro®le of liquid/precipitating water cores as linked to air
temperature.
Additional observations, outside the CLOUDS objectives, are: earth surface
parameters such as sea-surface wind, sea-surface temperature, sea-ice cover and
type, ice/snow cover and melting conditions, and soil moisture.
The CLAPMIR instrument will consist of an o€set parabolic re¯ector of
1.6  1.4 m dimensions, illuminated by a cluster of feeds. The re¯ector and feed
horn antennas are mounted on a `drum' which contains the receivers, a digital
data unit, mechanical balancing subsystem and power supply. The entire drum
assembly is rotated about the axis of the instrument by a coaxially mounted
bearing and brushless DC motor. The polarimetric channels are designed to
provide the third Stokes parameter by means of adding analogue correlators. To
be synergistic with the optical package and with CIWSIR, the same viewing
geometry is adopted. The main instrument features of CLAPMIR, and its
expected performances compared with requirements, are reported in Table 14.8.

14.3.3 MEGHA-TROPIQUES mission

Supported by the French and Indian scienti®c communities, the MEGHA-
TROPIQUES mission aims at studying the water cycle and energy exchanges in
the tropical belt (Desbois, 1995, 1999; Aguttes et al., 2000; Eymard, 1999;
Narayanan, 1999). It will be jointly developed by the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES). The small satellite
(<600 kg) could be launched as early as 2005 by an Indian launcher in a low
inclination (22 ) orbit. Longwave and shortwave outgoing ¯uxes from the top of
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 549

Table 14.7. Instrument features and expected performances of CIWSIR (CLOUDS mission).

IFOV 0.35 corresponding to ellipse of 13  7.8 km, equivalent to 10 km circular

Scanning Conical, ˆ 45 ,  ˆ 53:2 , fore- and aft-views by >45 in azimuth,

swath 1400 km

Sampling 1 scan/2 s, 1 feed/channel, readings at 1.25 ms intervals

Antenna L ˆ 40 cm for channels 150 to 220 GHz, L ˆ 16 cm for channels 463 to

874 GHz

Detection Subharmonic Schottky-mixers for millimetre-channels, fundamentally

pumped mixers for sub-millimetre channels

Resources Mass: 79 kg, volume (cylindrical): diameter ˆ 110 cm, h ˆ 43 cm; power:
110 W; data rate 83.2 kbps

Channel centre Bandwidth Polarization
T (required)
T (estimated)

(GHz) (GHz) (K) (K)

874.38  6.0 3.0 two 1.0 @ 240 2.0 @ 240

682.95  6.0 3.0 two 1.0 @ 240 1.2 @ 240

462.64  3.0 2.0 two 1.0 @ 240 0.9 @ 240

220.50  3.0 2.0 two 1.0 @ 240 0.9 @ 240

183.31  1.0 1.0 one 1.0 @ 240 1.2 @ 240

183.31  3.0 2.0 one 1.0 @ 260 0.9 @ 260

183.31  7.0 4.0 one 1.0 @ 280 0.6 @ 280

150 4.0 two 1.0 @ 300 0.6 @ 300

the atmosphere will be derived from the ScaRaB radiometre, already developed in
France (Desbois, 1999). Measurement of the atmospheric water vapour vertical
distribution will be given by SAPHIR, a new microwave sounder around strong
water line 183 GHz and MADRAS, the main and biggest instrument, will scrutinize
cloud and precipitation properties. It is a conical scanning radiometre with six
channels (10, 18, 23, 36, 89, and 157 GHz) and a resolution ranging from 60 km
(10 GHz) to 6 km (157 GHz).
The main objective of the MEGHA-TROPIQUES mission is to study the con-
vective systems that in¯uence the tropical weather and climate. The tropical region is
the domain of monsoons, squall lines and tropical cyclones. It is also characterized
by large intra-seasonal, inter-seasonal and inter-annual variations, which may lead
to catastrophic events such as droughts or ¯oods. Any change in the energy and
550 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

Table 14.8. Instrument features and expected performances of CLAPMIR (CLOUDS

mission).

IFOV At 89 GHz: 0.175 corresponding to ellipse of 6.5  3.9 km, equivalent to 5 km circular.
Bands 118 and 55 GHz: 0.35 corresponding to ellipse of 13  7.8 km, equivalent to 10 km
circular.
At other channels: changing with frequency according to the diffraction limits

Scanning Conical, ˆ 45 ,  ˆ 53:2 , fore- and aft-views by >45 in azimuth, swath 1400 km

Sampling 1 scan / 2 s

Antenna L ˆ 160 cm

Resources Mass: 160 kg, volume (stowed): cylindrical diameter ˆ 90 cm, h ˆ 180 cm; power: 170 W;
data rate 208 kbps

Channel Band- Along- Along- Average Samples/ Integration Polar-
T
T

centre width track scan IFOV scan time (ms) ization (required) (estimated)
(GHz) (GHz) IOFV IOFV (km) (K) (K)
(km) (km)

118.75  1.0 1.0 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 230 1.0 @ 230

118.75  1.5 1.0 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 250 1.0 @ 250

118.75  2.0 1.0 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 270 1.0 @ 270

118.75  4.0 1.0 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 290 1.2 @ 290

89.0 3.0 6.5 3.9 5 1600 1.25 four 1.0 @ 300 1.0 @ 300

55 0.5 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 230 1.0 @ 230

54 0.5 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 250 1.0 @ 250

53 0.5 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 270 1.0 @ 270

50 0.5 13.0 7.8 10 800 2.5 one 0.5 @ 290 1.0 @ 290

36.5 1.0 15.8 9.5 12 800 2.5 four 0.7 @ 300 0.6 @ 300

23.8 0.4 24.3 14.6 19 400 5 two 0.6 @ 250 0.6 @ 250

18.7 0.2 30.1 18.6 24 400 5 four 0.5 @ 300 0.6 @ 300

10.6 0.1 54.6 32.7 42 200 10 four 0.4 @ 300 0.4 @ 300

6.9 0.3 83.8 50.3 65 200 10 two 0.3 @ 300 0.3 @ 300

water budget of the land±ocean±atmosphere system in the tropics has an in¯uence on

global climate. The exchanges of energy in the intertropical zone in¯uence the
climate of the rest of the planet. These systems interact with the general circulation
of the atmosphere in ways which are not fully understood, thus precluding reliable
prediction of the events. Interactions with oceanic and continental surfaces have also
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 551

to be accounted for, as for example the consequences in various regions of the

El NinÄo ± La NinÄa events (Philander, 1990; Raschke and Jacob, 1993; Sadourny
et al., 1999; Sharkov, 1998).
Knowledge of the life cycle of tropical convective systems is limited by the lack
of information from over the tropical oceans and many areas of tropical continents.
Geostationary satellites provide a good space±time sampling of the cloud cover, but
no information about water vapour pro®les, deep cloud water content, or precipita-
tion. Instruments to retrieve these quantities, based on microwave techniques,
exist on polar orbiters, but they do not provide adequate sampling in the tropics
(ESA, 1996b; Desbois, 1995, 1999; Gairola, 1999; Roca, 1999). TRMM, which was
launched in 1997, is concerned mainly with estimation of tropical rainfall. The
instruments used in TRMM are very well adapted to the study of tropical
systems, but the low level of the orbit, and its inclination at 35 , do not allow a
sampling of the equatorial region. Therefore the follow-up of this experiment calls
for better sampling of the whole planet with passive instruments, using a con-
stellation of satellites.
The principle of MEGHA-TROPIQUES is to get a satisfactory sampling of
the intertropical band, and specially the latitudes between 10 and 20 , with
instruments relevant for the water and energy budget of the tropical convective
systems. This implies a low inclination orbit. The instruments have to be com-
plementary to those that exist on geostationary satellites (VIS-IR imagers).
Microwave instruments are, then, the right choice.
The basic principles of the MEGHA-TROPIQUES mission are therefore as
follows:

. to provide simultaneous measurements of several elements of the atmospheric

water cycle: water vapour, clouds, condensed water in clouds, precipitation and
evapouration;
. to measure the corresponding radiative budget at the top of the atmosphere;
. to ensure high-temporal sampling in order to characterize the life cycle of the
convective systems and to obtain signi®cant statistics.

Given the general objectives and the principle of improved time sampling of the
MEGHA-TROPIQUES experiment, the parameters that are speci®cally required by
MEGHA-TROPIQUES are listed below. Di€erent types of quantities are consid-
ered, according to the time scale (instantaneous, cumulated or time-averaged) and to
the possibility of getting quantitative or qualitative information:
Instantaneous data:

. integrated water vapour: 5% to 10% 2 kg/m2 (outside clouds);

. water vapour by layer (5 to 7 layers): 10% to 20%, (outside clouds);
. temperature, altitude of cloud top: 1 to 2 K, <500 m;
. precipitation: 50% depending on rain, size of precipitating areas, convective/
stratiform precipitation, range 0.5 to 50 mm/hour;
. latent heat release: indication on some classes, convective stratiform separation;
. liquid water content: 0.05 to 0.1 kg/m2 ;
552 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

. cloud ice content: absence/presence, size of anvil clouds, indication on particle

size;
. radiation budget terms: 10 W/m2 ;
. sea surface wind: 2 to 5 m s 1 ;
. vertical structure of systems: an indication of the vertical distribution of liquid
water and precipitation in several layers (around 5).
SAPHIR is a continuous cross-track scanning. The mission speci®cations calls
for determination with an accuracy of 10% to 20% of the humidity in six layers of
the troposphere, over 10 km pixels, from 2 km up to 12 km height. To realize that
performance, it is necessary to choose channels for which the atmospheric contribu-
tion to the radiance comes from di€erent levels of the troposphere. This can be
obtained by sampling an absorption line of water vapour by channels more or less
close to the centre of the line. The selected line, already chosen for other instruments,
is the strong line at 183.3 GHz. The sensitivity requirement is around 1.5 K.
MADRAS (Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain And Atmosphere) is a
canonical scanning radiometre; the microwave radiation from a scene is collected by
antenna beams and then focused via a single dish to di€erent horns. The requirement
of two polarizations for most channels, classical in microwave radiometry, implies
that the scenes have to be observed over a constant incidence angle. This incidence
angle is between 50 and 55 (upper limit for each channel), in order to get the widest
swath while keeping a manageable incidence angle.
The requirements for the channels and their respective mission is the following
(frequency/resolutions):
10.6 GHz (50  80 km);
18.7 GHz (50  80 km);
23.8 GHz (40  65 km);
36.5 GHz (40  65 km);
89 GHz (10  16 km);
157 GHz (6  9 km).
The polarization is H+V, except for 23.8 GHz which is H or V. Sensitivity
requirement is around 1 K for the highest channels (89 GHz and 157 GHz) and
0.5 K for the others. The dish e€ective (along the beam axis) diametre is 76 cm.
The ratio focal/diametre is 0.8. The beam eciency is 0.95. A single horn will be
used for the three channels: 18, 23 and 36 GHz.
MEGHA-TROPIQUES satellite launch is foreseen for late-2005.

14.3.4 NPOESS program

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
is a program currently in development for the purpose of providing global environ-
mental measurements for use by the National Weather Service and other civil
agencies, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the scienti®c research
community (Flaming, 2000). NPOESS will replace the Polar-orbiting Operational
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 553

Environmental Satellite (POES) constellation currently operated by the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the DoD's Defense
Meteorological Satellite Support Program (DMSP), a constellation of satellites
which are also in polar orbit performing operational environmental measurements.
International agreements are also pending with the European Organization for the
Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) to incorporate and conso-
lidate portions of that program with NPOESS.
The ®rst NPOESS satellite is projected to be launched in 2008. The program will
include replenishment satellites, and will provide measurements for at least a 10-year
period.
Five of the NPOESS critical sensors are currently in development. These ®ve are
the Ozone Mapping and Pro®ler Suite (OMPS), the Cross-track Infrared Sounder
(CrIS), the Global Positioning System Occultation Sensor (GPSOS), the Visible/
Infrared Imager Radiometre Suite (VIIRS) and the Conical Microwave Imager
Sounder (CMIS).
The environmental data records (EDRs) measured by CMIS are extensive, and
include the following:
. atmospheric vertical moisture pro®le;
. atmospheric vertical temperature pro®le;
. sea surface temperature;
. sea surface winds (speed and direction);
. soil moisture;
. precipitable water;
. precipitation (type/rate);
. pressure pro®le;
. total water content;
. cloud base height;
. cloud ice water path;
. cloud liquid water;
. snow cover/depth;
. fresh water ice;
. ice surface temperature;
. tea ice age and sea ice edge motion;
. surface wind stress;
. land surface temperature;
. vegetation/surface type.
These EDRs will be collected on a global basis approximately every 6 hours
when the complete constellation of satellites is in place. These satellites will have
nodal crossing times of 0530, 0930, and 1330, and will have CMIS on a satellite in
each orbit.
It should be noted that CMIS will incorporate into a conical scan system both a
surface measurement and atmospheric sounding capability; earlier instrumentation
frequently performed surface measurements with a conical scan system, and
employed a cross-track scan system for atmospheric soundings. CMIS represents a
554 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

Table 14.9. Microwave sensor comparison.

Mission SSM/I TMI SSMIS AMSR-E CMIS

Antenna diametre (m) 0.6 0.6 0.7 1.6 2.5

Number of measurement channels 7 9 24 12 77

Mass (kg) 56 62 96 324 250

Power (W) 45 50 135 350 225

Operational design life (years) 3 3 5 6 7

continuation in the trend of microwave instruments that are more capable, but also
more complex. In Table 14.9 some of the physical characteristics of the conical scan
sensors mentioned above are compared with CMIS. The analysis of the table has
distinctly guided the development of future microwave sensing instruments.
The approaches used by other instruments for satisfying measurement require-
ments suggest similar design characteristics may be used by CMIS. Soil moisture and
sea surface temperature are measured by AMSR with a 6.9-GHz channel; atmo-
spheric vertical temperature pro®les are measured by AMSU-A using a series of
channels in the 50±60 GHz range. The SSMIS (DMSP F16 satellite) is a instrument
in terms of its development, and measures atmospheric water vapour using 150 GHz
and 183 GHz channels; similar channels are also being used by AMSU-B to make the
same measurements. Although not used in operational instruments constructed to
date, the phenomenology suggests that frequencies greater than 183 GHz may have
an application, if the appropriate technology can be developed. Thus, the measure-
ments that CMIS must perform may span the frequency range from 6 to 183 GHz, or
more, and may employ 77 channels and polarimetry methods for the measurement of
vector winds. The physical size of the instrument, the large number of measurement
channels required for the 20 EDRs, the sensitivity required for the measurement
channels, and the very long operating life (7 years), all suggest the development of
an extremely complex instrument.

14.3.5 OSIRIS concept

A concept Ocean-salinity Soil-moisture Integrated Radiometre-radar Imaging
System (OSIRIS) has been deeply studied for remote sensing of sea surface
salinity from space using a large deployable mesh antenna system (Wilson et al.,
2000). The antenna has a 6-m diametre o€set-fed parabolic re¯ector with multi-
channel feedhorns and radiometres and a radar, operating at L and S bands. The
entire system rotates about the nadir axis, providing a conical scan across a 900-km
wide swath at a spatial resolution of about 40 km from a 600-km orbit altitude. The
study includes evaluation of deployable mesh antennas and preferred antenna,
spacecraft, and launch vehicle con®gurations. The key system characteristics are
Sec. 14.3] 14.3 Future passive microwave space missions 555

Table 14.10. Key baseline system characteristics of OSIRIS concept.

Radiometre frequencies (GHz) 1.41 and 2.69

Radiometre polarization H, V; (1.41 GHz polarimetric)

Radar frequency (GHz) 1.26

Radar polarization VV, HH, VH, HV

Antenna type Offset-fed, parabolic, deployable mesh re¯ector

Aperture diametre (m) 6

Ocean incidence angle (degrees) 40

Number of feedhorns 2 (each L/S-band, V/H-polarization)

Beam widths (degrees) 2.6 (approx. equal all channels)

Antenna gain (dB) 35

Beam ef®ciency (%) >90

Orbit type Polar, Sun-synchronous, 6 a.m./6 p.m.

Altitude (km) 600

Spatial resolution (km) 35  45

Swath width (km) 900

Rotation rate (rpm) 6

Global coverage (days) 2±3

Radiometre
T per footprint (K) 0.2

Radiometre absolute accuracy and 1 and 0.2

stability (K)

Radar precision/stability (dB) 0.2

Power (W) 350

Data rate (kbit/s) 25

Mass (kg) 530

Mission duration (years) 3

summarized in Table 14.10. The antenna conical scan system is a rotating, o€set-fed,
parabolic-mesh re¯ector, with two identical multichannel feedhorns, which feed the
L- and S-band radiometres and the L-band radar. The two feedhorns provide
separate beams that give overlapping contiguous footprints at the surface, and
556 Passive microwave space missions [Ch. 14

allow the antenna system to rotate at 6 rpm which is half as fast as would be
necessary with a single beam. The combined antenna and feed system rotates
about the vertical axis, with antenna beams at an incidence angle of 40 . As the
spacecraft moves, the 3-dB antenna footprints provide overlap along and across
track in a helical coverage pattern. At an orbit altitude of 600 km, the 6-m
antenna provides 40-km spatial resolution, and a swath width of 900 km.
Another possible concept consists in using an in¯atable antenna. Such an
in¯atable structure could enable the deployment of a large-aperture, low-mass,
and low-cost antenna system in space, suitable for operation in the 1±3 GHz band
needed for soil and salinity sensing (Njoku et al., 1999).