Latest Developments of Geostationary Microwave Sounder Technologies for NOAA's Mission

摘要

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been flying microwave sounders since 1975 on Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). Microwave observations have made significant contributions to the understanding of the atmosphere and earth surface. This has helped in improving weather and storm tracking forecasts. However, NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have microwave requirements that can not be met due to the unavailability of proven technologies. Several studies of a Geostationary Microwave Sounder (GMS) have been conducted. Among those, are the Geostationary Microwave Sounder (GEM) that uses a mechanically steered solid dish antenna and the Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR) that utilizes a sparse aperture array. Both designs take advantage of the latest developments in sensor technology. NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) has recently successfully built and tested a prototype ground-based GeoSTAR at 50 GHz frequency with promising test results. Current GOES IR Sounders are limited to cloud top observations. Therefore, a sounding suite of IR and Microwave should be able to provide observations under clear as well as cloudy conditions all the time. This paper presents the results of the Geostationary Microwave Sounder studies, user requirements, frequencies, technologies, limitations, and implementation strategies.