Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder In Orbit Demonstrator

Passive microwave sensors provide a wealth of information about the atmosphere, surface, hydrometeors and play a crucial role in modern numerical weather prediction models. Current and emerging satellite programmes such as MetOp-A, JPSS and MetOp-SG are based on a small number of large multi-instrument platforms. The development cycles of large satellite programs contrast very much with the new generation of small, dedicated instrument satellites which enable more economic constellations formation for improved temporal resolution. In addition to the improved temporal resolution, rapid advancements in microwave detection techniques now also offer much improved spectral resolution especially for temperature and humidity sounding. Simulation studies have been carried out to evaluate the temperature, moisture, and humidity sounding capability of several hyperspectral microwave systems with channels sampled near the 54GHz, 118 GHz and 183GHz absorption lines [1, 2]. These analyses indicate that hyperspectral microwave operation could substantially improve temperature and moisture profiling accuracy, increase vertical resolution and spectroscopic profiling. In addition to atmospheric measurement drivers, hyperspectral microwave sounding offers resilience to radio frequency detection and mitigation which is a growing concern to the meteorological community.

In this paper we will present a microwave sensor that employs a hyper-spectral microwave sounding technique in which hundreds of contiguous detection channels spread across a wide instantaneous bandwidth (16 GHz) at 54GHz and 183GHz, designed for a 16U Cubesat platform. The Hyper Spectral Microwave Sounder (HYMS) is presently being developed for In-Orbit-Demonstration. Details of the sensor, target mission parameters, space craft sub-systems and target operational performance parameters will also be presented. The paper will also present results from an airborne demonstrator developed in co-operation with the UK NERC’s Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft and the UK Met Office.

[1] Aires et al (2015), Microwave hyperspectral measurements for temperature and humidity atmospheric profiling from satellite: The clear‐sky case, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 120, 11,334– 11,351

[2] S. Boukabara et al, 2011, "Benefits of a hyperspectral microwave sensor," SENSORS, 2011 IEEE, Limerick, Ireland, pp. 1881-1884.