| Instrument | Agency | Missions | Status | Type | Measurements &
applications | Technical characteristics |
AMSR2
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 | JAXA | Current: GCOM-W
Future: -
Complete: - | Operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover, soil moisture. |
| Waveband: | Microwave: 6.925 GHz, 7.3 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 89.0 GHz
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | 5 - 50 km (dependent on frequency) |
| Swath width: | 1450 km (effective swath: 1618 km) |
| Accuracy: | Accuracy of the latest standard products (RMSE): Sea surface temperature: 0.5 degC, Sea ice concentration: 9%, Cloud liquid water: 0.04 kg/m2, Water vapour: 1.5 kg/m2 through total column, Sea surface wind speed 1.0 m/s, (Relative Error in %) Precipitation rate: 48 % for ocean & 86 % for land. (MAE) Snow depth: 18 cm, Soil Moisture Content: 4 %vol. See GCOM-W Product Information (https://suzaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GCOM_W/materials/w_productinfo.html) for more detail. |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | HDF5 |
|
AMSR3
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 3 | JAXA | Current: GOSAT-GW
Future: -
Complete: - | Operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation including snowfall, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover, soil moisture. |
| Waveband: | Microwave: 6.925 GHz, 7.3 GHz, 10.25 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 89.0 GHz, 165.5 GHz, 183.3 GHz
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | 5 - 50 km (dependent on frequency) |
| Swath width: | 1535 km (effective swath) |
| Accuracy: | Target and standard accuracies for each standard product were defined from user requirements. |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | NetCDF |
|
AMSR-E
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS | JAXA (NASA) | Current: Aqua
Future: -
Complete: - | No longer operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measurements of water vapour, cloud liquid water, precipitation, winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, snow cover and soil moisture. Instrument stopped functioning 4th October 2011. |
| Waveband: | Microwave: 6.925 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23. 8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 89.0 GHz
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | 5 - 50 km (dependent on frequency) |
| Swath width: | 1445 km |
| Accuracy: | Reprocessing of V8 by applying the latest AMSR2 algorithms is ongoing and will be released in 2019. Accuracy of the latest standard products (V8, RMSE): Sea surface temperature: 0.54 degC, Sea ice concentration: 8%, Cloud liquid water: 0.03 kg/m2, Water vapour: 1.6 kg/m2 through total column, Sea surface wind speed 1.0 m/s, (Relative Error in %) Precipitation rate: 66 % for ocean & 91 % for land. (MAE) Snow depth: 17.7 cm, Soil Moisture Content: 5 %vol. |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | HDF4, HDF5 |
|
AOS-Sky Microwave Radiometer
Atmosphere Observing System-Sky Microwave Radiometer | NASA | Current: -
Future: AOS-Sky
Complete: - | Proposed | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | High-frequency passive microwave radiometers for measurement of ice cloud properties, including ice water path. |
| Waveband: | 89-113 GHz, 183 GHz (3 channels), 325 GHz (3 channels), 640-700 GHz (2 channels
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | 10 km horizontal
Best resolution: 10000 m |
| Swath width: | >750 km |
| Accuracy: | |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | TBD |
|
COWVR
Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer | USSF (NASA) | Current: STP-H8-on-ISS
Future: -
Complete: - | Operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Hosted on the ISS, COWVR measures the direction and speed of winds at the ocean surface |
| Waveband: |
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | |
| Swath width: | |
| Accuracy: | |
| Data Access: | |
| Data Format: | |
|
DMR
Dynamic Microwave Radiometer | NASA | Current: -
Future: INCUS
Complete: - | Being developed | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures microwave radiances simultaneously with radar reflectivity pofiles for tropical convective storms |
| Waveband: | 4 frequencies between 150 and 190 GHz
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | 16 km
Best resolution: 16000 m |
| Swath width: | 1000 km |
| Accuracy: | < 5K |
| Data Access: | |
| Data Format: | |
|
GMI
GPM Microwave Imager | NASA | Current: GPM Core
Future: -
Complete: - | Operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures rainfall rates over oceans and land, combined rainfall structure and surface rainfall rates with associated latent heating. Used to produce three hour, daily, and monthly total rainfall maps over oceans and land. |
| Waveband: | Microwave: 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 89.0 GHz, 165.5 GHz, 183.31 ± 3 GHz, 183.31 ± 8 GHz
MW |
| Spatial resolution: | Horizontal: 36 km cross-track at 10.65 GHz (required - Primary Spacecraft, goal - Constellation Spacecraft); 10 km along-track and cross-track (goal - Primary Spacecraft) |
| Swath width: | 800 km (Core Observatory |
| Accuracy: | 0.65 - 1.5 K |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | HDF-EOS(HDF5) |
|
ICI
Ice Cloud Imager | EUMETSAT (ESA) | Current: -
Future: METOP-SG B1, METOP-SG B2, METOP-SG B3
Complete: - | Being developed | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | Measures ice cloud properties (ice water path, mean ice mass height, mean ice particle size by mass), liquid/solid precipitation information, and water vapour profiles |
| Waveband: | 11 channels from 183 to 664 GHz. 243 GHz and 664 GHz measured at both V- and H-polarizations
FIR, MW |
| Spatial resolution: | Footprint size 16 km
Best resolution: 16000 m |
| Swath width: | 1700km |
| Accuracy: | Radiometric sensitivity below 0.7 - 2.0 K (depending on the channel), radiometric bias below 1.0-1.5 K (depending on the channel). Geolocation accuracy: below 2.5km. Ice Water Path: accuracy better than 50% |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | NetCDF-4 and BUFR |
|
Imaging Microwave Radiometer
Imaging Microwave Radiometer | ESA (COM) | Current: -
Future: Sentinel CIMR-B, Sentinel CIMR-A
Complete: - | Approved | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | A conical scanning total power radiometer operating in 5 bands (L/C/X/K/Ka) to provide high-spatial resolution microwave imaging radiometry measurements and derived products with continuous global coverage and sub-daily revisit in the polar regions and adjacent seas. |
| Waveband: | L / C / X / Ku / Ka bands
Ka-Band, Ku-Band, X-Band, C-Band, L-Band |
| Spatial resolution: | 60km for L-band; 15km for C and X bands; 5 km for K and Ka-bands
L1B geolocation accuracy: 1/10 resolution
Best resolution: 5000 m |
| Swath width: | >1900km |
| Accuracy: | L1B Radiometric Resolution NedT (3 sigma): 0.3 K (L-Band) ... 0.7 K (Ka-Band)
L1B Radiometric Uncertainty (3 sigma): 0.5 (L-Band) ... 0.8 (Ka-Band)
L1B Radiometric Stability (3 sigma): 0.2 K |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | |
|
L-band Radiometer (SMAP)
L-band Radiometer (SMAP) | NASA | Current: SMAP
Future: -
Complete: - | Operational | Imaging multi-spectral radiometers (passive microwave) | High-accuracy measurements of brightness temperatures for global estimates of surface soil moisture for climate modeling and weather prediction |
| Waveband: | L-band (1.4 GHz)
L-Band |
| Spatial resolution: | 40km spatial resolution; 3 days temporal resolution |
| Swath width: | 40-deg constant incidence angle across the 1000 km swath |
| Accuracy: | 1.3K accuracy brightness temperature |
| Data Access: | Open Access |
| Data Format: | HDF-5 |
|