AWS Mission

Objectives and Applications

AWS is the protoflight satellite for a planned constellation of meteorological microsatellites providing passive microwave soundings for global atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles soundings in all weather conditions, with frequent revisits over the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. This constellation (called EPS-Sterna, which is named after the latin name Sterna for the Arctic Tern) will consist of 3 orbital planes with 2 satellites in each orbital plane. With a nominal satellite lifetime of 5 years, a first launch in 2029 and 2 replenishments of each orbit plane, a minimum mission lifetime for the full system of 13 years will be achieved. Local Solar time for AWS is 09:00 - 11:00 and EPS-Sterna Descending LST is 03:30, 07:30, 11:30.

Mission Summary

Full Name
Arctic Weather Satellite
aka Arctic Weather Satellite, AWS
Mission Status
Commissioning
Mission Agencies
Launch Date
16 Aug 2024
Mission Links
EOL Date
Aug 2029
EO Portal Info

Orbit Details

Orbit Type
Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
97 minutes
Orbit Sense
Ascending
Orbit Inclination
97.79 deg
Orbit Altitude
595 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
Repeat Cycle
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator

Mission Instruments

AWS Instrument - Arctic Weather Satellite Microwave Radiometer

Mission Measurements

CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
AtmosphereAtmospheric Humidity Fields AWS Instrument
Cloud particle properties and profile AWS Instrument
Liquid water and precipitation rate AWS Instrument
Atmospheric Temperature Fields AWS Instrument
OceanOcean surface winds AWS Instrument
Snow & IceSea ice cover, edge and thickness AWS Instrument

OpenSearch Datasets

No IDN OpenSearch datasets found.