| CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS
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Measurements > Atmosphere >
Atmospheric Winds >
Wind profile (vertical)
  | Measurement Definition*: A series of wind direction and wind speed measurements taken at various levels in the atmosphere that show the wind structure of the atmosphere over a specific location. |
| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
IASI
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer | Operational
| Measures tropospheric moisture and temperature, column integrated contents of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other minor gases which affect tropospheric chemistry. Also measures sea surface and land temperature. | n/a | |
Limb Imager
Limb Imager | Operational
| designed to measure Noctilucent Clouds and atmospheric airglow from the Oxygen A-band | n/a | |
Nadir Imager
Nadir Imager | Operational
| Takes pictures of atmospheric band emissions from below the satellite. This provides complementary information on smaller spatial scales, albeit restricted to a single spectral channel. Because of the nadir instruments susceptibility to the background light of the lower atmosphere, the nadir imaging will be restricted to the night-side of the terminator. The nadir instrument is basically a wide-angle camera. | n/a | |
WindRAD
Wind Radar | Operational
| Measures sea-surface wind. | n/a | |
IASI-NG
Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer - New Generation | Being developed
| Measures profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, ozone, carbon monoxide, columns of methane, nitrous oxide, and other minor gases, and sea, ice, and land surface temperature and emissivity. Provides information on aeorols and cloud: fractional coverage, phase, cloud top height (input to Polar AMVs) and particle size. Prime applications: NWP, AC/AQ, climate. Secondary applications: NWC, land/ocean surface monitoring. IASI-NG will resume IASI role as internationl standard for satellite inter-calibration (GSICS). | n/a | |
IRS
Infra-Red Sounder | Being developed
| Measurements of vertically resolved clear sky atmospheric motion vectors, temperature and water vapour profiles. | n/a | |
ALADIN-2
Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument - 2 | Proposed
| Global wind profiles (single line-of-sight) for an improved weather prediction. | n/a | |
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* Description adapted from WMO.
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