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Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) project. VI - Spacecraft, scientific instruments, and launching rocket. Part 3 - The electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer and the Special Sensor Microwave/ImagerThe two microwave radiometers for TRMM are designed to measure thermal microwave radiation upwelling from the earth. The Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) scans from 50 deg to the left through nadir to 50 deg to the right in 78 steps with no moving mechanical parts in a band centered at 19.35 GHz. The TRMM concept uses the radar to develop a climatology of rain-layer thickness which can be used for the interpretation of the radiometer data over a swath wider than the radar. The ESMR data are useful for estimating rain intensity only over an ocean background. The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), which scans conically with three dual polarized channels at 19, 37, and 85 GHz and a single polarized channel at 22 GHz, provides a wider range of rainfall intensities. The SSM/I spins about an axis parallel to the local spacecraft vector and 128 uniformly spaced samples of the 85 GHz data are taken on each scan over a 112-deg scan region simultaneously with 64 samples of the other frequencies.
Document ID
19920044220
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Wilheit, Thomas T.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Yamasaki, Hiromichi
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 15, 2013
Publication Date
June 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: Communications Research Laboratory, Review
Volume: 36
Issue: 11, J
ISSN: 0914-9279
Subject Category
Spacecraft Instrumentation
Accession Number
92A26844
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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