MetOp Second Generation Low Earth-Orbit Meteorological Satellite Mission and its Microwave Payload Instruments
Event details
| Date | 15.06.2015 |
| Hour | 15:00 › 16:00 |
| Speaker |
Prof. Chung-Chi Lin, European Space Agency Bio: Chung-Chi Lin was born on 8 Nov. 1952 in Kokura City, Japan. He obtained the Diploma degree in 1979 from the EPF-Lausanne, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982 and 1985, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1979 to 1980, he was a scientific collaborator at the High Voltage Laboratory of the EPF-L. From 1980 to 1985, he was a Research Assistant at the Electronics Research Laboratory of the Univ. of California, Berkeley. From 1985 to 1993, he worked at Dornier System (currently Airbus Defence and Space GmbH) in Friedrichshafen, Germany. In 1993, he joined the European Space Technology Centre of ESA in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. His area of responsibility is development of microwave payloads for future Earth Observation missions. Since 2000, he is the Head of Microwave Instruments Section in the Earth Observation Projects dept. Lately, he was the Guest Editor of the Special Issue of the Proc. IEEE on Solar System Radar & Radio Science (May 2011). |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
EUMETSAT and ESA are running development activities for the Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) meteorological satellite system that will ensure continuity of the current EPS/MetOp system around 2020 for the numerical weather prediction applications. As in the current system, the new EUMETSAT EPS-Second-Generation (EPS-SG) system will be implemented with a space segment (MetOp-Second-Generation or MetOp-SG) developed by ESA through a prime contract awarded to Airbus Defence & Space, France. The space segment of the EPS-SG mission will consist of a constellation of two satellites (Sat-A and Sat-B), with ESA-developed instruments on Sat-A (the MicroWave Sounder -MWS-, the Multi-view Multi-polarisation, Multi-channel Imager -3MI- and the Radio Occultation instrument –RO-) and Sat-B (the Wind SCAtterometer -SCA-, the MicroWave Imager –MWI-, the Ice Cloud Imager –ICI- and the second RO instrument).
The Microwave Sounder instrument (MWS), a passive radiometer with 24 channels from 23.8 to 229 GHz, will provide temperature and water vapour profiles in clear and cloudy atmosphere, and cloud liquid water columns. It will complement the clear sky observations provided by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder instrument, which will be contributed by the French Space Agency. MWS will have better spatial resolution and more observation channels than its predecessor, the AMSU-A and MHS suite of instruments on board MetOp.
The Wind Scatterometer instrument, a radar operating at C-band (5.3 GHz), will provide ocean vector wind observations with a better spatial resolution (≤ 25 km) and higher radiometric stability (0.1 dB) than its predecessor instrument ASCAT on board MetOp. Moreover, the use of cross-polarisation (VH) on the Mid-beams, in addition to the vertical polarisation (VV) of ASCAT, will significantly extend the upper dynamic range of the wind measurements (up to 50 m/s) and will improve the quality of the soil moisture product over land. There has been no well-characterised geophysical model function (GMF) which relates the cross-polarised radar backscatter to the ocean surface vector wind. Thus, as a part of the MetOp-SG scatterometry mission, airborne measurement campaigns under extreme wind conditions are undertaken in cooperation with NOAA.
The Microwave Imager (MWI) instrument, a new passive radiometer with 26 channels from 18.7 to 183 GHz, will provide cloud and precipitation observations as well as water vapour and temperature gross profiles of the atmosphere. For surface observations, it will provide sea ice, snow and ocean surface wind products. In particular, its high frequency channels (118 – 183 GHz) are optimised for observations of light precipitation and snow falls for higher latitudes.
The Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) instrument, a new passive millimetre and sub-millimetre radiometer with 13 channels from 183 to 664 GHz, will provide ice cloud and water vapour products at 15 km spatial resolution. The channel overlap between MWI and ICI at 183 GHz is intended for cross-calibration between them. Since observations at ICI frequencies have no precedence in satellite meteorology, extensive airborne campaigns are undertaken for validating radiative transfer models and for developing retrieval algorithms. UK Met Office’s FAAM aircraft carries the ISMAR instrument (Int’l Sub-Millimetre Airborne Radiometer), jointly developed by the Met Office and ESA.
The presentation will address the overall system description, the major microwave instruments as described above and their associated key technology developments.
The Microwave Sounder instrument (MWS), a passive radiometer with 24 channels from 23.8 to 229 GHz, will provide temperature and water vapour profiles in clear and cloudy atmosphere, and cloud liquid water columns. It will complement the clear sky observations provided by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder instrument, which will be contributed by the French Space Agency. MWS will have better spatial resolution and more observation channels than its predecessor, the AMSU-A and MHS suite of instruments on board MetOp.
The Wind Scatterometer instrument, a radar operating at C-band (5.3 GHz), will provide ocean vector wind observations with a better spatial resolution (≤ 25 km) and higher radiometric stability (0.1 dB) than its predecessor instrument ASCAT on board MetOp. Moreover, the use of cross-polarisation (VH) on the Mid-beams, in addition to the vertical polarisation (VV) of ASCAT, will significantly extend the upper dynamic range of the wind measurements (up to 50 m/s) and will improve the quality of the soil moisture product over land. There has been no well-characterised geophysical model function (GMF) which relates the cross-polarised radar backscatter to the ocean surface vector wind. Thus, as a part of the MetOp-SG scatterometry mission, airborne measurement campaigns under extreme wind conditions are undertaken in cooperation with NOAA.
The Microwave Imager (MWI) instrument, a new passive radiometer with 26 channels from 18.7 to 183 GHz, will provide cloud and precipitation observations as well as water vapour and temperature gross profiles of the atmosphere. For surface observations, it will provide sea ice, snow and ocean surface wind products. In particular, its high frequency channels (118 – 183 GHz) are optimised for observations of light precipitation and snow falls for higher latitudes.
The Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) instrument, a new passive millimetre and sub-millimetre radiometer with 13 channels from 183 to 664 GHz, will provide ice cloud and water vapour products at 15 km spatial resolution. The channel overlap between MWI and ICI at 183 GHz is intended for cross-calibration between them. Since observations at ICI frequencies have no precedence in satellite meteorology, extensive airborne campaigns are undertaken for validating radiative transfer models and for developing retrieval algorithms. UK Met Office’s FAAM aircraft carries the ISMAR instrument (Int’l Sub-Millimetre Airborne Radiometer), jointly developed by the Met Office and ESA.
The presentation will address the overall system description, the major microwave instruments as described above and their associated key technology developments.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- EE Institute
Prof. De Micheli, Director