Microwave humidity sounder

The Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) is a five-channel passive microwave radiometer, with channels from 89 to 190 GHz. It is very similar in design to the AMSU-B instrument, but some channel frequencies have been altered. It is used to study profiles of atmospheric water vapor and provide improved input data to the cloud-clearing algorithms in the IR and MW sounder suites. Instruments were launched on NOAA's POES satellite series starting with NOAA-18 launched in May 2005 and the European Space Agency's MetOp series starting with MetOp-A launched in October 2006 and continuing with MetOp-B launched in September 2012.

The Microwave Humidity Sounder was designed and developed by Astrium EU in Portsmouth, UK, under contract to EUMETSAT.

Instrument Characteristics

 * Heritage: AMSU-B, HSB
 * Swath: 1650 km
 * Spatial resolution: 17 km horizontal at nadir
 * Mass: 63 kg
 * Duty cycle: 100%
 * Power: 74 W (BOL)
 * Data rate: 4.2 kbit/s
 * Field of View: ± 49.5 degrees cross-track
 * Instrument Instantaneous Field of View: 1.1 degrees circular

Table 1: Radiometric characteristics of the MHS