NAST-MTS

Point of Contact:

Philip Rosenkranz

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology

Office Telephone: (617) 253-3073

FAX: (617) 258-7864

E-mail: pwr@mit.edu

Brief Instrument Description of the
NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed - Microwave Temperature Sounder (NAST-MTS)

NAST-MTS contains two microwave radiometer systems covering the spectral ranges of 50-56 GHz with eight single-sideband channels, and 115-123 Ghz with nine double-sideband channels centered on the 118.75 Ghz oxygen line. Both radiometers scan +- 65 degrees from nadir and also view two black-body targets and zenith for calibration. The temperature weighting functions cover altitudes from the surface to ER-2 altitude. A video camera in the MTS package will provide ancillary digitized stereo images for cloud location.