[Source: National Space Science Data Center, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=1972-089A-02 ] Supplementary Sensor E (SSE) was a vertical temperature profile radiometer. The objective of this experiment was to obtain vertical temperature and water vapor profiles of the atmosphere to support Department of Defense requirements in operational weather analysis and forecasting. The SSE was an eigth-channel sensor with six channels (668.5, 677, 695, 708, 725, and 747 cm-1) in the carbon dioxide 15 micrometer absorption band, one channel (535 cm-1) in a water vapor absorption band, and one channel (835 cm-1) in the 11 micrometer atmospheric window. The experiment consisted of an optical system, detector and associated electronics, and a scanning mirror. The scanning mirror stepped across the satellite subtrack, allowing the SSE to view 25 separate columns of the atmosphere every 32 sec over a cross track ground swath of 185 km. While the scanning mirror was stopped at a scene station, the channel filters were totaled through the field of view. The surface resolution of the SSE was approximately 37 km at nadir. The carbon dioxide band radiation data were transformed to a temperature profile by a mathematical inversion technique. By a similar technique, this information could be combined with water vapor band data to obtain a water vapor profile. Identical experiments have been flown on all DMSP spacecraft launched since 1972. Group: Instrument_Details Entry_ID: VTPR Group: Instrument_Identification Instrument_Category: Earth Remote Sensing Instruments Instrument_Class: Passive Remote Sensing Instrument_Type: Profilers/Sounders Short_Name: VTPR Long_Name: Vertical Temperature Profile Radiometer End_Group Group: Associated_Platforms Short_Name: DMSP 5B/F3 End_Group Group: Spectral_Frequency_Information Wavelength_Keyword: Infrared > Thermal Number_Channels: 8 Spectral_Frequency_Coverage_Range: 15 μm End_Group Group: Spectral_Frequency_Information Wavelength_Keyword: Infrared > Thermal Number_Channels: 1 Spectral_Frequency_Coverage_Range: 11 μm End_Group Online_Resource: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=1972-089A-02 Creation_Date: 2008-09-26 Group: Instrument_Logistics Instrument_Owner: Department of Defense-Department of the Air Force (United States) End_Group End_Group
VTPR
Profilers/Sounders