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.
Also recorded as MHS
Microwave Humidity Sounder
- Field
- meteorological instrument
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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.
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wikidata · Q17125174 · wikipedia · Microwave humidity sounder
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Instrument characteristics
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, continuing with MetOp-B launched in September 2012 and Metop-C launched in November 2018. The follow on instrument to MHS is MWS on the Metop-SGA satellites. The Microwave Humidity Sounder was designed and developed by Astrium EU in Portsmouth, UK, under contract to EUMETSAT.
• 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 • Channel Number — AMSU-B Channel Number — Frequency (GHz) — AMSU-B Frequency (GHz) — Bandwidth (MHz) — Instrument Sensitivity NEDT (K) — Polarization • 1 — 16 — 89.0 — 89.0 ± 0.9 — 2800 — 0.22 — Vertical • 2 — 17 — 157.0 — 150 ± 0.9 — 2800 — 0.34 — Vertical • 3 — 18 — 183.311 ± 1.00 — 183.31 ± 1.00 — 2 x 500 — 0.51 — Horizontal • 4 — 19 — 183.311 ± 3.00 — 183.31 ± 3.00 — 2 x 1000 — 0.40 — Horizontal • 5 — 20 — 190.311 — 183.31 ± 7.00 — 2200 — 0.46 — Vertical
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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