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

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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