BackForwardInstrument:  AOS-Sky radar 

Instrument details
Acronym AOS-Sky radar
Full name AOS-Sky Single-frequency Doppler Radar
Purpose Doppler radar for characterizing precipitating cloud and related vertical air motions
Short description Single frequency nadir viewing doppler radar at 94 GHz (W-band) or 35 GHz (Ka-band).
Background New development
Scanning Technique Nadir viewing
Resolution 2km horizontal, 500m vertical
Coverage / Cycle
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2031 to 2036
Last update: 2023-10-30
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Cloud and precipitation radar
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • Precipitation radars and cloud radars
  • Precipitation radar and cloud radar
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Cloud ice
  • Cloud liquid water (CLW)
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Accumulated precipitation5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.. Time sampling to be interpolated by GEO.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Sensitive to very light precipitation
Cloud base height3 - highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band cloud radar around 94 GHz
Cloud drop effective radius1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud ice*4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar for non-precipitating particles
Cloud ice Total Column4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating particles
Cloud ice effective radius1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating particles
Cloud liquid water (CLW)*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 90 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud top height5 - marginalDense cloud only.. Along-track only.W-radar (around 94 GHz) for direct measurement of cloud top height
Freezing level height in clouds1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Detected as "bright-band"
Melting layer depth in clouds1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Detected as "bright-band"
Precipitation (liquid or solid)5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for small drops or ice particles
Precipitation intensity at surface (liquid or solid)5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Sensitive to boundary between precipitating and non-precipitating convective clouds