WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument FPR

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Instrument: FPR

Instrument details

Acronym	FPR
Full name	Flat Plate Radiometer
Purpose	Observation of the net radiation flux at the Top-Of-Atmosphere
Short description	Two broad-band channels (solar reflected radiation and total Earth + atmosphere SW and LW radiation)
Background	Precursor of instruments for Earth Radiation Budget from space, flown as a prototype on Explorer 7 in 1959, and until the first NOAA satellite
Scanning Technique	Non-scanning, hemispheric view
Resolution	N/A
Coverage / Cycle	Global, twice daily (LW) or daily (SW) for the ESSA series and NOAA; missing high latitudes for the TIROS series because of the medium-inclination orbit
Mass		Power	Data Rate

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period:	1961 to 1972
Last update:	2016-11-07

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

TIROS Operational System (NOAA)
- ESSA-1 (see instrument status) May 1966 - Mar 1967
- ESSA-3 (see instrument status) Jan 1967 - Dec 1968
- ESSA-5 (see instrument status) Jul 1967 - Feb 1970
- ESSA-7 (see instrument status) Nov 1968 - Mar 1970
- ESSA-9 (see instrument status) May 1969 - Nov 1972
NOAA 3rd generation / Improved TIROS Operational System (NOAA)
- ITOS-1 (TIROS-M) (see instrument status) Apr 1970 - Jun 1971
- NOAA-1 (see instrument status) Mar 1971 - Aug 1971
Television and Infra-Red Observation Satellite (NASA)
- TIROS-2 (see instrument status) Feb 1961 - Dec 1961
- TIROS-3 (see instrument status) Oct 1961 - Feb 1962
- TIROS-4 (see instrument status) May 1962 - Jul 1962
- TIROS-7 (see instrument status) Sep 1963 - Jun 1968
Explorer-VII (NASA)
- Explorer-VII (see instrument status) Feb 1961 - Aug 1961

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
Broadband Earth radiation radiometer

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
Absolutely calibrated broadband radiometers, and TSI and SSI radiometers
Broadband radiometer (for ERB)

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Upward long-wave irradiance at TOA
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA

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.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA*	2 - very high	Information on BRDF needed.	SW and Total (SW+LW) broadband channels
Upward long-wave irradiance at TOA*	2 - very high	No specific limitation.	LW radiance achieved by difference between Total and SW