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Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR)

Status

Status: 
Operational
Operated By: 
PI

The AMPR is a total power passive microwave radiometer producing calibrated brightness temperatures (TB) at 10.7, 19.35, 37.1, and 85.5 GHz. These frequencies are sensitive to the emission and scattering of precipitation-size ice, liquid water, and water vapor. The AMPR performs a 90º cross-track data scan perpendicular to the direction of aircraft motion. It processes a linear polarization feed with full vertical polarization at -45º and full horizontal polarization at +45º, with the polarization across the scan mixed as a function of sin2, giving an equal V-H mixture at 0º (aircraft nadir). A full calibration is made every fifth scan using hot and cold blackbodies. From a typical ER-2 flight altitude of ~20 km, surface footprint sizes range from 640 m (85.5 GHz) to 2.8 km (10.7 GHz). All four channels share a common measurement grid with collocated footprint centers, resulting in over-sampling of the low frequency channels with respect to 85.5 GHz.

Instrument Type: 
Measurements: 
Recent Missions: 
IMPACTS (ER-2 - AFRC); CAMP2Ex (P-3 Orion - WFF); ORACLES (P-3 Orion - WFF); TC4 (ER-2 - AFRC); TCSP (ER-2 - AFRC); CAMEX 4 (ER-2 - AFRC)
Complete mission list:
Point(s) of Contact: 
Timothy Lang (POC; PI), Paul J. Meyer (Mgr), Robbie E. Hood (Prev PI)