The Special Sensor Microwave Temperature (SSM/T) is designed to provide temperature soundings over previously inaccessible regions and at higher altitudes than those attainable with IR sounders such as the SSH and SSH-2 which were flown on the F-1 through F-6 satellites.
Data Access
To order SSM/T data, email ncei.info@noaa.gov.
Instrument Description
The SSM/T is a seven channel microwave sounder that measures atmospheric emission in the 50 to 60 GHz oxygen (O2) band.
The SSM/T is a cross-track nadir scanning radiometer having a field of view (FOV) of 14.4 degrees. At the nominal 833 km altitude, the subtrack spatial resolution is an approximate circle of 174 km diameter at nadir. There are seven total cross-track scan positions separated by 12 degrees with a maximum cross-track scan angle of 36 degrees. At the far end of each scan, resolution degrades to an ellipse of 213 x 304 km size. The SSM/T data swath is about 1500 km; therefore, there is a data coverage gap between successive orbits over much of the earth.
Applications
Atmospheric temperature sounding.
