The SEASAT-A Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

A Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) has been designed for the Nimbus-G Spacecraft and incorporated also into the Seasat-A payload for the primary purpose of determining sea surface temperatures and wind stress on a nearly all-weather basis. Observations of microwave polarization components will be made at wavelengths of 0.8, 1.4, 1.7, 2.8, and 4.6 cm over a swath 577 km wide below the Seasat A spacecraft. The smallest spatial resolution cell is km at a wavelength of 0.8 cm, and proportionately larger at the other wavelengths. Using experimentally determined algorithms for converting the observed brightness temperatures, the indicated accuracies of the results (excluding conditions of significant rainfall) are within 1K for sea surface temperature and 2 m/sec for surface wind speeds, over a range from 0-50 m/sec.