The Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) is an instrument launched on NOAA's POES satellite series starting with NOAA-18 launched in May 2005 and European Space Agency's MetOp series starting with MetOp-A launched in October 2006 and continuing with MetOp-B launched in September 2012. It is a five-channel passive microwave radiometer, with channels from 89 to 190 GHz. It is very similar in design to the AMSU-B instrument, but some channel frequencies have been altered. It is used to study profiles of atmospheric water vapor and provide improved input data to the cloud-clearing algorithms in IR/MW sounder suites.
The Microwave Humidity Sounder has been designed and developed by Astrium EU in Portsmouth UK, under contract to EUMETSAT.
Instrument Characteristics
Table 1: Radiometric characteristics of the MHS