• → European Space Agency

      • Space for Europe
      • Space News
      • Space in Images
      • Space in Videos
    • About Us

      • Welcome to ESA
      • DG's News and Views
      • For Member State Delegations
      • Business with ESA
      • ESA Exhibitions
      • ESA Publications
      • Careers at ESA
    • Our Activities

      • Space News
      • Observing the Earth
      • Human Spaceflight
      • Launchers
      • Navigation
      • Space Science
      • Space Engineering
      • Operations
      • Technology
      • Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
    • For Public

    • For Media

      • Media
      • ESA TV
      • Videos for professionals
      • Photos
    • For Educators

    • For Kids

    • ESA

    • Observing the Earth

    • Living Planet

    • Meteorological missions

    • MetOp

    • MetOp at a glance
    • Overview
    • Why we need MetOp
    • Facts & figures
    • History
    • Satellite

      • About the satellite
      • Payload Module
      • Service Module
    • Instruments

      • Overview
      • Technical summary
    • Launch

      • Launch sequence
      • Launcher
    • Mission operations

      • Operations
      • Orbit
    • Resources

      • Publications
      • General links
      • Glossary
      • Acronym list
    • Multimedia
    • MetOp images
    • MetOp videos
    • MetOp animations
    • Help
    • Services
    • Subscribe

    ESA > Our Activities > Observing the Earth > The Living Planet Programme > Meteorological missions > MetOp

    About AVHRR/3

    AVHRR instrument

    The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR/3) is one of the complement of American instruments provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to fly on MetOp-A, B and C.

    The AVHRR/3 scans the Earth surface in six spectral bands in the range of 0.58 - 12.5 microns. It provides day and night imaging of land, water and clouds, measures sea surface temperature, ice, snow and vegetation cover.

    The AVHRR/3 is a six-channel imaging radiometer that detects energy in the visible and infrared (IR) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The instrument measures reflected solar (visible and near-IR) energy and radiated thermal energy from land, sea, clouds, and the intervening atmosphere. The instrument has an instantaneous field-of-view (IFOV) of 1.3 milliradians providing a nominal spatial resolution of 1.1 km (0.69 mi) at nadir. A continuously rotating elliptical scan mirror provides the cross-track scan, scanning the Earth from ± 55.4° from nadir. The mirror scans at six revolutions per second to provide continuous coverage.

    The instrument provides spectral and gain improvements to the solar visible channels that provide low light energy detection. Channel 3A, at 1.6 microns, provides snow, ice, and cloud discrimination. Channel 3A will be time-shared with the 3.7-micron channel, designated 3B, to provide five channels of continuous data. An external sun shield and an internal baffle have been added to reduce sunlight impingement into the instrument’s optical cavity and detectors.
    Courtesy:
    NOAA-L brochure, NOAA

    Last update: 28 June 2006

    Rate this

    Views

    Share

    • Currently 0 out of 5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Thank you for rating!

    You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

    Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

    146
    Tweet
    • In depth
    • About AVHRR
    • Scanning mechanism
    • Components
    • Performance
    • Products
    • MetOp's other instruments
    • A/DCS
    • AMSU-A1
    • AMSU-A2
    • ASCAT
    • AVHRR
    • GOME-2
    • GRAS
    • HIRS
    • IASI
    • MHS
    • SARP-3
    • SARR
    • SEM

    Connect with us

    • RSS
    • Youtube
    • Twitter
    • Flickr
    • G+
    • Facebook
    • Livestream
    • Subscribe
    • App Store
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • · Rare merger reveals secrets of gal…
    • · Watching for hazards: ESA opens as…
    • · ESA astronaut Timothy Peake set fo…
    • · Space drives e-mobility
    • · Proba-V opens its eyes
    • FAQ

    • Jobs at ESA

    • Site Map

    • Contacts

    • Terms and conditions