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| | | | | | | SMOS mission payload
| MIRAS consists of a central structure and three deployable arms, each of which has three segments. During launch, these arms are folded-up, but soon after separation from the launch vehicle they are gently deployed.
Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab | |  |  | |
| | | | | | MIRAS consists of a central structure and three deployable arms, each of which has three segments. There are 69 antenna elements, so-called LICEF receivers, equally distributed over the three arms and the central structure. Each LICEF is an antenna-receiver integrated unit that measures the radiation emitted from Earth within the L-band. | | | | |
| | | | | | The LICEF antenna provides best performance in terms of gain, bandwidth adn differentiation of horizontal and vertical polarisation components of incoming microwaves. It consists of four probes implemented as pairs, which are rotated 90 degrees to each other so as to acquire the two different signal polarisations. Multi-layer 'microstrip' technology has been chosen for the circuit configuration. Each layer is dedicated to one polarisation. Each LICEF antenna weighs 190 g, is 165 mm in diameter and is 19 mm high. | | | | |
| | | | Last update: 11 February 2009 | |
| | SMOS launch Track SMOS Access SMOS data More information SMOS - ESA's water mission (BR-288)SMOS - la misión del agua de la ESA
(BR-278)SMOS – mission de l'ESA dédiée au cycle de l'eau (BR-278)SMOS factsheetSpecial features  SMOS: ESA's water missionFrom a technological perspective Technology leaps let SMOS follow Earth’s waterRelated links Thales Alenia SpaceCNESEADS-CASACESBIO SMOS pageIfremer-Cersat Salinity CenterGerman SMOS Project OfficeSMOS Barcelona Expert CentreSMOS Level 3/4 Processing Centre, SpainInternational Soil Moisture Network
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