Microwave sounding unit (Q805)

Subject, term, tag: Microwave sounding unit

Microwave sounding unit (MSU)

Language	Label	Description	Also known as
English	Microwave sounding unit	Subject, term, tag: Microwave sounding unit	Microwave sounding unit (MSU)

Statements

Instance of

Category

source version

IPCC Glossary v1.5

1 reference

Source

https://apps.ipcc.ch/glossary/

date accessed

27 May 2026

Part of

Working Group I: Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis

0 references

Definition

A microwave sounder on U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar orbiter satellites that estimates the temperature of thick layers of the atmosphere by measuring the thermal emission of oxygen molecules from a complex of emission lines near 60 GHz. A series of nine MSUs began making this kind of measurement in late 1978. Beginning in mid-1998, a follow-on series of instruments, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSUs), began operation. (English)