EO·Atlas
SAPHIR
SAPHIR is a passive microwave humidity sounder for tropical atmospheric profiling.
SAPHIR (Sondeur Atmospherique du Profil d'Humidite Intertropicale par Radiometrie) is a cross-track passive microwave humidity sounder developed by CNES for the Megha-Tropiques mission, a joint CNES-ISRO satellite dedicated to tropical atmospheric observation.[1][2] The instrument operates six channels clustered around the 183.311 GHz water-vapour absorption line at offsets of +/-0.20, +/-1.10, +/-2.80, +/-4.20, +/-6.80, and +/-11.0 GHz, enabling vertical humidity profiling in the tropical troposphere.[1] IFOV is 10 km at nadir and swath width is 1700 km.[1] Instrument mass is 18 kg and average power consumption is 30 W.[1]
Megha-Tropiques operated in a low-inclination orbit of 19 degrees, providing more frequent revisits over the tropics than sun-synchronous polar-orbiting platforms.[3] The mission was declared nominal through December 2021.[3] Data availability from SAPHIR was reduced from late 2018 onward due to instrument degradation.[4]
Pricing not publicly listed by operator
Supply chain position
- Microwave atmospheric sounding
SAPHIR on Megha-Tropiques (2011-2021) demonstrated microwave atmospheric sounding; 6-channel cross-track passive humidity sounder at 183.31 GHz for tropical tropospheric water vapour profiling.
None on record.
- [1]WMO OSCAR - SAPHIR instrument recordagency doc2026-06-11
- [2]Megha-Tropiques Payloads, ISRO MOSDACagency doc2026-06-11
- [3]Megha-Tropiques Mission Overview, eoPortalcommunity2026-06-11
- [4]SAPHIR instrument overview, AERIS data centeroperator engineering2026-06-11
How to cite this page
Plain text
SAPHIR. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/saphir (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:products:sensor:saphir,
title = {SAPHIR},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/saphir}
}