Title: Technology Development for a Hyperspectral Microwave Atmospheric Sounder (HyMAS)
Presenting Author: William J. Blackwell
Organization: MIT

Abstract:
The Hyperspectral Microwave Atmospheric Sounder (HyMAS) is being developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for a flight opportunity on a NASA research aircraft. The term "hyperspectral microwave" is used to indicate all-weather sounding that performs equivalent to hyperspectral infrared sounders in clear air with vertical resolution of approximately 1 km. Deploying the HyMAS equipped scanhead with the existing Conical Scanning Microwave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) shortens the path to a flight demonstration. Hyperspectral microwave is achieved through the use of independent RF antennas that sample the volume of the Earth's atmosphere with various frequencies, thereby producing a set of densely spaced vertical weighting functions. Performance simulations for the HyMAS 118/183-GHz system yield surface precipitation rate and water path retrievals for small hail, soft hail, or snow pellets, snow, rainwater, etc. with accuracies comparable to those of the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder. Further improvements in retrieval methodology (for example, polarization exploitation) are expected. The HyMAS scanhead will include an ultra-compact Intermediate Frequency Processor (IFP) module. The IFP is fabricated with materials made of Low-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) technology integrated with detectors, amplifiers, A/D conversion and data aggregation. The IFP will sample 52 channels of 16 bit data comprised of four nine-channel filter banks for temperature profiles and two eight-channel filter banks for water vapor. An engineering prototype of a nine-channel IFP will fly on the MicroMAS cubesat mission (launch this Summer) and a next-generation ten-channel IFP will fly on the MiRaTA cubesat mission to be launched in 2016. The HyMAS airborne sensor is expected to be ready for flight validation in late 2014.