GRIP HIGH-ALTITUDE MMIC SOUNDING RADIOMETER (HAMSR) V1

The new HAMSR with 183GHz LNA receiver reduces noise to less than a 0.1K level improving observations of small-scale water vapor. HAMSR has 25 spectral channels which are split into 3 bands: an 8-channel band centered 53-GHz, used to infer the 3-D distribution of temperature; a 10-channel band centered at 118 GHz, used for secondary temperature sounding and assessment of scattering; and a 7-channel band centered at 183 GHz, used to measure water vapor (humidity) and cloud liquid water content in the atmosphere.

The major goal was to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. NASA used the DC-8 aircraft, the WB-57 aircraft and the Global Hawk Unmanned Airborne System (UAS), configured with a suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments that were used to observe and characterize the life cycle of hurricanes.