Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer mission frequency bands

The Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) mission is dedicated to EU actions on safeguarding the Arctic and monitoring climate change as expressed by the EU Arctic Policy for a safe, stable, sustainable, peaceful and prosperous Arctic.

The mission has been designed to provide measurements that will provide decision makers with evidence of change and impact in the polar regions, with a focus on the Arctic in a global context. CIMR has a large rotating gold mesh antenna to conically scan Earth’s surface to return high-resolution measurements related to sea ice, the ocean, snow and ice-sheet surfaces, all with a sub-daily revisit in the Arctic region.

It uses several frequency bands to yield these measurements, namely:

L-band (1.4135GHz) which enables measurements of sea-surface salinity, soil moisture and wind vectors over the ocean,
C-band (6.9GHz) which enables measurements of sea-surface temperature, land- and ice-surface temperature, and supports sea-ice parameters,
X-band (10.65GHz) which enables measurements of sea-surface temperature, land and ice-surface temperature, and supports sea ice parameters,
K-band (18.7GHz) which enables measurements of sea ice and snow parameters,
Ka-band (36.5GHz) which also enables measurements of sea ice and snow parameters.