Bowie-M: Combining Heritage Operational Performance with Hyperspectral Capability

The Ball Operational Weather Instrument Evolution - Microwave (BOWIE-M) is the first in the series of low size, weight and power (SWaP), remote sensing instruments designed by Ball Aerospace to satisfy NOAA's next generation weather architecture requirements. BOWIE-M is a total power microwave radiometer, optimized for atmospheric temperature and humidity sounding, and designed into a compact, low cost configuration compatible with SmallSat integration and rideshare volume constraints. BOWIE-M operates in a cross-track scanning mode using a single lightweight spinning reflector antenna and produces channels across the 24 - 183 GHz range. Retrievals of atmospheric temperature profile are enabled by channels in the 50 - 60 GHz V-band. Moisture profiles are derived from measurements near the 183.3 and 22 GHz water resonances. Instrument calibration is performed through the antenna aperture via measurements of cold space and of an internal blackbody target during each antenna rotation. The BOWIE-M design has been refined over several years in response to changing radiometric measurement needs in the weather community, as well responding to the results of several analyses performed to identify instrument architecture, orbital parameters, and channel characteristics to support those needs. In addition to many analog-derived channel measurements, the presence of a digital receiver in BOWIE-M is leveraged to provide hyperspectral narrowband channel measurement in the V-band region, allowing humidity measurements up to 0.01 mbar.