GOES-8 Sounder Instrument Features

Optical aperture                  31.1 cm

Type optics                       Cassegrain

Methods of scan                   Two axes, step and dwell
                                  E/W 280-urad steps
                                  N/S 1120-urad steps
                                  (or 2240-urad with 0.1 or 
                                  0.2-s dwell)

Spatial resolution                242 urad (10 km)

Sampling                          Four IGFOVs sampled at the
                                  same time

Sampling rate                     40 soundings/sec
                                  0.1, 0.2, or 0.4 s per sample

Spectral band
coregistration                    Within 22 urad of IR
                                  10.7-um window

Data output                       13-bit quantization

Data rate                         40 kb/sec

Time between
space looks                       2 min

Time between
blackbody
calibrations                      20 min

Table 1. GOES-8 Sounder instrument features.