The GOES Sounder is a 19-channel discrete-filter radiometer covering the spectral range from the visible channel wavelengths to 15 microns. It is designed to provide data from which atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, surface and cloud-top temperatures, and ozone distribution can be deduced by mathematical analysis. It operates independently of and simultaneously with the Imager, using a similarly flexible scan system. The Sounder's multi-element detector array assemblies simultaneously sample four separate fields or atmospheric columns. A rotating filter wheel, which brings spectral filters into the optical path of the detector array, provides the infrared channel definition.

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