Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU)

This Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) was designed to observe the atmosphere’s temperature, pressure, water vapor, and critical trace gasses and was the flight spare for TIROS-N operational weather satellite series. Launched in 1978, TIROS-N was an experimental step to determine if satellites could be useful in the study of the Earth. The goal was to improve satellite applications for Earth-bound decisions such as, “should we evacuate the coast because of the hurricane?”