Determination of cloud liquid water content using the SSM/I

Author

Alishouse, John C. ; Snider, Jack B. ; Westwater, Ed R. ; Swift, Calvin T. ; Ruf, Christopher S. ; Snyder, Sheila A. ; Vongsathorn, Jennifer ; Ferraro, Ralph R.

Author_Institution

NOAA, Washington, DC, USA

Volume

28

Issue

5

fYear

1990

fDate

9/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

817

Lastpage

822

Abstract

As part of a calibration/validation effort for the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), coincident observations of SSM/I brightness temperatures and surface-based observations of cloud liquid water were obtained. These observations were used to validate initial algorithms and to derive an improved algorithm. The initial algorithms were divided into latitudinal-, seasonal-, and surface-type zones. It was found that these initial algorithms, which were of the D-matrix type, did not yield sufficiently accurate results. The surface-based measurements of channels were investigated; however, the 85 V channel was excluded because of excessive noise. It was found that there is no significant correlation between the SSM/I brightness temperatures and the surface-based cloud liquid water determination when the background surface is land or snow. A high correlation was found between brightness temperatures and ground-based measurements over the ocean

Keywords

atmospheric humidity; clouds; remote sensing; D-matrix; DMSP; SSM/I; Special Sensor Microwave/Imager; algorithms; brightness temperatures; calibration; cloud liquid water content; surface-based observations; validation; Brightness temperature; Calibration; Clouds; Image sensors; Land surface; Microwave sensors; Ocean temperature; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Temperature sensors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.58968

Filename

58968