An Improved Fast Microwave Water Emissivity Model

Satellite measurements from microwave instruments have made a significant contribution to the skill of numerical weather forecasting, on both global and regional scales. A FAST microwave Emissivity Model (FASTEM), which was developed by the Met Office, U.K., has been widely utilized to compute the surface emitted radiation in forward calculations. However, the FASTEM model was developed for frequencies in the range of 20-60 GHz, and it is biased at higher and lower frequencies. Several critical components such as variable sea surface salinity and full Stokes vector have not been generally taken into account. In this paper, the effects of the permittivity models are investigated, and a new permittivity model is generated by using the measurements for fresh and salt water at frequencies between 1.4 and 410 GHz. A modified sea surface roughness model from Durden and Vesecky is applied to the detailed two-scale surface emissivity calculations. This ocean emissivity model at microwave is now being used in the Community Radiative Transfer Model, and it has resulted in some major improvements in microwave radiance simulations. This paper is a joint effort of the Met Office, U.K., and the Joint Center for the Satellite Data Assimilation, U.S. The model is called as FASTEM-4 in the Radiative Transfer for TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder model.