A feasibility study for a wide-swath, airborne, hurricane imaging microwave radiometer for operational hurricane measurements

Presents a conceptual design of an airborne Hurricane Imaging (microwave) Radiometer (HIRad) instrument for use in operational hurricane surveillance. The basis of the HIRad design is the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) that has successfully measured surface wind speed and rain rate in hurricanes from the NOAA Hurricane Research Division´s P-3 aircraft. Unlike the SFMR that views only at nadir, the HIRad provides wide-swath measurements between ±45 degrees in incidence angle with a spot-beam spatial resolution of approximately 1-3 km. The system operates at four equally spaced frequency channels that cover a range between 4 GHz and 7 GHz.