Radiometric Validation of Microwave Satellite Instruments Using the Npoess Aircraft Sounder Testbed-Microwave (NAST-M) Sensor

Author

Jairam, Laura G. ; Bickmeier, Laura J. ; Blackwell, William J. ; Leslie, R. Vincent ; Chen, Fred W.

Author_Institution

MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA

Volume

2

fYear

2008

fDate

7-11 July 2008

Abstract

This paper outlines the results of two recent efforts to use the NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed-Microwave (NAST-M) airborne sensor to directly validate the microwave radiometers on a number of operational satellites. Radiance differences between the NAST-M sensor and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Microwave Humidity Sensor (MHS) were found to be less than 1 K for most channels. Comparison results for ocean underflights of the Aqua, NOAA, and MetOp-A satellites are shown.

Keywords

atmospheric measuring apparatus; calibration; radiometers; remote sensing; AMSU instrument; Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit; MHS instrument; Microwave Humidity Sensor; NAST-M sensor; NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed-Microwave sensor; microwave satellite instruments; radiance; radiometric validation; Acoustic sensors; Acoustic testing; Aircraft; Humidity; Instruments; Microwave radiometry; Microwave sensors; Oceans; Radiometers; Satellite broadcasting; AMSU; METOP-A; MHS; NAST-M; NPOESS; NPP; calibration; microwave; radiometer; validation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2807-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2808-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779218

Filename

4779218