Aquarius/SAC-D Microwave Radiometer brightness temperature validation

The Microwave Radiometer (MWR) on-board Aquarius/SAC-D is part of a joint international science mission between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Argentine Space Agency (Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, CONAE). MWR, developed by CONAE, is a three channel Dicke radiometer operating at 23.8 GHz H-Pol and 36.5 GHz V-& H-Pol. This instrument complements the prime sensor, Aquarius L-band radiometer/scatterometer, by providing simultaneous spatially collocated environmental measurements such as integrated atmospheric water vapor, ocean surface wind speed, oceanic rain rate, and sea ice concentration, which aid in retrieving accurate Sea Surface Salinity. This paper presents the post-launch brightness temperature (Tb) validation, which was conducted using the CFRSL XCAL approach for inter-satellite radiometric comparison with the US Navy´s WindSat radiometer during the first 10 months of MWR on-orbit measurements.