A Canadian Twin Otter microwave radiometer installation for airborne remote, sensing of snow, ice and soil moisture

Microwave radiometers owned by the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) have been flown since 1996 on the National Research Council of Canada´s Twin Otter aircraft in support of MSC remote sensing research. The airborne missions are part of a climate research program focussed on the development and validation of algorithms to retrieve information on cryospheric and other climate variables (e.g. soil moisture). The Twin Otter installation consists of 5 microwave radiometers at 1.4, 6.9, 19.35, 37, and 85.5 GHz frequencies, making it a unique combined low and high frequency package for passive microwave research. This paper provides an overview of the microwave radiometers, their installation and operation on the Twin Otter aircraft and a summary of the science investigations that have been conducted and are planned for the future.