Study about the inversion of radiative transfer for retrieving atmospheric parameters over the ocean using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) radiometer

A study about the maximum achievable unambiguity concerning the inversion of the relation between the 7 SSM/I-brightness temperatures at the top of the atmosphere (Tb-vectors) and the atmospheric parameters over sea surfaces is presented. As a result of these considerations a set of strongly nonlinear algorithms in matrix form for evaluating atmospheric parameters is elaborated. Applying these algorithms to a independent radiosonde data set it is shown, that they produce a clearly reduced RMS error compared with customary algorithms in closed formulation. Furthermore the reduction of the inversion ambiguity as a result of applying a certain knowledge of the atmospheric parameters is studied and quantified