Comparison of TRMM and NSCAT observations of surface backscatter over the Amazon rain forest

Author

Long, David G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1998

fDate

6-10 Jul 1998

Firstpage

1879

Abstract

The Tropical Rain Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) is designed to measure backscatter from rain in order to map the amount and extent of rain in the tropical regions. The TRMM PR also measures the normalized radar cross section (σ°) of the surface at a nominal resolution of approximately 4.4 km over an incidence range of 0-18°. The Ku-band NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) made 25 km resolution measurements of the surface σ° at incidence angles of 15.5° and higher and at 10.5°. A comparison of NSCAT and TRMM PR σ° observations over the Amazon rain forest is presented. The relative calibration and noise levels of the two sensors are compared

Keywords

atmospheric techniques; backscatter; calibration; forestry; geophysical techniques; meteorological radar; radar cross-sections; rain; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; wind; Amazon rain forest; Ku-band; NASA Scatterometer; NSCAT; SHF; TRMM; Tropical Rain Measuring Mission; atmosphere; calibration; geophysical measurement technique; meteorological radar; normalized radar cross section; precipitation radar; radar remote sensing; radar scattering; rain; rainfall; rainforest; spaceborne radar; surface backscatter; tropical forest; vegetation mapping; wind; Backscatter; Calibration; Earth; Extraterrestrial measurements; Radar cross section; Radar measurements; Rain; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings, 1998. IGARSS '98. 1998 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4403-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1998.703682

Filename

703682