Atmospheric moisture measurements: a microwave radiometer-radiosonde comparison

Author

England, Martin N. ; Schmidlin, F.J. ; Johansson, Jan M.

Author_Institution

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

Volume

31

Issue

2

fYear

1993

fDate

3/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

389

Lastpage

398

Abstract

The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Crustal Dynamics Project microwave Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR-J03) is used to measure the thermal emission of the sky at three frequencies (20.7, 22.2, and 31.4 GHz). Measurements were taken during the Atmospheric Moisture Intercomparison Study (ATMIS) held at Wallops Island, VA during April 1989. These measurements were compared with brightness temperatures inferred from measurements from VAISALA radiosonde packages launched every 3 h during the experiment period. An error analysis for the radiosonde-inferred brightness temperatures was performed, assuming reasonable random uncertainties for the pressure, temperature, and humidity measurements and propagating these uncertainties through the analysis algorithm. Two different water vapor emission models were used for the derivation of the brightness temperatures from the radiosonde measurements. Differences between the two models increase as the moisture content increases and vary as a function of frequency

Keywords

atmospheric humidity; atmospheric measuring apparatus; atmospheric radiation; humidity measurement; microwave detectors; microwave measurement; radiometers; 20.7 GHz; 22.2 GHz; 31.4 GHz; EHF; SHF; VAISALA radiosonde; WVR-J03; Water Vapor Radiometer; atmospheric instrumentation; brightness temperatures; error analysis; microwaves; moisture content; thermal emission; water vapor emission models; Atmospheric measurements; Brightness temperature; Extraterrestrial measurements; Frequency measurement; Microwave measurements; Microwave radiometry; Moisture measurement; NASA; Packaging; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.214915

Filename

214915