Double-polarizating scanning radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishev, D.N.; Nazyrski, T.G.

1986-01-01

The double-polarizating single-channel scanning radiometer comprises the following serial connected parts: a scanning double-polarizating aerial, a block for polarization separation, a radiometer receiver, an analog-to-digit converter and an information flow forming block. The low frequency input of the radiometer receiver is connected with a control block, which is also connected with a first bus of a microprocessor, the second bus of which is connected with the A-D converter. The control input of the scanning double-polarizating aerial is connected with the first microprocessor bus. The control inputs of the block for polarization separation are linked by an electronic switch with the output of the forming block, the input of which is connected to the first input of the control block. The control inputs of the block for polarization separation are connected with the second and the third input of the information flow forming block. 2 cls

Tomographic retrieval of cloud liquid water fields from a single scanning microwave radiometer aboard a moving platform – Part 1: Field trial results from the Wakasa Bay experiment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Huang

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Tomographic methods offer great potential for retrieving three-dimensional spatial distributions of cloud liquid water from radiometric observations by passive microwave sensors. Fixed tomographic systems require multiple radiometers, while mobile systems can use just a single radiometer. Part 1 (this paper examines the results from a limited cloud tomography trial with a single-radiometer airborne system carried out as part of the 2003 AMSR-E validation campaign over Wakasa Bay of the Sea of Japan. During this trial, the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR and Microwave Imaging Radiometer (MIR aboard the NASA P-3 research aircraft provided a useful dataset for testing the cloud tomography method over a system of low-level clouds. We do tomographic retrievals with a constrained inversion algorithm using three configurations: PSR, MIR, and combined PSR and MIR data. The liquid water paths from the PSR retrieval are consistent with those from the MIR retrieval. The retrieved cloud field based on the combined data appears to be physically plausible and consistent with the cloud image obtained by a cloud radar. We find that some vertically-uniform clouds appear at high altitudes in the retrieved field where the radar shows clear sky. This is likely due to the sub-optimal data collection strategy. This sets the stage for Part 2 of this study that aims to define optimal data collection strategies using observation system simulation experiments.

A Scanning Microwave Radar and Radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

1995-01-01

The Scanning Microwave Radar and Radiometer (SMRR) is a line scanner featuring a combined radar and radiometer system operating around 35 and 94 GHz. The layout of the SMRR is shown. The 2 offset antenna parabolas scan in synchronism, the receiver antenna has the highest gain in order to ensure...

Determination of ice water path in ice-over-water cloud systems using combined MODIS and AMSR-E measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jianping; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Yi, Yuhong; Fan, T.-F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Ayers, J. K.

2006-11-01

To provide more accurate ice cloud microphysical properties, the multi-layered cloud retrieval system (MCRS) is used to retrieve ice water path (IWP) in ice-over-water cloud systems globally over oceans using combined instrument data from Aqua. The liquid water path (LWP) of lower-layer water clouds is estimated from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) measurements. The properties of the upper-level ice clouds are then derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements by matching simulated radiances from a two-cloud-layer radiative transfer model. The results show that the MCRS can significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the over-estimation of optical depth and IWP retrievals for ice-over-water cloud systems. The mean daytime ice cloud optical depth and IWP for overlapped ice-over-water clouds over oceans from Aqua are 7.6 and 146.4 gm-2, respectively, down from the initial single-layer retrievals of 17.3 and 322.3 gm-2. The mean IWP for actual single-layer clouds is 128.2 gm-2.

An optimal estimation algorithm to derive Ice and Ocean parameters from AMSR Microwave radiometer observations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Leif Toudal; Tonboe, Rasmus T.; Høyer, Jacob

channels as well as the combination of data from multiple sources such as microwave radiometry, scatterometry and numerical weather prediction. Optimal estimation is data assimilation without a numerical model for retrieving physical parameters from remote sensing using a multitude of available information......Global multispectral microwave radiometer measurements have been available for several decades. However, most current sea ice concentration algorithms still only takes advantage of a very limited subset of the available channels. Here we present a method that allows utilization of all available....... The methodology is observation driven and model innovation is limited to the translation between observation space and physical parameter space Over open water we use a semi-empirical radiative transfer model developed by Meissner & Wentz that estimates the multispectral AMSR brightness temperatures, i...

Satellite Estimation of Daily Land Surface Water Vapor Pressure Deficit from AMSR- E

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, L. A.; Kimball, J. S.; McDonald, K. C.; Chan, S. K.; Njoku, E. G.; Oechel, W. C.

2007-12-01

Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a key variable for monitoring land surface water and energy exchanges, and estimating plant water stress. Multi-frequency day/night brightness temperatures from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS Aqua (AMSR-E) were used to estimate daily minimum and average near surface (2 m) air temperatures across a North American boreal-Arctic transect. A simple method for determining daily mean VPD (Pa) from AMSR-E air temperature retrievals was developed and validated against observations across a regional network of eight study sites ranging from boreal grassland and forest to arctic tundra. The method assumes that the dew point and minimum daily air temperatures tend to equilibrate in areas with low night time temperatures and relatively moist conditions. This assumption was tested by comparing the VPD algorithm results derived from site daily temperature observations against results derived from AMSR-E retrieved temperatures alone. An error analysis was conducted to determine the amount of error introduced in VPD estimates given known levels of error in satellite retrieved temperatures. Results indicate that the assumption generally holds for the high latitude study sites except for arid locations in mid-summer. VPD estimates using the method with AMSR-E retrieved temperatures compare favorably with site observations. The method can be applied to land surface temperature retrievals from any sensor with day and night surface or near-surface thermal measurements and shows potential for inferring near-surface wetness conditions where dense vegetation may hinder surface soil moisture retrievals from low-frequency microwave sensors. This work was carried out at The University of Montana, at San Diego State University, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

A scattering-based over-land rainfall retrieval algorithm for South Korea using GCOM-W1/AMSR-2 data

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Young-Joo; Shin, Hayan; Ban, Hyunju; Lee, Yang-Won; Park, Kyung-Ae; Cho, Jaeil; Park, No-Wook; Hong, Sungwook

2017-08-01

Heavy summer rainfall is a primary natural disaster affecting lives and properties in the Korean Peninsula. This study presents a satellite-based rainfall rate retrieval algorithm for the South Korea combining polarization-corrected temperature ( PCT) and scattering index ( SI) data from the 36.5 and 89.0 GHz channels of the Advanced microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR-2) onboard the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM)-W1 satellite. The coefficients for the algorithm were obtained from spatial and temporal collocation data from the AMSR-2 and groundbased automatic weather station rain gauges from 1 July - 30 August during the years, 2012-2015. There were time delays of about 25 minutes between the AMSR-2 observations and the ground raingauge measurements. A new linearly-combined rainfall retrieval algorithm focused on heavy rain for the PCT and SI was validated using ground-based rainfall observations for the South Korea from 1 July - 30 August, 2016. The validation presented PCT and SI methods showed slightly improved results for rainfall > 5 mm h-1 compared to the current ASMR-2 level 2 data. The best bias and root mean square error (RMSE) for the PCT method at AMSR-2 36.5 GHz were 2.09 mm h-1 and 7.29 mm h-1, respectively, while the current official AMSR-2 rainfall rates show a larger bias and RMSE (4.80 mm h-1 and 9.35 mm h-1, respectively). This study provides a scatteringbased over-land rainfall retrieval algorithm for South Korea affected by stationary front rain and typhoons with the advantages of the previous PCT and SI methods to be applied to a variety of spaceborne passive microwave radiometers.

An Updated Geophysical Model for AMSR-E and SSMIS Brightness Temperature Simulations over Oceans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizaveta Zabolotskikh

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In this study, we considered the geophysical model for microwave brightness temperature (BT simulation for the Atmosphere-Ocean System under non-precipitating conditions. The model is presented as a combination of atmospheric absorption and ocean emission models. We validated this model for two satellite instruments—for Advanced Microwave Sounding Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E onboard Aqua satellite and for Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS onboard F16 satellite of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP series. We compared simulated BT values with satellite BT measurements for different combinations of various water vapor and oxygen absorption models and wind induced ocean emission models. A dataset of clear sky atmospheric and oceanic parameters, collocated in time and space with satellite measurements, was used for the comparison. We found the best model combination, providing the least root mean square error between calculations and measurements. A single combination of models ensured the best results for all considered radiometric channels. We also obtained the adjustments to simulated BT values, as averaged differences between the model simulations and satellite measurements. These adjustments can be used in any research based on modeling data for removing model/calibration inconsistencies. We demonstrated the application of the model by means of the development of the new algorithm for sea surface wind speed retrieval from AMSR-E data.

CAMEX-3 POLARIMETRIC SCANNING RADIOMETER (PSR) V1

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR) is a versatile airborne microwave imaging radiometer developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the NOAA...

Glacier Melt Detection in Complex Terrain Using New AMSR-E Calibrated Enhanced Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature (CETB) Earth System Data Record

Science.gov (United States)

Ramage, J. M.; Brodzik, M. J.; Hardman, M.

2016-12-01

Passive microwave (PM) 18 GHz and 36 GHz horizontally- and vertically-polarized brightness temperatures (Tb) channels from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) have been important sources of information about snow melt status in glacial environments, particularly at high latitudes. PM data are sensitive to the changes in near-surface liquid water that accompany melt onset, melt intensification, and refreezing. Overpasses are frequent enough that in most areas multiple (2-8) observations per day are possible, yielding the potential for determining the dynamic state of the snow pack during transition seasons. AMSR-E Tb data have been used effectively to determine melt onset and melt intensification using daily Tb and diurnal amplitude variation (DAV) thresholds. Due to mixed pixels in historically coarse spatial resolution Tb data, melt analysis has been impractical in ice-marginal zones where pixels may be only fractionally snow/ice covered, and in areas where the glacier is near large bodies of water: even small regions of open water in a pixel severely impact the microwave signal. We use the new enhanced-resolution Calibrated Passive Microwave Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature (CETB) Earth System Data Record product's twice daily obserations to test and update existing snow melt algorithms by determining appropriate melt thresholds for both Tb and DAV for the CETB 18 and 36 GHz channels. We use the enhanced resolution data to evaluate melt characteristics along glacier margins and melt transition zones during the melt seasons in locations spanning a wide range of melt scenarios, including the Patagonian Andes, the Alaskan Coast Range, and the Russian High Arctic icecaps. We quantify how improvement of spatial resolution from the original 12.5 - 25 km-scale pixels to the enhanced resolution of 3.125 - 6.25 km improves the ability to evaluate melt timing across boundaries and transition zones in diverse glacial environments.

GPM GROUND VALIDATION CONICAL SCANNING MILLIMETER-WAVE IMAGING RADIOMETER (COSMIR) GCPEX V1

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GPM Ground Validation Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (COSMIR) GCPEx dataset used the Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer...

Intersatellite Calibration of Microwave Radiometers for GPM

Science.gov (United States)

Wilheit, T. T.

2010-12-01

observations from one set of viewing parameters to those of the GMI. For the conically scanning window channel radiometers, the models are reasonably complete. Currently we have compared TMI with Windsat and arrived at a preliminary consensus calibration based on the pair. This consensus calibration standard has been applied to TMI and is currently being compared with AMSR-E on the Aqua satellite. In this way we are implementing a rolling wave spin-up of X-CAL. In this sense, the launch of GPM core will simply provide one more radiometer to the constellation; one hopes it will be the best calibrated. Water vapor and temperature sounders will use a different scenario. Some of the precipitation retrieval algorithms will use sounding channels. The GMI will include typical water vapor sounding channels. The radiances are ingested directly via 3DVAR and 4DVAR techniques into forecast models by many operational weather forecast agencies. The residuals and calibration adjustments of this process will provide a measure of the relative calibration errors throughout the constellation. The use of the ARM Southern Great Plains site as a benchmark for calibrating the more opaque channels is also being investigated.

The new Cloud Dynamics and Radiation Database algorithms for AMSR2 and GMI: exploitation of the GPM observational database for operational applications

Science.gov (United States)

Cinzia Marra, Anna; Casella, Daniele; Martins Costa do Amaral, Lia; Sanò, Paolo; Dietrich, Stefano; Panegrossi, Giulia

2017-04-01

Two new precipitation retrieval algorithms for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) and for the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) are presented. The algorithms are based on the Cloud Dynamics and Radiation Database (CDRD) Bayesian approach and represent an evolution of the previous version applied to Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) observations, and used operationally within the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H-SAF). These new products present as main innovation the use of an extended database entirely empirical, derived from coincident radar and radiometer observations from the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory (GPM-CO) (Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar-DPR and GMI). The other new aspects are: 1) a new rain-no-rain screening approach; 2) the use of Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) and Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) both in the screening approach, and in the Bayesian algorithm; 2) the use of new meteorological and environmental ancillary variables to categorize the database and mitigate the problem of non-uniqueness of the retrieval solution; 3) the development and implementations of specific modules for computational time minimization. The CDRD algorithms for AMSR2 and GMI are able to handle an extremely large observational database available from GPM-CO and provide the rainfall estimate with minimum latency, making them suitable for near-real time hydrological and operational applications. As far as CDRD for AMSR2, a verification study over Italy using ground-based radar data and over the MSG full disk area using coincident GPM-CO/AMSR2 observations has been carried out. Results show remarkable AMSR2 capabilities for rainfall rate (RR) retrieval over ocean (for RR > 0.25 mm/h), good capabilities over vegetated land (for RR > 1 mm/h), while for coastal areas the results are less certain. Comparisons with NASA GPM products, and with

An optical scanning subsystem for a UAS-enabled hyperspectral radiometer

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Hyperspectral radiometers will be integrated with an optical scanning subsystem to measure remote sensing reflectance spectra over the ocean.  The entire scanning...

Improving Simulated Soil Moisture Fields Through Assimilation of AMSR-E Soil Moisture Retrievals with an Ensemble Kalman Filter and a Mass Conservation Constraint

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Bailing; Toll, David; Zhan, Xiwu; Cosgrove, Brian

2011-01-01

Model simulated soil moisture fields are often biased due to errors in input parameters and deficiencies in model physics. Satellite derived soil moisture estimates, if retrieved appropriately, represent the spatial mean of soil moisture in a footprint area, and can be used to reduce model bias (at locations near the surface) through data assimilation techniques. While assimilating the retrievals can reduce model bias, it can also destroy the mass balance enforced by the model governing equation because water is removed from or added to the soil by the assimilation algorithm. In addition, studies have shown that assimilation of surface observations can adversely impact soil moisture estimates in the lower soil layers due to imperfect model physics, even though the bias near the surface is decreased. In this study, an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with a mass conservation updating scheme was developed to assimilate the actual value of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) soil moisture retrievals to improve the mean of simulated soil moisture fields by the Noah land surface model. Assimilation results using the conventional and the mass conservation updating scheme in the Little Washita watershed of Oklahoma showed that, while both updating schemes reduced the bias in the shallow root zone, the mass conservation scheme provided better estimates in the deeper profile. The mass conservation scheme also yielded physically consistent estimates of fluxes and maintained the water budget. Impacts of model physics on the assimilation results are discussed.

Parameterization of L-, C- and X-band Radiometer-based Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm Using In-situ Validation Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Y.; Colliander, A.; Burgin, M. S.; Walker, J. P.; Chae, C. S.; Dinnat, E.; Cosh, M. H.; Caldwell, T. G.

2017-12-01

Passive microwave remote sensing has become an important technique for global soil moisture estimation over the past three decades. A number of missions carrying sensors at different frequencies that are capable for soil moisture retrieval have been launched. Among them, there are Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) launched in May 2002 on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aqua satellite (ceased operation in October 2011), European Space Agency's (ESA's) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission launched in November 2009, JAXA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) onboard the GCOM-W satellite launched in May 2012, and NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission launched in January 2015. Therefore, there is an opportunity to develop a consistent inter-calibrated long-term soil moisture data record based on the availability of these four missions. This study focuses on the parametrization of the tau-omega model at L-, C- and X-band using the brightness temperature (TB) observations from the four missions and the in-situ soil moisture and soil temperature data from core validation sites across various landcover types. The same ancillary data sets as the SMAP baseline algorithm are applied for retrieval at different frequencies. Preliminary comparison of SMAP and AMSR2 TB observations against forward-simulated TB at the Yanco site in Australia showed a generally good agreement with each other and higher correlation for the vertical polarization (R=0.96 for L-band and 0.93 for C- and X-band). Simultaneous calibrations of the vegetation parameter b and roughness parameter h at both horizontal and vertical polarizations are also performed. Finally, a set of model parameters for successfully retrieving soil moisture at different validation sites at L-, C- and X-band respectively are presented. The research described in this paper is supported by the Jet Propulsion

GPM GROUND VALIDATION CONICAL SCANNING MILLIMETER-WAVE IMAGING RADIOMETER (COSMIR) MC3E V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GPM Ground Validation Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (COSMIR) MC3E dataset used the Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer...

Estimation de la superficie du couvert nival a partir d'une combinaison des donnees de teledetection MODIS et AMSR-E dans un contexte de prevision des crues printanieres au Quebec

Science.gov (United States)

Bergeron, Jean

Snow cover estimation is a principal source of error for spring streamflow simulations in Québec, Canada. Optical and near infrared remote sensing can improve snow cover area (SCA) estimation due to high spatial resolution but is limited by cloud cover and incoming solar radiation. Passive microwave remote sensing is complementary by its near-transparence to cloud cover and independence to incoming solar radiation, but is limited by its coarse spatial resolution. The study aims to create an improved SCA product from blended passive microwave (AMSR-E daily L3 Brightness Temperature) and optical (MODIS Terra and Aqua daily snow cover L3) remote sensing data in order to improve estimation of river streamflow caused by snowmelt with Québec's operational MOHYSE hydrological model through direct-insertion of the blended SCA product in a coupled snowmelt module (SPH-AV). SCA estimated from AMSR-E data is first compared with SCA estimated with MODIS, as well as with in situ snow depth measurements. Results show good agreement (+95%) between AMSR-E-derived and MODIS-derived SCA products in spring but comparisons with Environment Canada ground stations and SCA derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data show lesser agreements (83 % and 74% respectively). Results also show that AMSR-E generally underestimates SCA. Assimilating the blended snow product in SPH-AV coupled with MOHYSE yields significant improvement of simulated streamflow for the aux Écorces et au Saumon rivers overall when compared with simulations with no update during thaw events, These improvements are similar to results driven by biweekly ground data. Assimilation of remotely-sensed passive microwave data was also found to have little positive impact on springflood forecast due to the difficulty in differentiating melting snow from snow-free surfaces. Considering the direct-insertion and Newtonian nudging assimilation methods, the study also shows the latter method to be superior to

Land Surface Microwave Emissivities Derived from AMSR-E and MODIS Measurements with Advanced Quality Control

Science.gov (United States)

Moncet, Jean-Luc; Liang, Pan; Galantowicz, John F.; Lipton, Alan E.; Uymin, Gennady; Prigent, Catherine; Grassotti, Christopher

2011-01-01

A microwave emissivity database has been developed with data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) and with ancillary land surface temperature (LST) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the same Aqua spacecraft. The primary intended application of the database is to provide surface emissivity constraints in atmospheric and surface property retrieval or assimilation. An additional application is to serve as a dynamic indicator of land surface properties relevant to climate change monitoring. The precision of the emissivity data is estimated to be significantly better than in prior databases from other sensors due to the precise collocation with high-quality MODIS LST data and due to the quality control features of our data analysis system. The accuracy of the emissivities in deserts and semi-arid regions is enhanced by applying, in those regions, a version of the emissivity retrieval algorithm that accounts for the penetration of microwave radiation through dry soil with diurnally varying vertical temperature gradients. These results suggest that this penetration effect is more widespread and more significant to interpretation of passive microwave measurements than had been previously established. Emissivity coverage in areas where persistent cloudiness interferes with the availability of MODIS LST data is achieved using a classification-based method to spread emissivity data from less-cloudy areas that have similar microwave surface properties. Evaluations and analyses of the emissivity products over homogeneous snow-free areas are presented, including application to retrieval of soil temperature profiles. Spatial inhomogeneities are the largest in the vicinity of large water bodies due to the large water/land emissivity contrast and give rise to large apparent temporal variability in the retrieved emissivities when satellite footprint locations vary over time. This issue will be dealt with in the future by

Estimation of wind speeds inside Super Typhoon Nepartak from AMSR2 low-frequency brightness temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lei; Yin, Xiaobin; Shi, Hanqing; Wang, Zhenzhan; Xu, Qing

2018-04-01

Accurate estimations of typhoon-level winds are highly desired over the western Pacific Ocean. A wind speed retrieval algorithm is used to retrieve the wind speeds within Super Typhoon Nepartak (2016) using 6.9- and 10.7-GHz brightness temperatures from the Japanese Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor on board the Global Change Observation Mission-Water 1 (GCOM-W1) satellite. The results show that the retrieved wind speeds clearly represent the intensification process of Super Typhoon Nepartak. A good agreement is found between the retrieved wind speeds and the Soil Moisture Active Passive wind speed product. The mean bias is 0.51 m/s, and the root-mean-square difference is 1.93 m/s between them. The retrieved maximum wind speeds are 59.6 m/s at 04:45 UTC on July 6 and 71.3 m/s at 16:58 UTC on July 6. The two results demonstrate good agreement with the results reported by the China Meteorological Administration and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. In addition, Feng-Yun 2G (FY-2G) satellite infrared images, Feng-Yun 3C (FY-3C) microwave atmospheric sounder data, and AMSR2 brightness temperature images are also used to describe the development and structure of Super Typhoon Nepartak.

AMSR2 all-sky radiance assimilation and its impact on the analysis and forecast of Hurricane Sandy with a limited-area data assimilation system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chun Yang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A method to assimilate all-sky radiances from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2 was developed within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF model's data assimilation (WRFDA system. The four essential elements are: (1 extending the community radiative transform model's (CRTM interface to include hydrometeor profiles; (2 using total water Qt as the moisture control variable; (3 using a warm-rain physics scheme for partitioning the Qt increment into individual increments of water vapour, cloud liquid water and rain; and (4 adopting a symmetric observation error model for all-sky radiance assimilation.Compared to a benchmark experiment with no AMSR2 data, the impact of assimilating clear-sky or all-sky AMSR2 radiances on the analysis and forecast of Hurricane Sandy (2012 was assessed through analysis/forecast cycling experiments using WRF and WRFDA's three-dimensional variational (3DVAR data assimilation scheme. With more cloud/precipitation-affected data being assimilated around tropical cyclone (TC core areas in the all-sky AMSR2 assimilation experiment, better analyses were obtained in terms of the TC's central sea level pressure (CSLP, warm-core structure and cloud distribution. Substantial (>20 % error reduction in track and CSLP forecasts was achieved from both clear-sky and all-sky AMSR2 assimilation experiments, and this improvement was consistent from the analysis time to 72-h forecasts. Moreover, the all-sky assimilation experiment consistently yielded better track and CSLP forecasts than the clear-sky did for all forecast lead times, due to a better analysis in the TC core areas. Positive forecast impact from assimilating AMSR2 radiances is also seen when verified against the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF analysis and the Stage IV precipitation analysis, with an overall larger positive impact from the all-sky assimilation experiment.

Global-scale assessment and combination of SMAP with ASCAT (active) and AMSR2 (passive) soil moisture products

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyunglok; Parinussa, Robert; Konings, Alexandra G.; Wagner, Wolfgang; Cosh, Michael H.; Lakshmi, Venkat; Zohaib, Muhammad; Choi, Minha

2018-01-01

Global-scale surface soil moisture (SSM) products retrieved from active and passive microwave remote sensing provide an effective method for monitoring near-real-time SSM content with nearly daily temporal resolution. In the present study, we first inter-compared global-scale error patterns and combined the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) SSM products using a triple collocation (TC) analysis and the maximized Pearson correlation coefficient (R) method from April 2015 to December 2016. The Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and global in situ observations were utilized to investigate and to compare the quality of satellite-based SSM products. The average R-values of SMAP, ASCAT, and AMSR2 were 0.74, 0.64, and 0.65 when they compared with in situ networks, respectively. The ubRMSD values were (0.0411, 0.0625, and 0.0708) m3 m- 3; and the bias values were (- 0.0460, 0.0010, and 0.0418) m3 m- 3 for SMAP, ASCAT, and AMSR2, respectively. The highest average R-values from SMAP against the in situ results are very encouraging; only SMAP showed higher R-values than GLDAS in several in situ networks with low ubRMSD (0.0438 m3 m- 3). Overall, SMAP showed a dry bias (- 0.0460 m3 m- 3) and AMSR2 had a wet bias (0.0418 m3 m- 3); while ASCAT showed the least bias (0.0010 m3 m- 3) among all the products. Each product was evaluated using TC metrics with respect to the different ranges of vegetation optical depth (VOD). Under vegetation scarce conditions (VOD 0.40) ASCAT showed comparatively better performance than did the other products. Using the maximized R method, SMAP, ASCAT, and AMSR2 products were combined one by one using the GLDAS dataset for reference SSM values. When the satellite products were combined, R-values of the combined products were improved or degraded depending on the VOD ranges produced, when compared with the results from the original products alone. The

The along track scanning radiometer for ERS-1 - Scan geometry and data simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Prata, A. J. Fred; Cechet, Robert P.; Barton, Ian J.; Llewellyn-Jones, David T.

1990-01-01

The first European remote-sensing satellite (ERS-1), due to be launched in 1990, will carry the along track scanning radiometer (ATSR), which has been specifically designed to give accurate satellite measurements of sea surface temperature (SST). Details of the novel scanning technique used by the ATSR are given, and data from the NOAA-9 AVHRR instrument are used to simulate raw ATSR imagery. Because of the high precision of the onboard blackbodies, the active cooling of the detectors, 12-b digitization, and dual-angle capability, the ATSR promises to achieve higher-accuracy satellite-derived SSTs than are currently available.

Validation of multi-channel scanning microwave radiometer on-board Oceansat-1

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Muraleedharan, P.M.; Pankajakshan, T.; Harikrishnan, M.

Sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface wind speed (WS) and columnar water vapour (WV) derived from Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) sensor on-board IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1) were validated against the in situ measurements from ship...

Global Land Surface Temperature From the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Ghent, D. J.; Corlett, G. K.; Göttsche, F.-M.; Remedios, J. J.

2017-11-01

The Leicester Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) Processor for LAnd Surface Temperature (LASPLAST) provides global land surface temperature (LST) products from thermal infrared radiance data. In this paper, the state-of-the-art version of LASPLAST, as deployed in the GlobTemperature project, is described and applied to data from the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR). The LASPLAST retrieval formulation for LST is a nadir-only, two-channel, split-window algorithm, based on biome classification, fractional vegetation, and across-track water vapor dependences. It incorporates globally robust retrieval coefficients derived using highly sampled atmosphere profiles. LASPLAST benefits from appropriate spatial resolution auxiliary information and a new probabilistic-based cloud flagging algorithm. For the first time for a satellite-derived LST product, pixel-level uncertainties characterized in terms of random, locally correlated, and systematic components are provided. The new GlobTemperature GT_ATS_2P Version 1.0 product has been validated for 1 year of AATSR data (2009) against in situ measurements acquired from "gold standard reference" stations: Gobabeb, Namibia, and Evora, Portugal; seven Surface Radiation Budget stations, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement station at Southern Great Plains. These data show average absolute biases for the GT_ATS_2P Version 1.0 product of 1.00 K in the daytime and 1.08 K in the nighttime. The improvements in data provenance including better accuracy, fully traceable retrieval coefficients, quantified uncertainty, and more detailed information in the new harmonized format of the GT_ATS_2P product will allow for more significant exploitation of the historical LST data record from the ATSRs and a valuable near-real-time service from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometers (SLSTRs).

The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) for ERS1

Science.gov (United States)

Delderfield, J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.; Bernard, R.; de Javel, Y.; Williamson, E. J.

1986-01-01

The ATSR is an infrared imaging radiometer which has been selected to fly aboard the ESA Remote Sensing Satellite No. 1 (ERS1) with the specific objective of accurately determining global Sea Surface Temperature (SST). Novel features, including the technique of 'along track' scanning, a closed Stirling cycle cooler, and the precision on-board blackbodies are described. Instrument subsystems are identified and their design trade-offs discussed.

The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) - Orbital performance and future developments

Science.gov (United States)

Sandford, M. C. W.; Edwards, T.; Mutlow, C. T.; Delderfield, J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.

1992-08-01

The Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), a new kind of infrared radiometer which is intended to make sea surface temperature measurements with an absolute accuracy of +/- 0.5 K averaged over cells of 0.5 deg in latitude, is discussed. The ATSR employs four detectors centered at 12, 11, 3.7, and 1.6 microns. The noise performance thermal performance, and Stirling cycle cooler performance of the ATSR on ERS-1 are examined along with 3.7 micron channel results. The calibration, structure, and data handling of the ATSRs planned for ERS-2 and for the POEM mission are examined.

Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Monthly Mean Atmospheric Liquid Water (ALW) By Prabhakara

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — SMMR_ALW_PRABHAKARA data are Special Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Monthly Mean Atmospheric Liquid Water (ALW) data by Prabhakara.The Prabhakara Scanning...

Evaluation of NASA GEOS-ADAS Modeled Diurnal Warming Through Comparisons to SEVIRI and AMSR2 SST Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Gentemann, C. L.; Akella, S.

2018-02-01

An analysis of the ocean skin Sea Surface Temperature (SST) has been included in the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) - Atmospheric Data Assimilation System (ADAS), Version 5 (GEOS-ADAS). This analysis is based on the GEOS atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) that simulates near-surface diurnal warming and cool skin effects. Analysis for the skin SST is performed along with the atmospheric state, including Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite radiance observations as part of the data assimilation system. One month (September, 2015) of GEOS-ADAS SSTs were compared to collocated satellite Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) SSTs to examine how the GEOS-ADAS diurnal warming compares to the satellite measured warming. The spatial distribution of warming compares well to the satellite observed distributions. Specific diurnal events are analyzed to examine variability within a single day. The dependence of diurnal warming on wind speed, time of day, and daily average insolation is also examined. Overall the magnitude of GEOS-ADAS warming is similar to the warming inferred from satellite retrievals, but several weaknesses in the GEOS-AGCM simulated diurnal warming are identified and directly related back to specific features in the formulation of the diurnal warming model.

A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO ALGORITHMS FOR THE RETRIEVAL OF SOIL MOISTURE USING AMSR-E DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simonetta ePaloscia

2015-04-01

Full Text Available A comparison between two algorithms for estimating soil moisture with microwave satellite data was carried out by using the datasets collected on the four Agricultural Research Service (ARS watershed sites in the US from 2002 to 2009. These sites collectively represent a wide range of ground conditions and precipitation regimes (from natural to agricultural surfaces and from desert to humid regions and provide long-term in-situ data. One of the algorithms is the artificial neural network-based algorithm developed by the Institute of Applied Physics of the National Research Council (IFAC-CNR (HydroAlgo and the second one is the Single Channel Algorithm (SCA developed by USDA-ARS (US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service. Both algorithms are based on the same radiative transfer equations but are implemented very differently. Both made use of datasets provided by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, within the framework of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–Earth Observing System (AMSR-E and Global Change Observation Mission–Water GCOM/AMSR-2 programs. Results demonstrated that both algorithms perform better than the mission specified accuracy, with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE ≤0.06 m3/m3 and Bias <0.02 m3/m3. These results expand on previous investigations using different algorithms and sites. The novelty of the paper consists of the fact that it is the first intercomparison of the HydroAlgo algorithm with a more traditional retrieval algorithm, which offers an approach to higher spatial resolution products.

New Approach for Monitoring Seismic and Volcanic Activities Using Microwave Radiometer Data

Science.gov (United States)

Maeda, Takashi; Takano, Tadashi

and faint changes from the data of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth-Observation System (AMSR-E) aboard the Aqua satellite, and then an algorithm to evaluate microwave energy from land surfaces. Finally, using this algorithm, we have detected characteristic microwave signals emitted from land surfaces in association with some large earthquakes which occurred in Morocco (2004), Sumatra (2007) and Wenchuan (2008) and some large volcanic eruptions which occurred at Reventador in Ecuador (2002) and Chaiten in Chile (2008). In this presentation, the results of these case studies are presented.

Analytical Retrieval of Global Land Surface Emissivity Maps at AMSR-E passive microwave frequencies

Science.gov (United States)

Norouzi, H.; Temimi, M.; Khanbilvardi, R.

2009-12-01

Land emissivity is a crucial boundary condition in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) modeling. Land emissivity is also a key indicator of land surface and subsurface properties. The objective of this study, supported by NOAA-NESDIS, is to develop global land emissivity maps using AMSR-E passive microwave measurements along with several ancillary data. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) database has been used to obtain several inputs for the proposed approach such as land surface temperature, cloud mask and atmosphere profile. The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) has been used to estimate upwelling and downwelling atmospheric contributions. Although it is well known that correction of the atmospheric effect on brightness temperature is required at higher frequencies (over 19 GHz), our preliminary results have shown that a correction at 10.7 GHz is also necessary over specific areas. The proposed approach is based on three main steps. First, all necessary data have been collected and processed. Second, a global cloud free composite of AMSR-E data and corresponding ancillary images is created. Finally, monthly composting of emissivity maps has been performed. AMSR-E frequencies at 6.9, 10.7, 18.7, 36.5 and 89.0 GHz have been used to retrieve the emissivity. Water vapor information obtained from ISCCP (TOVS data) was used to calculate upwelling, downwelling temperatures and atmospheric transmission in order to assess the consistency of those derived from the CRTM model. The frequent land surface temperature (LST) determination (8 times a day) in the ISCCP database has allowed us to assess the diurnal cycle effect on emissivity retrieval. Differences in magnitude and phase between thermal temperature and low frequencies microwave brightness temperature have been noticed. These differences seem to vary in space and time. They also depend on soil texture and thermal inertia. The proposed methodology accounts for these factors and

Four-channel temperature and humidity microwave scanning radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Pei-Yuan

1994-06-01

A compact four-channel microwave scanning radiometer for tropospheric remote sensing is being developed. A pair of 53.85 and 56.02 GHz and a pair of 23.87 and 31.65 GHz are adopted as temperature and humidity channels' frequencies respectively. For each pair of frequencies it has an offset reflector antenna and a Dicke-switching receiver. The pair of receivers is assembled in an enclosure, which is mounted on the rotating table of an azimuth mounting and the pair of antennas is connected with the rotating table of an azimuth mounting in the opposite side by a pair of elevation arms. Each antenna is composed of a 90 degree off-set paraboloid and a conical corrugated horn. Each antenna patterrn of four channels has nearly same HPBW, low side lobes, and low VSWR. The dual band humidity receiver is a time sharing type with 0.2K sensitivity at 1-sec integration time. The dual band temperature receiver is a band sharing type with 0.2K sensitivity at 10-sec integration time. The radiometer and observation are controlled by a single chip microcomputer to realize the unattended operation.

Precipitation Estimation Using Combined Radar/Radiometer Measurements Within the GPM Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Arthur

2012-01-01

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission is an international satellite mission specifically designed to unify and advance precipitation measurements from a constellation of research and operational microwave sensors. The GPM mission centers upon the deployment of a Core Observatory in a 65o non-Sun-synchronous orbit to serve as a physics observatory and a transfer standard for intersatellite calibration of constellation radiometers. The GPM Core Observatory will carry a Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a conical-scanning multi-channel (10-183 GHz) GPM Microwave Radiometer (GMI). The DPR will be the first dual-frequency radar in space to provide not only measurements of 3-D precipitation structures but also quantitative information on microphysical properties of precipitating particles needed for improving precipitation retrievals from microwave sensors. The DPR and GMI measurements will together provide a database that relates vertical hydrometeor profiles to multi-frequency microwave radiances over a variety of environmental conditions across the globe. This combined database will be used as a common transfer standard for improving the accuracy and consistency of precipitation retrievals from all constellation radiometers. For global coverage, GPM relies on existing satellite programs and new mission opportunities from a consortium of partners through bilateral agreements with either NASA or JAXA. Each constellation member may have its unique scientific or operational objectives but contributes microwave observations to GPM for the generation and dissemination of unified global precipitation data products. In addition to the DPR and GMI on the Core Observatory, the baseline GPM constellation consists of the following sensors: (1) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) instruments on the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, (2) the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-2) on the GCOM-W1

Evaluation of the Surface Water Distribution in North-Central Namibia Based on MODIS and AMSR Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroki Mizuochi

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Semi-arid North-central Namibia has high potential for rice cultivation because large seasonal wetlands (oshana form during the rainy season. Evaluating the distribution of surface water would reveal the area potentially suitable for rice cultivation. In this study, we detected the distribution of surface water with high spatial and temporal resolution by using two types of complementary satellite data: MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–Earth Observing System, using AMSR2 after AMSR-E became unavailable. We combined the modified normalized-difference water index (MNDWI from the MODIS data with the normalized-difference polarization index (NDPI from the AMSR-E and AMSR2 data to determine the area of surface water. We developed a simple gap-filling method (“database unmixing” with the two indices, thereby providing daily 500-m-resolution MNDWI maps of north-central Namibia regardless of whether the sky was clear. Moreover, through receiver-operator characteristics (ROC analysis, we determined the threshold MNDWI (−0.316 for wetlands. Using ROC analysis, MNDWI had moderate performance (the area under the ROC curve was 0.747, and the recognition error for seasonal wetlands and dry land was 21.2%. The threshold MNDWI let us calculate probability of water presence (PWP maps for the rainy season and the whole year. The PWP maps revealed the total area potentially suitable for rice cultivation: 1255 km2 (1.6% of the study area.

The AMSR2 Satellite-based Microwave Snow Algorithm (SMSA) to estimate regional to global snow depth and snow water equivalent

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, R. E. J.; Saberi, N.; Li, Q.

2017-12-01

With moderate to high spatial resolution (observation approaches yet to be fully scoped and developed, the long-term satellite passive microwave record remains an important tool for cryosphere-climate diagnostics. A new satellite microwave remote sensing approach is described for estimating snow depth (SD) and snow water equivalent (SWE). The algorithm, called the Satellite-based Microwave Snow Algorithm (SMSA), uses Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2 (AMSR2) observations aboard the Global Change Observation Mission - Water mission launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in 2012. The approach is unique since it leverages observed brightness temperatures (Tb) with static ancillary data to parameterize a physically-based retrieval without requiring parameter constraints from in situ snow depth observations or historical snow depth climatology. After screening snow from non-snow surface targets (water bodies [including freeze/thaw state], rainfall, high altitude plateau regions [e.g. Tibetan plateau]), moderate and shallow snow depths are estimated by minimizing the difference between Dense Media Radiative Transfer model estimates (Tsang et al., 2000; Picard et al., 2011) and AMSR2 Tb observations to retrieve SWE and SD. Parameterization of the model combines a parsimonious snow grain size and density approach originally developed by Kelly et al. (2003). Evaluation of the SMSA performance is achieved using in situ snow depth data from a variety of standard and experiment data sources. Results presented from winter seasons 2012-13 to 2016-17 illustrate the improved performance of the new approach in comparison with the baseline AMSR2 algorithm estimates and approach the performance of the model assimilation-based approach of GlobSnow. Given the variation in estimation power of SWE by different land surface/climate models and selected satellite-derived passive microwave approaches, SMSA provides SWE estimates that are independent of real or near real

Multichannel heterodyne radiometers with fast-scanning backward-wave oscillators for ECE measurement on HT-7 tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, S.Y.; Poznyak, V.I.; Ploskirev, G.; Kalupin, D.; Wan, Y.X.; Xie, J.K.; Luo, J.R.; Li, J.G.; Gao, X.; Wan, B.N.; Zhang, X.D.; Wang, K.J.; Kuang, G.L.

2001-01-01

Two sets of fast-scanning heterodyne radiometer receiver systems employing backward-wave oscillators (BWOs) in 78-118 and 118-178 GHz were developed and installed for electron cyclotron emission (ECE) measurements on HT-7 superconducting tokamak. The double sideband (DSB) radiometer in 78-118 GHz measures 16 ECE frequency points with a scanning time period of 0.65 ms. The other radiometer in 118-178 GHz consists of one independent channel of DSB heterodyne receiver with intermediate frequency (IF) of 100-500 MHz and two channels of single sideband (SSB) heterodyne receiver that are sensitive to upper sideband and lower sideband individually; the IF frequency of the SSB channels are 1.5 GHz around the local oscillator frequencies with 1 GHz bandwidth. By employing a novel design, this unique radiometer measures 3 ECE frequency points at each of the 16 local oscillator frequency points in 118-178 GHz, and the full band can be swept in 0.65 ms period, thus the radiometer measures 48 ECE frequency points in 0.65 ms in principle. Each of the local oscillators' frequency points can be preset by program to meet specific physics interests. Horizontal view of ECE was installed to measure electron temperature profiles; vertically viewing optics along a perpendicular chord was also installed to study nonthermal ECE spectra. Preliminary measurement results were presented during ohmic and pellet injection plasmas

Remote sensing of tropospheric total column water vapor: Intercomparison of POLDER, AMSR-E and MODIS retrievals

Science.gov (United States)

Riedi, J.; Mcharek, L.; Dubuisson, P.; Parol, F.; Thieuleux, F.

2013-05-01

Since December 2004, the CNES Parasol (Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Science coupled with Observations from a Lidar) mission has been flying in the A-train with Aqua (NASA) providing more than 5 years of temporally and spatially coincident observations from POLDER, MODIS and AMSRE which enable total column water vapor amount retrievals. We are providing here a temporal and statistical analysis of water vapor near-infrared retrievals from POLDER against MODIS and AMSR-E products derived from nearinfrared, thermal infrared and microwave observations over ocean. A temporal analysis of POLDER official product is conducted in view of AMSR-E and MODIS coincident retrievals over ocean. In a second step, an alternative approach based on the use of simple multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network (NN) is developed to improve the mathematical parameterization used to retrieve water vapor amount from near-infrared observation. The retrievals are further improved when an estimate of the 910 nm surface reflectance is obtained through interpolation between PARASOL 865 nm and 1020 nm channels. This last improvement now allows for a unified land/ocean retrieval algorithm for PARASOL/POLDER.

The along track scanning radiometer - an analysis of coincident ship and satellite measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, I. J.; Prata, A. J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.

1993-05-01

Following the successful launch of the ERS-1 satellite in July 1991 we have undertaken several geophysical validation cruises in the Coral Sea. The prime aim of these cruises was to compare the sea surface temperature (SST) derived from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) with that measured using precision radiometers mounted on the ships. On most occasions when simultaneous satellite and ship measurements were taken we also launched a radiosonde from one of the research vessels. The results suggest that the ATSR is able to measure the ``skin'' temperature of the sea surface with an accuracy suitable for climate research applications. A case study comparison between the AVHRR and ATSR SST products will also be presented.

A novel fast-scanning microwave heterodyne radiometer system for electron cyclotron emission measurements in the HT-7 superconducting tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, S.Y.; Wan, Y.X.; Xie, J.K.; Luo, J.R.; Li, J.G.; Kuang, G.L.; Gao, X.; Zhang, X.D.; Wan, B.N.; Wang, K.J.; Mao, J.S.; Gong, X.Z.; Qin, P.J.

2000-01-01

Two sets of fast-scanning microwave heterodyne radiometer receiver systems employing backward-wave oscillators in the 78-118 GHz and 118-178 GHz ranges were developed for electron cyclotron emission measurements (ECE) on the HT-7 superconducting tokamak. The double-sideband radiometer in the 78-118 GHz range measures 16 ECE frequency points with a scanning period of 0.65 ms. The novel design of the 2 mm fast-scanning heterodyne radiometer in the 118-178 GHz range enables the unique system to measure 48 ECE frequency points in 0.65 ms periodically. The plasma profile consistency in reproducible ohmic plasmas was used to relatively calibrate each channel by changing the toroidal magnetic field shot-by-shot. The absolute temperature value was obtained by a comparison with the results from the soft x-ray pulse height analysis measurements and Thomson scattering system. A preliminary temperature profile measurement result in pellet injection plasma is presented. (author)

Precipitation from the GPM Microwave Imager and Constellation Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Kummerow, Christian; Randel, David; Kirstetter, Pierre-Emmanuel; Kulie, Mark; Wang, Nai-Yu

2014-05-01

total precipitable water. One year of coincident observations, generating 20 and 80 million database entries, depending upon the sensor, are used in the retrieval algorithm. The remaining areas such as sea ice and high latitude coastal zones are filled with a combination of CloudSat and AMSR-E plus MHS observations together with a model to create the equivalent databases for other radiometers in the constellation. The most noteworthy result from the Day-1 algorithm is the quality of the land products when compared to existing products. Unlike previous versions of land algorithms that depended upon complex screening routines to decide if pixels were precipitating or not, the current scheme is free of conditional rain statements and appears to produce rain rate with much greater fidelity than previous schemes. There results will be shown.

Evaluation of the ESA Sea Ice CCI (SICCI) project sea ice concentration data set

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kern, Stefan; Bell, Louisa; Ivanova, Natalia

was computed from brightness temperatures (TB) measured at 19.4 GHz [18.7 GHz] and 37.0 GHz [36.5 GHz] by the space-borne microwave radiometer Special Sensor Microwave / Imager (SSM/I) [Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E)] in both polar hemispheres. The product has daily temporal and 25...... km x 25 km grid resolution and is available for the period 1992-2008 (SSM/I) and 2002-2011 (AMSR-E) from, e.g., http://icdc.zmaw.de. Each data file contains a limited (to the range 0% … 100%) and an unlimited (see below) SIC, SIC retrieval uncertainty, SIC smearing uncertainty from the gridding...... process, and SIC total uncertainty. A flag layer allows to identify where SIC may be less reliable. The unlimited SIC contains the full range of SIC values retrieved. The natural variability of the measured TBs around the typical TBs at 0% and 100% SIC (the so-called tie points) causes SIC to spread...

Optimal Estimation of Sea Surface Temperature from AMSR-E

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pia Nielsen-Englyst

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The Optimal Estimation (OE technique is developed within the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI to retrieve subskin Sea Surface Temperature (SST from AQUA’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer—Earth Observing System (AMSR-E. A comprehensive matchup database with drifting buoy observations is used to develop and test the OE setup. It is shown that it is essential to update the first guess atmospheric and oceanic state variables and to perform several iterations to reach an optimal retrieval. The optimal number of iterations is typically three to four in the current setup. In addition, updating the forward model, using a multivariate regression model is shown to improve the capability of the forward model to reproduce the observations. The average sensitivity of the OE retrieval is 0.5 and shows a latitudinal dependency with smaller sensitivity for cold waters and larger sensitivity for warmer waters. The OE SSTs are evaluated against drifting buoy measurements during 2010. The results show an average difference of 0.02 K with a standard deviation of 0.47 K when considering the 64% matchups, where the simulated and observed brightness temperatures are most consistent. The corresponding mean uncertainty is estimated to 0.48 K including the in situ and sampling uncertainties. An independent validation against Argo observations from 2009 to 2011 shows an average difference of 0.01 K, a standard deviation of 0.50 K and a mean uncertainty of 0.47 K, when considering the best 62% of retrievals. The satellite versus in situ discrepancies are highest in the dynamic oceanic regions due to the large satellite footprint size and the associated sampling effects. Uncertainty estimates are available for all retrievals and have been validated to be accurate. They can thus be used to obtain very good retrieval results. In general, the results from the OE retrieval are very encouraging and demonstrate that passive microwave

Sea Surface Temperature Records from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Mutlow, C. T.; Smith, D. L.; Delderfield, J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D.

2006-12-01

Since the early 1990s ESA has flown Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) instruments on its ERS-1 and -2 satellites and is currently flying the Advanced ATSR instrument (AATSR) on its very successful Envisat mission; each successive sensor has been an incremental improvement over the last. The sensors have been specifically designed to provide the information urgently needed for the debate on climate change and global warming, as well as to produce properly calibrated image data sets for use in a wide range of EO studies. The ATSR instruments are a series of second generation space radiometers which build on the long heritage of the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR). Each ATSR exploits the multi-channel method pioneered in AVHRR but also uses new technology to improve instrument stability and calibration, detector signal to noise, and to provide observations of the same surface scene at two different angles. The novel feature of each ATSR, from which the sensor is derives its name, is its use of along-track scanning to reduce the effects of the atmosphere on surface measurements. This method obtains two observations of the scene through differing amounts of atmosphere; the "along track" view passes through a longer atmospheric path so is more affected by the atmosphere than the nadir view. ATSR-1 was launched on the ESA ERS-1 satellite on 17th July 1991, as the test-bed for the along track scanning concept using infrared channels at 1.6, 3.7, 10.8 and 12.0um. ATSR-1 continued to operate until the ERS-1 spacecraft was lost some 10 years after launch. The ATSR-2 and Advanced ATSR (AATSR) instruments are developments from the original ATSR-1, which in addition to the infrared channels; carry extra visible channels at 0.55, 0.67 and 0.87um for vegetation, cloud and aerosol remote sensing. ATSR-2 has operating on the ESA ERS-2 satellite since April 1995 and has provided over 10 years of data. The current operational sensor is AATSR flying on ESA

GHRSST Level 2P European Medspiration AMSRE SST:1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — GHRSST-PP L2P data derived using Remote Sensing Systems BMAPS format AMSR-E SSTsub-skin data. Data are downloaded form Remote Sensing Systems every hour to capture...

ATSR - The Along Track Scanning Radiometer For ERS-1

Science.gov (United States)

Llewellyn-Jones, David T.; Mutlow, C. T.

1990-04-01

The ATSR instrument is an advanced imaging radiometer designed to measure global sea surface temperature to an accuracy of the order of 0.3C from the ESA's ERS-1 satellite, due to be launched in late 1990. The instrument is designed to achieve a very precise correction for atmospheric effects through the use of carefully selected spectral bands, and a new "along-track" scanning technique. This involves viewing the same geophysical scene at two different angles, hence using two different atmospheric paths, so that the difference in radiative signal from the two scenes is due only to atmospheric effects, which can then be quantitatively estimated. ATSR is also a high performance radiometer, and embodies two important technological features; the first of these is the use of closed-cycle coolers, especially developed for space applications, and which were used to cool the sensitive infrared detectors. The radiometer also incorporates two purpose-designed on-board blackbody calibration targets which will also be described in detail. These two features enable the instrument to meet the stringent requirements of sensitivity and absolute radiometric accuracy demanded by this application. ATSR also incorporates a passive nadir-viewing two-channel microwave sounder. Measurements from this instrument will enable total atmospheric water vapour to be inferred, which will not only lead to improved SST retrievals, but will also considerably improve the atmospheric range correction required by the ERS-1 radar altimeter. ATSR is provided by a consortium of research institutes including the University of Oxford, Department of Atmospheric Oceanic and Planetary Physics, who are primarily responsible for scientific calibration of the instrument; University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who are responsible for the development of the blackbodies; the UK Meteorological Office, whose contributions include the focal plane assembly; the French laboratory CRPE, who are

Atmospheric water distribution in cyclones as seen with Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometers (SMMR)

Science.gov (United States)

Katsaros, K. B.; Mcmurdie, L. A.

1983-01-01

Passive microwave measurements are used to study the distribution of atmospheric water in midlatitude cyclones. The integrated water vapor, integrated liquid water, and rainfall rate are deduced from the brightness temperatures at microwave frequencies measured by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMRR) flown on both the Seasat and Nimbus 7 satellites. The practical application of locating fronts by the cyclone moisture pattern over oceans is shown, and the relationship between the quantity of coastal rainfall and atmospheric water content is explored.

AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly Global Microwave Land Surface Emissivity

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set is a global land emissivity product using passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System...

Results from Assimilating AMSR-E Soil Moisture Estimates into a Land Surface Model Using an Ensemble Kalman Filter in the Land Information System

Science.gov (United States)

Blankenship, Clay B.; Crosson, William L.; Case, Jonathan L.; Hale, Robert

2010-01-01

Improve simulations of soil moisture/temperature, and consequently boundary layer states and processes, by assimilating AMSR-E soil moisture estimates into a coupled land surface-mesoscale model Provide a new land surface model as an option in the Land Information System (LIS)

Estimation of improved resolution soil moisture in vegetated areas using passive AMSR-E data

Science.gov (United States)

Moradizadeh, Mina; Saradjian, Mohammad R.

2018-03-01

Microwave remote sensing provides a unique capability for soil parameter retrievals. Therefore, various soil parameters estimation models have been developed using brightness temperature (BT) measured by passive microwave sensors. Due to the low resolution of satellite microwave radiometer data, the main goal of this study is to develop a downscaling approach to improve the spatial resolution of soil moisture estimates with the use of higher resolution visible/infrared sensor data. Accordingly, after the soil parameters have been obtained using Simultaneous Land Parameters Retrieval Model algorithm, the downscaling method has been applied to the soil moisture estimations that have been validated against in situ soil moisture data. Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS BT data in Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 region in the south and north of Oklahoma have been used to this end. Results illustrated that the soil moisture variability is effectively captured at 5 km spatial scales without a significant degradation of the accuracy.

GCOM-W soil moisture and temperature algorithms and validation

Science.gov (United States)

Passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture has matured over the past decade as a result of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) program of JAXA. This program has resulted in improved algorithms that have been supported by rigorous validation. Access to the products and the valida...

Soil moisture and temperature algorithms and validation

Science.gov (United States)

Passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture has matured over the past decade as a result of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) program of JAXA. This program has resulted in improved algorithms that have been supported by rigorous validation. Access to the products and the valida...

A radiative transfer model for sea surface temperature retrieval for the along-track scanning radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

ZáVody, A. M.; Mutlow, C. T.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.

1995-01-01

The measurements made by the along-track scanning radiometer are now converted routinely into sea surface temperature (SST). The details of the atmospheric model which had been used for deriving the SST algorithms are given, together with tables of the coefficients in the algorithms for the different SST products. The accuracy of the retrieval under normal conditions and the effect of errors in the model on the retrieved SST are briefly discussed.

Estimation of Land Surface Temperature through Blending MODIS and AMSR-E Data with the Bayesian Maximum Entropy Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaokang Kou

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Land surface temperature (LST plays a major role in the study of surface energy balances. Remote sensing techniques provide ways to monitor LST at large scales. However, due to atmospheric influences, significant missing data exist in LST products retrieved from satellite thermal infrared (TIR remotely sensed data. Although passive microwaves (PMWs are able to overcome these atmospheric influences while estimating LST, the data are constrained by low spatial resolution. In this study, to obtain complete and high-quality LST data, the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME method was introduced to merge 0.01° and 0.25° LSTs inversed from MODIS and AMSR-E data, respectively. The result showed that the missing LSTs in cloudy pixels were filled completely, and the availability of merged LSTs reaches 100%. Because the depths of LST and soil temperature measurements are different, before validating the merged LST, the station measurements were calibrated with an empirical equation between MODIS LST and 0~5 cm soil temperatures. The results showed that the accuracy of merged LSTs increased with the increasing quantity of utilized data, and as the availability of utilized data increased from 25.2% to 91.4%, the RMSEs of the merged data decreased from 4.53 °C to 2.31 °C. In addition, compared with the filling gap method in which MODIS LST gaps were filled with AMSR-E LST directly, the merged LSTs from the BME method showed better spatial continuity. The different penetration depths of TIR and PMWs may influence fusion performance and still require further studies.

78 FR 31627 - Thirteenth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-24

... Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S. AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Meeting Notice of RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S. SUMMARY: The FAA is..., Inmarsat AMS(R)S DATES: The meeting will be held June 10-11 from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. ADDRESSES: The meeting...

78 FR 8684 - Twelfth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-06

... Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Meeting Notice of RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S. SUMMARY: The FAA is..., Inmarsat AMS(R)S. DATES: The meeting will be held February 20, 2013, from 1:00 p.m.--4:00 p.m. ADDRESSES...

78 FR 61446 - Fourteenth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-03

... Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Meeting Notice of RTCA Special Committee 222, Inmarsat AMS(R)S. SUMMARY: The FAA is..., Inmarsat AMS(R)S DATES: The meeting will be held November 19, 2013 from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. ADDRESSES: The...

AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly Global Microwave Land Surface Emissivity, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set is a global land emissivity product using passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System...

Evaluation of a Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System Over the Conterminous United States

Science.gov (United States)

Bolten, J. D.; Crow, W. T.; Zhan, X.; Reynolds, C. A.; Jackson, T. J.

2008-12-01

A data assimilation system has been designed to integrate surface soil moisture estimates from the EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) with an online soil moisture model used by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service for global crop estimation. USDA's International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) of the Office of Global Analysis (OGA) ingests global soil moisture within a Crop Assessment Data Retrieval and Evaluation (CADRE) Decision Support System (DSS) to provide nowcasts of crop conditions and agricultural-drought. This information is primarily used to derive mid-season crop yield estimates for the improvement of foreign market access for U.S. agricultural products. The CADRE is forced by daily meteorological observations (precipitation and temperature) provided by the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The integration of AMSR-E observations into the two-layer soil moisture model employed by IPAD can potentially enhance the reliability of the CADRE soil moisture estimates due to AMSR-E's improved repeat time and greater spatial coverage. Assimilation of the AMSR-E soil moisture estimates is accomplished using a 1-D Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) at daily time steps. A diagnostic calibration of the filter is performed using innovation statistics by accurately weighting the filter observation and modeling errors for three ranges of vegetation biomass density estimated using historical data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Assessment of the AMSR-E assimilation has been completed for a five year duration over the conterminous United States. To evaluate the ability of the filter to compensate for incorrect precipitation forcing into the model, a data denial approach is employed by comparing soil moisture results obtained from separate model simulations forced with precipitation products of varying uncertainty. An analysis of surface and root-zone anomalies is presented for each

Evaluation of Enhanced High Resolution MODIS/AMSR-E SSTs and the Impact on Regional Weather Forecast

Science.gov (United States)

Schiferl, Luke D.; Fuell, Kevin K.; Case, Jonathan L.; Jedlovec, Gary J.

2010-01-01

Over the last few years, the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has been generating a 1-km sea surface temperature (SST) composite derived from retrievals of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for use in operational diagnostics and regional model initialization. With the assumption that the day-to-day variation in the SST is nominal, individual MODIS passes aboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua and Terra satellites are used to create and update four composite SST products each day at 0400, 0700, 1600, and 1900 UTC, valid over the western Atlantic and Caribbean waters. A six month study from February to August 2007 over the marine areas surrounding southern Florida was conducted to compare the use of the MODIS SST composite versus the Real-Time Global SST analysis to initialize the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Substantial changes in the forecast heat fluxes were seen at times in the marine boundary layer, but relatively little overall improvement was measured in the sensible weather elements. The limited improvement in the WRF model forecasts could be attributed to the diurnal changes in SST seen in the MODIS SST composites but not accounted for by the model. Furthermore, cloud contamination caused extended periods when individual passes of MODIS were unable to update the SSTs, leading to substantial SST latency and a cool bias during the early summer months. In order to alleviate the latency problems, the SPoRT Center recently enhanced its MODIS SST composite by incorporating information from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) instruments as well as the Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis. These enhancements substantially decreased the latency due to cloud cover and improved the bias and correlation of the composites at available marine point observations. While these enhancements improved upon the modeled cold bias using the original MODIS SSTs

Microwave Radiometry and Radiometers for Ocean Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

2008-01-01

The microwave radiometer system measures, within its bandwidth, the naturally emitted radiation – the brightness temperature – of substances within its antenna’s field of view. Thus a radiometer is really a sensitive and calibrated microwave receiver. The radiometer can be a basic total power....../antenna size, and the problem: scanning antenna/space- craft stability. In many cases good compromises have been reached, as evident recalling the many successful missions throughout the recent 30 years. But in some cases the situation calls for special solutions, like the push-broom system or the synthetic...

Design of a Push-Broom Multi-Beam Radiometer for Future Ocean Observations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cappellin, C.; Pontoppidan, K.; Nielsen, P. H.

2015-01-01

The design of a push-broom multi-beam radiometer for future ocean observations is described. The radiometer provides a sensitivity one order of magnitude higher than a traditional conical scanning radiometer, and has the big advantage of being fully stationary relative to the satellite platform...

A Radar/Radiometer Instrument for Mapping Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrand, Peter H.; Hilliard, Laurence; Rincon, Rafael; LeVine, David; Mead, James

2003-01-01

The RadSTAR instrument combines an L-band, digital beam-forming radar with an L-band synthetic aperture, thinned array (STAR) radiometer. The RadSTAR development will support NASA Earth science goals by developing a novel, L-band scatterometer/ radiometer that measures Earth surface bulk material properties (surface emissions and backscatter) as well as surface characteristics (backscatter). Present, real aperture airborne L-Band active/passive measurement systems such as the JPUPALS (Wilson, et al, 2000) provide excellent sampling characteristics, but have no scanning capabilities, and are extremely large; the huge JPUPALS horn requires a the C-130 airborne platform, operated with the aft loading door open during flight operation. The approach used for the upcoming Aquarius ocean salinity mission or the proposed Hydros soil mission use real apertures with multiple fixed beams or scanning beams. For real aperture instruments, there is no upgrade path to scanning over a broad swath, except rotation of the whole aperture, which is an approach with obvious difficulties as aperture size increases. RadSTAR will provide polarimetric scatterometer and radiometer measurements over a wide swath, in a highly space-efficient configuration. The electronic scanning approaches provided through STAR technology and digital beam forming will enable the large L-band aperture to scan efficiently over a very wide swath. RadSTAR technology development, which merges an interferometric radiometer with a digital beam forming scatterometer, is an important step in the path to space for an L-band scatterometer/radiometer. RadSTAR couples a patch array antenna with a 1.26 GHz digital beam forming radar scatterometer and a 1.4 GHz STAR radiometer to provide Earth surface backscatter and emission measurements in a compact, cross-track scanning instrument with no moving parts. This technology will provide the first L-band, emission and backscatter measurements in a compact aircraft instrument

Contributions of Precipitation and Soil Moisture Observations to the Skill of Soil Moisture Estimates in a Land Data Assimilation System

Science.gov (United States)

Reichle, Rolf H.; Liu, Qing; Bindlish, Rajat; Cosh, Michael H.; Crow, Wade T.; deJeu, Richard; DeLannoy, Gabrielle J. M.; Huffman, George J.; Jackson, Thomas J.

2011-01-01

The contributions of precipitation and soil moisture observations to the skill of soil moisture estimates from a land data assimilation system are assessed. Relative to baseline estimates from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), the study investigates soil moisture skill derived from (i) model forcing corrections based on large-scale, gauge- and satellite-based precipitation observations and (ii) assimilation of surface soil moisture retrievals from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Soil moisture skill is measured against in situ observations in the continental United States at 44 single-profile sites within the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) for which skillful AMSR-E retrievals are available and at four CalVal watersheds with high-quality distributed sensor networks that measure soil moisture at the scale of land model and satellite estimates. The average skill (in terms of the anomaly time series correlation coefficient R) of AMSR-E retrievals is R=0.39 versus SCAN and R=0.53 versus CalVal measurements. The skill of MERRA surface and root-zone soil moisture is R=0.42 and R=0.46, respectively, versus SCAN measurements, and MERRA surface moisture skill is R=0.56 versus CalVal measurements. Adding information from either precipitation observations or soil moisture retrievals increases surface soil moisture skill levels by IDDeltaR=0.06-0.08, and root zone soil moisture skill levels by DeltaR=0.05-0.07. Adding information from both sources increases surface soil moisture skill levels by DeltaR=0.13, and root zone soil moisture skill by DeltaR=0.11, demonstrating that precipitation corrections and assimilation of satellite soil moisture retrievals contribute similar and largely independent amounts of information.

The Passive Microwave Neural Network Precipitation Retrieval (PNPR) for AMSU/MHS and ATMS cross-track scanning radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Sano', Paolo; Casella, Daniele; Panegrossi, Giulia; Cinzia Marra, Anna; Dietrich, Stefano

2016-04-01

Spaceborne microwave cross-track scanning radiometers, originally developed for temperature and humidity sounding, have shown great capabilities to provide a significant contribution in precipitation monitoring both in terms of measurement quality and spatial/temporal coverage. The Passive microwave Neural network Precipitation Retrieval (PNPR) algorithm for cross-track scanning radiometers, originally developed for the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit/Microwave Humidity Sounder (AMSU-A/MHS) radiometers (on board the European MetOp and U.S. NOAA satellites), was recently newly designed to exploit the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on board the Suomi-NPP satellite and the future JPSS satellites. The PNPR algorithm is based on the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach. The main PNPR-ATMS algorithm changes with respect to PNPR-AMSU/MHS are the design and implementation of a new ANN able to manage the information derived from the additional ATMS channels (respect to the AMSU-A/MHS radiometer) and a new screening procedure for not-precipitating pixels. In order to achieve maximum consistency of the retrieved surface precipitation, both PNPR algorithms are based on the same physical foundation. The PNPR is optimized for the European and the African area. The neural network was trained using a cloud-radiation database built upon 94 cloud-resolving simulations over Europe and the Mediterranean and over the African area and radiative transfer model simulations of TB vectors consistent with the AMSU-A/MHS and ATMS channel frequencies, viewing angles, and view-angle dependent IFOV sizes along the scan projections. As opposed to other ANN precipitation retrieval algorithms, PNPR uses a unique ANN that retrieves the surface precipitation rate for all types of surface backgrounds represented in the training database, i.e., land (vegetated or arid), ocean, snow/ice or coast. This approach prevents different precipitation estimates from being inconsistent with one

Comparison of SMOS and SMAP Soil Moisture Retrieval Approaches Using Tower-based Radiometer Data over a Vineyard Field

Science.gov (United States)

Miernecki, Maciej; Wigneron, Jean-Pierre; Lopez-Baeza, Ernesto; Kerr, Yann; DeJeu, Richard; DeLannoy, Gabielle J. M.; Jackson, Tom J.; O'Neill, Peggy E.; Shwank, Mike; Moran, Roberto Fernandez;

Sea surface temperature measurements by the along-track scanning radiometer on the ERS 1 satellite: Early results

Science.gov (United States)

Mutlow, C. T.; ZáVody, A. M.; Barton, I. J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.

1994-11-01

The along-track scanning radiometer (ATSR) was launched in July 1991 on the European Space Agency's first remote sensing satellite, ERS 1. An initial analysis of ATSR data demonstrates that the sea surface temperature (SST) can be measured from space with very high accuracy. Comparison of simultaneous measurements of SST made from ATSR and from a ship-borne radiometer show that they agree to within 0.3°C. To assess data consistency, a complementary analysis of SST data from ATSR was also carried out. The ATSR global SST field was compared on a daily basis with daily SST analysis of the United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UKMO). The ATSR global field is consistently within 1.0°C of the UKMO analysis. Also, to demonstrate the benefits of along-track scanning SST determination, the ATSR SST data were compared with high-quality bulk temperature observations from drifting buoys. The likely causes of the differences between ATSR and the bulk temperature data are briefly discussed. These results provide early confidence in the quantitative benefit of ATSR's two-angle view of the Earth and its high radiometric performance and show a significant advance on the data obtained from other spaceborne sensors. It should be noted that these measurements were made at a time when the atmosphere was severely contaminated with volcanic aerosol particles, which degrade infrared measurements of the Earth's surface made from space.

LAMMR: A new generation satellite microwave radiometer - Its concepts and capabilities. [Large Antenna Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Walton, W. T.; Wilheit, T. T.

1981-01-01

Definition studies and baseline design are summarized for the proposed, and now discontinued, LAMMR. The instrument is an offset parabolic reflector with Cassegrain feeds. The three-meter aperture reflector, to be constructed using graphite-epoxy technology, rotates continuously at 0.833 rps. The scan drive subsystem includes momentum compensation for the rotating mass which includes the reflector, the support arm and Cassegrain subreflector, feed horns and radiometer. Two total power radiometers are recommended for each frequency, one each for horizontal and vertical polarizations. The selection plan, definition study specifications, LAMMR performance specifications, and predicted accuracies and resolutions after processing are shown.

More than the sum of its parts? A merged satellite product from MODIS and AMSR2 sea ice concentration

Science.gov (United States)

Ludwig, V. S.; Istomina, L.; Spreen, G.

2017-12-01

Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC), the fraction of a grid cell that is covered by sea ice, is relevant for a multitude of branches: physics (heat/momentum exchange), chemistry (gas exchange), biology (photosynthesis), navigation (location of pack ice) and others. It has been observed from passive microwave (PMW) radiometers on satellites continuously since 1979, providing an almost 40-year time series. However, the resolution is limited to typically 25 km which is good enough for climate studies but too coarse to properly resolve the ice edge or to show leads. The highest resolution from PMW sensors today is 5 km of the AMSR2 89 GHz channels. Thermal infrared (TIR) and visible (VIS) measurements provide much higher resolutions between 1 km (TIR) and 30 m (VIS, regional daily coverage). The higher resolutions come at the cost of depending on cloud-free fields of view (TIR and VIS) and daylight (VIS). We present a merged product of ASI-AMSR2 SIC (PMW) and MODIS SIC (TIR) at a nominal resolution of 1 km. This product benefits from both the independence of PMW towards cloud coverage and the high resolution of TIR data. An independent validation data set has been produced from manually selected, cloud-free Landsat VIS data at 30 m resolution. This dataset is used to evaluate the performance of the merged SIC dataset. Our results show that the merged product resolves features which are smeared out by the PMW data while benefitting from the PMW data in cloudy cases and is thus indeed more than the sum of its parts.

Satellite Remote Sensing of Snow Depth on Antarctic Sea Ice: An Inter-Comparison of Two Empirical Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Kern

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a key role for sea ice physical processes and complicates retrieval of sea ice thickness using altimetry. Current methods of snow depth retrieval are based on satellite microwave radiometry, which perform best for dry, homogeneous snow packs on level sea ice. We introduce an alternative approach based on in-situ measurements of total (sea ice plus snow freeboard and snow depth, which we use to compute snow depth on sea ice from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat total freeboard observations. We compare ICESat snow depth for early winter and spring of the years 2004 through 2006 with the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E snow depth product. We find ICESat snow depths agree more closely with ship-based visual and air-borne snow radar observations than AMSR-E snow depths. We obtain average modal and mean ICESat snow depths, which exceed AMSR-E snow depths by 5–10 cm in winter and 10–15 cm in spring. We observe an increase in ICESat snow depth from winter to spring for most Antarctic regions in accordance with ground-based observations, in contrast to AMSR-E snow depths, which we find to stay constant or to decrease. We suggest satellite laser altimetry as an alternative method to derive snow depth on Antarctic sea ice, which is independent of snow physical properties.

Microwave Radiometry and Radiometers for Ocean Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

2008-01-01

aperture radiometer technique, both yielding imaging capability without scanning. Typical applications of microwave radiometry concerning oceans are: sea salinity, sea surface temperature, wind speed and direction, sea ice detection and classification. However, in an attempt to measure properties...

The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer: Present and Future

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Timothy L.; James, M. W.; Roberts, J. B.; Biswas, S. K.; Cecil, D.; Jones, W. L.; Johnson, J.; Farrar, S.; Sahawneh, S.; Ruf, C. S.;

The DC-8 Submillimeter-Wave Cloud Ice Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, Steven J.; Batelaan, Paul; Siegel, Peter; Evans, K. Franklin; Evans, Aaron; Balachandra, Balu; Gannon, Jade; Guldalian, John; Raz, Guy; Shea, James

2000-01-01

An airborne radiometer is being developed to demonstrate the capability of radiometry at submillimeter-wavelengths to characterize cirrus clouds. At these wavelengths, cirrus clouds scatter upwelling radiation from water vapor in the lower troposphere. Radiometric measurements made at multiple widely spaced frequencies permit flux variations caused by changes in scattering due to crystal size to be distinguished from changes in cloud ice content. Measurements at dual polarizations can also be used to constrain the mean crystal shape. An airborne radiometer measuring the upwelling submillimeter-wave flux should then able to retrieve both bulk and microphysical cloud properties. The radiometer is being designed to make measurements at four frequencies (183 GHz, 325 GHz, 448 GHz, and 643 GHz) with dual-polarization capability at 643 GHz. The instrument is being developed for flight on NASA's DC-8 and will scan cross-track through an aircraft window. Measurements with this radiometer in combination with independent ground-based and airborne measurements will validate the submillimeter-wave radiometer retrieval techniques. The goal of this effort is to develop a technique to enable spaceborne characterization of cirrus, which will meet a key climate measurement need. The development of an airborne radiometer to validate cirrus retrieval techniques is a critical step toward development of spaced-based radiometers to investigate and monitor cirrus on a global scale. The radiometer development is a cooperative effort of the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Swales Aerospace, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is funded by the NASA Instrument Incubator Program.

Solutions Network Formulation Report. Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Data Products for National Drought Monitor Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Estep, Leland

2007-01-01

Drought effects are either direct or indirect depending on location, population, and regional economic vitality. Common direct effects of drought are reduced crop, rangeland, and forest productivity; increased fire hazard; reduced water levels; increased livestock and wildlife mortality rates; and damage to wildlife and fish habitat. Indirect impacts follow on the heels of direct impacts. For example, a reduction in crop, rangeland, and forest productivity may result in reduced income for farmers and agribusiness, increased prices for food and timber, unemployment, reduced tax revenues, increased crime, foreclosures on bank loans to farmers and businesses, migration, and disaster relief programs. In the United States alone, drought is estimated to result in annual losses of between $6 - 8 billion. Recent sustained drought in the United States has made decision-makers aware of the impacts of climate change on society and environment. The eight major droughts that occurred in the United States between 1980 and 1999 accounted for the largest percentage of weather-related monetary losses. Monitoring drought and its impact that occurs at a variety of scales is an important government activity -- not only nationally but internationally as well. The NDMC (National Drought Mitigation Center) and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) RMA (Risk Management Agency) have partnered together to develop a DM-DSS (Drought Monitoring Decision Support System). This monitoring system will be an interactive portal that will provide users the ability to visualize and assess drought at all levels. This candidate solution incorporates atmospherically corrected VIIRS data products, such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and Ocean SST (sea surface temperature), and AMSR-E soil moisture data products into two NDMC vegetation indices -- VegDRI (Vegetation Drought Response Index) and VegOUT (Vegetation Outlook) -- which are then input into the DM-DSS.

Comparison of AMSR-2 wind speed and sea surface temperature ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

68

characteristics and variable features where the wind circulation pattern is ..... is extended to understand the quality of AMSR-2 wind speed in a constructive ...... New Disclosures (potential conflicts of interest, funding, acknowledgements):.

Towards a long-term Science Exploitation Plan for the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer on Sentinel-3 and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Remedios, John J.; Llewellyn-Jones, David

2014-05-01

The Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on Sentinel-3 is the latest satellite instrument in a series of dual-angle optical and thermal sensors, the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSRs). Operating on Sentinel-3, the SLSTR has a number of significant improvements compared to the original ATSRs including wider swaths for nadir and dual angles, emphasis on all surface temperature domains, dedicated fire channels and additional cloud channels. The SLSTR therefore provides some excellent opportunities to extend science undertaken with the ATSRs whilst also providing long-term data sets to investigate climate change. The European Space Agency, together with the Department of Energy and Climate Change, sponsored the production of an Exploitation Plan for the ATSRs. In the last year, this been extended to cover the SLSTR also. The plan enables UK and European member states to plan activities related to SLSTR in a long-term context. Covering climate change, oceanography, land surface, atmosphere and cryosphere science, particular attention is paid to the exploitation of long-term data sets. In the case of SLSTR, relevant products include sea, land, lake and ice surface temperatures; aerosols and clouds; fires and gas flares; land surface reflectances. In this presentation, the SLSTR and ATSR science Exploitation Plan will be outlined with emphasis on SLSTR science opportunities, on appropriate co-ordinating mechanisms and on example implementation plans. Particular attention will be paid to the challenges of linking ATSR records with SLSTR to provide consistent long-term data sets, and on the international context of such data sets. The exploitation plan approach to science may prove relevant and useful for other Sentinel instruments.

Ross Sea Polynyas: Response of Ice Concentration Retrievals to Large Areas of Thin Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, R.; Comiso, J. C.; Martin, S.; Drucker, R.

2007-01-01

For a 3-month period between May and July of 2005, we examine the response of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Enhanced NASA Team 2 (NT2) and AMSR-E Bootstrap (ABA) ice concentration algorithms to large areas of thin ice of the Ross Sea polynyas. Coincident Envisat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) coverage of the region during this period offers a detailed look at the development of the polynyas within several hundred kilometers of the ice front. The high-resolution imagery and derived ice motion fields show bands of polynya ice, covering up to approximately 105 km(sup 2) of the Ross Sea, that are associated with wind-forced advection. In this study, ice thickness from AMSR-E 36 GHz polarization information serves as the basis for examination of the response. The quality of the thickness of newly formed sea ice (<10 cm) from AMSR-E is first assessed with thickness estimates derived from ice surface temperatures from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. The effect of large areas of thin ice in lowering the ice concentration estimates from both NT2/ABA approaches is clearly demonstrated. Results show relatively robust relationships between retrieved ice concentrations and thin ice thickness estimates that differ between the two algorithms. These relationships define the approximate spatial coincidence of ice concentration and thickness isopleths. Using the 83% (ABA) and 91% (NT2) isopleths as polynya boundaries, we show that the computed coverage compares well with that using the estimated 10-cm thickness contour. The thin ice response characterized here suggests that in regions with polynyas, the retrieval results could be used to provide useful geophysical information, namely thickness and coverage.

Summer Sea Ice Motion from the 18 GHz Channel of AMSR-E and the Exchange of Sea Ice between the Pacific and Atlantic Sectors

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, Ronald

2008-01-01

We demonstrate that sea ice motion in summer can be derived reliably from the 18GHz channel of the AMSR-E instrument on the EOS Aqua platform. The improved spatial resolution of this channel with its lower sensitivity to atmospheric moisture seems to have alleviated various issues that have plagued summer motion retrievals from shorter wavelength observations. Two spatial filters improve retrieval quality: one reduces some of the microwave signatures associated with synoptic-scale weather systems and the other removes outliers. Compared with daily buoy drifts, uncertainties in motion are approx.3-4 km/day. Using the daily motion fields, we examine five years of summer ice area exchange between the Pacific and Atlantic sectors of the Arctic Ocean. With the sea-level pressure patterns during the summer of 2006 and 2007 favoring the export of sea ice into the Atlantic Sector, the regional outflow is approx.21% and approx.15% of the total sea ice retreat in the Pacific sector.

A Multifrequency Radiometer System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

1977-01-01

A radiometer system having four channels: 5 GHz, l7 GHz, 34 GHz, all vertical polarization, and a 34 GHz sky horn, will be described. The system which is designed for collecting glaciological and oceanographic data is intended for airborne use and imaging is achieved by means of a multifrequency...... conically scanning antenna. Implementation of the noise-injection technique ensures the high absolute accuracy needed for oceanographic purposes. The collected data can be preprocessed in a microcomputer system and displayed in real time. Simultaneously, the data are recorded digitally on tape for more...

AN ACTIVE-PASSIVE COMBINED ALGORITHM FOR HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION RETRIEVAL OF SOIL MOISTURE FROM SATELLITE SENSORS (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Lakshmi, V.; Mladenova, I. E.; Narayan, U.

2009-12-01

Soil moisture is known to be an essential factor in controlling the partitioning of rainfall into surface runoff and infiltration and solar energy into latent and sensible heat fluxes. Remote sensing has long proven its capability to obtain soil moisture in near real-time. However, at the present time we have the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer (AMSR-E) on board NASA’s AQUA platform is the only satellite sensor that supplies a soil moisture product. AMSR-E coarse spatial resolution (~ 50 km at 6.9 GHz) strongly limits its applicability for small scale studies. A very promising technique for spatial disaggregation by combining radar and radiometer observations has been demonstrated by the authors using a methodology is based on the assumption that any change in measured brightness temperature and backscatter from one to the next time step is due primarily to change in soil wetness. The approach uses radiometric estimates of soil moisture at a lower resolution to compute the sensitivity of radar to soil moisture at the lower resolution. This estimate of sensitivity is then disaggregated using vegetation water content, vegetation type and soil texture information, which are the variables on which determine the radar sensitivity to soil moisture and are generally available at a scale of radar observation. This change detection algorithm is applied to several locations. We have used aircraft observed active and passive data over Walnut Creek watershed in Central Iowa in 2002; the Little Washita Watershed in Oklahoma in 2003 and the Murrumbidgee Catchment in southeastern Australia for 2006. All of these locations have different soils and land cover conditions which leads to a rigorous test of the disaggregation algorithm. Furthermore, we compare the derived high spatial resolution soil moisture to in-situ sampling and ground observation networks

Implementation of the Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for EOS (LANCE)

Science.gov (United States)

Michael, Karen; Murphy, Kevin; Lowe, Dawn; Masuoka, Edward; Vollmer, Bruce; Tilmes, Curt; Teague, Michael; Ye, Gang; Maiden, Martha; Goodman, H. Michael;

AMSR-E/Aqua surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 25 km x 25 km ascending V002 (LPRM_AMSRE_A_SOILM3) at GES DISC

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — AMSR-E/Aqua surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 25 km x 25 km ascending V002 is a Level 3 (gridded) data set. Its land surface parameters, surface soil moisture,...

Parametrization of Land Surface Temperature Fields with Optical and Microwave Remote Sensing in Brazil's Atlantic Forest

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, K. C.; Khan, A.; Carnaval, A. C.

2016-12-01

Brazil is home to two of the largest and most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, primarily encompassed in forests and wetlands. A main region of interest in this project is Brazil's Atlantic Forest (AF). Although this forest is only a fraction of the size of the Amazon rainforest, it harbors significant biological richness, making it one of the world's major hotspots for biodiversity. The AF is located on the East to Southeast region of Brazil, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. As luscious and biologically rich as this region is, the area covered by the Atlantic Forest has been diminishing over past decades, mainly due to human influences and effects of climate change. We examine 1 km resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST) data from NASA's Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) combined with 25 km resolution radiometric temperature derived from NASA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E) to develop a capability employing both in combination to assess LST. Since AMSR-E is a microwave remote sensing instrument, products derived from its measurements are minimally effected by cloud cover. On the other hand, MODIS data are heavily influenced by cloud cover. We employ a statistical downscaling technique to the coarse-resolution AMSR-E datasets to enhance its spatial resolution to match that of MODIS. Our approach employs 16-day composite MODIS LST data in combination with synergistic ASMR-E radiometric brightness temperature data to develop a combined, downscaled dataset. Our goal is to use this integrated LST retrieval with complementary in situ station data to examine associated influences on regional biodiversity

Atmospheric water distribution in a midlatitude cyclone observed by the Seasat Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Mcmurdie, L. A.; Katsaros, K. B.

1985-01-01

Patterns in the horizontal distribution of integrated water vapor, integrated liquid water and rainfall rate derived from the Seasat Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) during a September 10-12, 1978 North Pacific cyclone are studied. These patterns are compared with surface analyses, ship reports, radiosonde data, and GOES-West infrared satellite imagery. The SMMR data give a unique view of the large mesoscale structure of a midlatitude cyclone. The water vapor distribution is found to have characteristic patterns related to the location of the surface fronts throughout the development of the cyclone. An example is given to illustrate that SMMR data could significantly improve frontal analysis over data-sparse oceanic regions. The distribution of integrated liquid water agrees qualitatively well with corresponding cloud patterns in satellite imagery and appears to provide a means to distinguish where liquid water clouds exist under a cirrus shield. Ship reports of rainfall intensity agree qualitatively very well with SMMR-derived rainrates. Areas of mesoscale rainfall, on the order of 50 km x 50 km or greater are detected using SMMR derived rainrates.

On the synergy of SMAP, AMSR2 AND SENTINEL-1 for retrieving soil moisture

Science.gov (United States)

Santi, E.; Paloscia, S.; Pettinato, S.; Brocca, L.; Ciabatta, L.; Entekhabi, D.

2018-03-01

An algorithm for retrieving soil moisture content (SMC) from synergic use of both active and passive microwave acquisitions is presented. The algorithm takes advantage of the integration of microwave data from SMAP, Sentinel-1 and AMSR2 for overcoming the SMAP radar failure and obtaining a SMC product at enhanced resolution (0.1° × 0.1°) and improved accuracy with respect to the original SMAP radiometric SMC product. A disaggregation technique based on the Smoothing filter based intensity modulation (SFIM) allows combining the radiometric and SAR data. Disaggregated microwave data are used as inputs of an Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) based algorithm, which is able to exploit the synergy between active and passive acquisitions. The algorithm is defined, trained and tested using the SMEX02 experimental dataset and data simulated by forward electromagnetic models based on the Radiative Transfer Theory. Then the algorithm is adapted to satellite data and tested using one year of SMAP, AMSR2 and Sentinel-1 co-located data on a flat agricultural area located in the Po Valley, in northern Italy. Spatially distributed SMC values at 0.1° × 0.1° resolution generated by the Soil Water Balance Model (SWBM) are considered as reference for this purpose. The synergy of SMAP, Sentinel-1 and AMSR2 allowed increasing the correlation between estimated and reference SMC from R ≅ 0.68 of the SMAP based retrieval up to R ≅ 0.86 of the combination SMAP + Sentinel-1 + AMSR2. The corresponding Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) decreased from RMSE ≅ 0.04 m3/m3 to RMSE ≅ 0.024 m3/m3.

Groundwater storage changes in arctic permafrost watersheds from GRACE and in situ measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muskett, Reginald R; Romanovsky, Vladimir E

2009-01-01

The Arctic permafrost regions make up the largest area component of the cryosphere. Observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission offer to provide a greater understanding of changes in water mass within permafrost regions. We investigate a GRACE monthly time series, snow water equivalent from the special scanning microwave imager (SSM/I), vegetation water content and soil moisture from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for the Earth observation system (AMSR-E) and in situ discharge of the Lena, Yenisei, Ob', and Mackenzie watersheds. The GRACE water equivalent mass change responded to mass loading by snow accumulation in winter and mass unloading by runoff in spring-summer. Comparison of secular trends from GRACE to runoff suggests groundwater storage increased in the Lena and Yenisei watersheds, decreased in the Mackenzie watershed, and was unchanged in the Ob' watershed. We hypothesize that the groundwater storage changes are linked to the development of closed- and open-talik in the continuous permafrost zone and the decrease of permafrost lateral extent in the discontinuous permafrost zone of the watersheds.

Dual Microwave Radiometer Experiment Field Campaign Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marchand, Roger [Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

2017-09-01

Passive microwave radiometers (MWRs) are the most commonly used and accurate instruments the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Research Facility has to retrieve cloud liquid water path (LWP). The MWR measurements (microwave radiances or brightness temperatures) are often used to derive LWP using climatological constraints, but are frequently also combined with measurements from radar and other instruments for cloud microphysical retrievals. Nominally this latter approach improves the retrieval of LWP and other cloud microphysical quantities (such as effective radius or number concentration), but this also means that when MWR data are poor, other cloud microphysical quantities are also negatively affected. Unfortunately, current MWR data is often contaminated by water on the MWR radome. This water makes a substantial contribution to the measured radiance and typically results in retrievals of cloud liquid water and column water vapor that are biased high. While it is obvious when the contamination by standing water is large (and retrieval biases are large), much of the time it is difficult to know with confidence that there is no contamination. At present there is no attempt to estimate or correct for this source of error, and identification of problems is largely left to users. Typically users are advised to simply throw out all data when the MWR “wet-window” resistance-based sensor indicates water is present, but this sensor is adjusted by hand and is known to be temperamental. In order to address this problem, a pair of ARM microwave radiometers was deployed to the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, Washington, USA. The radiometers were operated such that one radiometer was scanned under a cover that (nominally) prevents this radiometer radome from gathering water and permits measurements away from zenith; while the other radiometer is operated normally – open or uncovered - with the radome exposed to the sky

Applying Advances in GPM Radiometer Intercalibration and Algorithm Development to a Long-Term TRMM/GPM Global Precipitation Dataset

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, W. K.

2016-12-01

The Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Core Observatory, which was launched in February of 2014, provides a number of advances for satellite monitoring of precipitation including a dual-frequency radar, high frequency channels on the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI), and coverage over middle and high latitudes. The GPM concept, however, is about producing unified precipitation retrievals from a constellation of microwave radiometers to provide approximately 3-hourly global sampling. This involves intercalibration of the input brightness temperatures from the constellation radiometers, development of an apriori precipitation database using observations from the state-of-the-art GPM radiometer and radars, and accounting for sensor differences in the retrieval algorithm in a physically-consistent way. Efforts by the GPM inter-satellite calibration working group, or XCAL team, and the radiometer algorithm team to create unified precipitation retrievals from the GPM radiometer constellation were fully implemented into the current version 4 GPM precipitation products. These include precipitation estimates from a total of seven conical-scanning and six cross-track scanning radiometers as well as high spatial and temporal resolution global level 3 gridded products. Work is now underway to extend this unified constellation-based approach to the combined TRMM/GPM data record starting in late 1997. The goal is to create a long-term global precipitation dataset employing these state-of-the-art calibration and retrieval algorithm approaches. This new long-term global precipitation dataset will incorporate the physics provided by the combined GPM GMI and DPR sensors into the apriori database, extend prior TRMM constellation observations to high latitudes, and expand the available TRMM precipitation data to the full constellation of available conical and cross-track scanning radiometers. This combined TRMM/GPM precipitation data record will thus provide a high-quality high

Compact and Light-Weight Solar Spaceflight Instrument Designs Utilizing Newly Developed Miniature Free-Standing Zone Plates: EUV Radiometer and Limb-Scanning Monochromator

Science.gov (United States)

Seely, J. F.; McMullin, D. R.; Bremer, J.; Chang, C.; Sakdinawat, A.; Jones, A. R.; Vest, R.

2014-12-01

Two solar instrument designs are presented that utilize newly developed miniature free-standing zone plates having interconnected Au opaque bars and no support membrane resulting in excellent long-term stability in space. Both instruments are based on a zone plate having 4 mm outer diameter and 1 to 2 degree field of view. The zone plate collects EUV radiation and focuses a narrow bandpass through a pinhole aperture and onto a silicon photodiode detector. As a miniature radiometer, EUV irradiance is accurately determined from the zone plate efficiency and the photodiode responsivity that are calibrated at the NIST SURF synchrotron facility. The EUV radiometer is pointed to the Sun and measures the absolute solar EUV irradiance in high time cadence suitable for solar physics and space weather applications. As a limb-scanning instrument in low earth orbit, a miniature zone-plate monochromator measures the extinction of solar EUV radiation by scattering through the upper atmosphere which is a measure of the variability of the ionosphere. Both instruments are compact and light-weight and are attractive for CubeSats and other missions where resources are extremely limited.

Effect of vegetation on soil moisture sensing observed from orbiting microwave radiometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, J.R.

1985-01-01

The microwave radiometric measurements made by the Skylab 1.4 GHz radiometer and by the 6.6 GHz and 10.7 GHz channels of the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer were analyzed to study the large-area soil moisture variations of land surfaces. Two regions in Texas, one with sparse and the other with dense vegetation covers, were selected for the study. The results gave a confirmation of the vegetation effect observed by ground-level microwave radiometers. Based on the statistics of the satellite data, it was possible to estimate surface soil moisture in about five different levels from dry to wet conditions with a 1.4 GHz radiometer, provided that the biomass of the vegetation cover could be independently measured. At frequencies greater than about 6.6 GHz, the radiometric measurements showed little sensitivity to moisture variation for vegetation-covered soils. The effects of polarization in microwave emission were studied also. (author)

Forward Model Studies of Water Vapor Using Scanning Microwave Radiometers, Global Positioning System, and Radiosondes during the Cloudiness Intercomparison Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mattioli, Vinia; Westwater, Ed R.; Gutman, S.; Morris, Victor R.

2005-01-01

Brightness temperatures computed from five absorption models and radiosonde observations were analyzed by comparing them with measurements from three microwave radiometers at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz. Data were obtained during the Cloudiness Inter-Comparison experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's (ARM) site in North-Central Oklahoma in 2003. The radiometers were calibrated using two procedures, the so-called instantaneous ?tipcal? method and an automatic self-calibration algorithm. Measurements from the radiometers were in agreement, with less than a 0.4-K difference during clear skies, when the instantaneous method was applied. Brightness temperatures from the radiometer and the radiosonde showed an agreement of less than 0.55 K when the most recent absorption models were considered. Precipitable water vapor (PWV) computed from the radiometers were also compared to the PWV derived from a Global Positioning System station that operates at the ARM site. The instruments agree to within 0.1 cm in PWV retrieval

STUDY ON THE RETRIEVAL OF SNOW DEPTH FROM FY3B/MWRI IN THE ATCTIC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Li

2016-06-01

Full Text Available temperatures. Given the high albedo and low thermal conductivity, snow is regarded as one of the key reasons for the amplification of the warming in polar regions. The distributions of sea ice and snow depth are essential to the whole thermal conduction in the Arctic. This study focused on the retrieval of snow depth on sea ice from brightness temperatures of the MicroWave Radiometer Imager (MWRI onboard the FengYun (FY-3B satellite during the period from December 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011. After cross calibrated to the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–EOS (AMSR-E Level 2A data, the MWRI brightness temperatures were applied to calculate the sea ice concentrations based on the Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction Study Sea Ice (ASI algorithm. According to the proportional relationship between the snow depth and the surface scattering in 18.7 and 36.5 GHz, the snow depths were derived. In order to eliminate the influence of uncertainties in grain sizes of snow as well as sporadic weather effects, the seven-day averaged snow depths were calculated. Then the results were compared with the snow depths from the AMSR-E Level 3 Sea Ice products. The bias of differences between the MWRI and the AMSR-E Level 3 products are ranged between −1.09 and −0.32 cm，while the standard deviations and the correlation coefficients are ranged from 2.47 to 2.88 cm and from 0.78 to 0.90 for different months. As a result, it could be summarized that FY3B/MWRI showed a promising prospect in retrieving snow depth on sea ice.

Snow Radiance Data Assimilation over High Mountain Asia Using the NASA Land Information System and a Well-Trained Support Vector Machine

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Y.; Forman, B. A.; Yoon, Y.; Kumar, S.

2017-12-01

High Mountain Asia (HMA) has been progressively losing ice and snow in recent decades, which could negatively impact regional water supply and native ecosystems. One goal of this study is to characterize the spatiotemporal variability of snow (and ice) across the HMA region. In addition, modeled snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates will be enhanced through the assimilation of passive microwave brightness temperatures (TB) collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) as part of a radiance assimilation system. The radiance assimilation framework includes the NASA Land Information System (LIS) in conjunction with a well-trained support vector machine (SVM) that acts as the observation operator. The Noah Land Surface Model with multi-parameterization options (Noah-MP) is used as the prior model for simulating snow dynamics. Noah-MP is forced by meteorological fields from the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) atmospheric reanalysis for the periods 01 Sep. 2002 to 01 Sep. 2011. The radiance assimilation system requires two separate phases: 1) training and 2) assimilation. During the training phase, a nonlinear SVM is generated for three different AMSR-E frequencies - 10.65, 18.7, and 36.5 GHz - at both vertical and horizontal polarization. The trained SVM is then used to predict TB during the assimilation phase. An ensemble Kalman filter will be used to condition the model on AMSR-E brightness temperatures not used during SVM training. The performance of the Noah-MP (with and without radiance assimilation) will be assessed via comparison to in-situ measurements, remotely-sensing geophysical retrievals, and other reanalysis products.

High resolution soil moisture radiometer. [large space structures

Science.gov (United States)

Wilheit, T. T.

1978-01-01

An electrically scanned pushbroom phased antenna array is described for a microwave radiometer which can provide agriculturally meaningful measurements of soil moisture. The antenna size of 100 meters at 1400 MHz or 230 meters at 611 MHz requires several shuttle launches and orbital assembly. Problems inherent to the size of the structure and specific instrument problems are discussed as well as the preliminary design.

ESTAR: The Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer for remote sensing measurement of soil moisture and ocean salinity

Science.gov (United States)

Swift, C. T.

1993-01-01

The product of a working group assembled to help define the science objectives and measurement requirements of a spaceborne L-band microwave radiometer devoted to remote sensing of surface soil moisture and sea surface salinity is presented. Remote sensing in this long-wavelength portion of the microwave spectrum requires large antennas in low-Earth orbit to achieve acceptable spatial resolution. The proposed radiometer, ESTAR, is unique in that it employs aperture synthesis to reduce the antenna area requirements for a space system.

Space-based passive microwave soil moisture retrievals and the correction for a dynamic open water fraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. T. Gouweleeuw

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The large observation footprint of low-frequency satellite microwave emissions complicates the interpretation of near-surface soil moisture retrievals. While the effect of sub-footprint lateral heterogeneity is relatively limited under unsaturated conditions, open water bodies (if not accounted for cause a strong positive bias in the satellite-derived soil moisture retrieval. This bias is generally assumed static and associated with large, continental lakes and coastal areas. Temporal changes in the extent of smaller water bodies as small as a few percent of the sensor footprint size, however, can cause significant and dynamic biases. We analysed the influence of such small open water bodies on near-surface soil moisture products derived from actual (non-synthetic data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E for three areas in Oklahoma, USA. Differences between on-ground observations, model estimates and AMSR-E retrievals were related to dynamic estimates of open water fraction, one retrieved from a global daily record based on higher frequency AMSR-E data, a second derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS and a third through inversion of the radiative transfer model, used to retrieve soil moisture. The comparison demonstrates the presence of relatively small areas (<0.05 of open water in or near the sensor footprint, possibly in combination with increased, below-critical vegetation density conditions (optical density <0.8, which contribute to seasonally varying biases in excess of 0.2 (m³ m⁻³ soil water content. These errors need to be addressed, either through elimination or accurate characterisation, if the soil moisture retrievals are to be used effectively in a data assimilation scheme.

PHOCUS radiometer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Nyström

2012-06-01

Full Text Available PHOCUS – Particles, Hydrogen and Oxygen Chemistry in the Upper Summer Mesosphere is a Swedish sounding rocket experiment, launched in July 2011, with the main goal of investigating the upper atmosphere in the altitude range 50–110 km. This paper describes the SondRad instrument in the PHOCUS payload, a radiometer comprising two frequency channels (183 GHz and 557 GHz aimed at exploring the water vapour concentration distribution in connection with the appearance of noctilucent (night shining clouds. The design of the radiometer system has been done in a collaboration between Omnisys Instruments AB and the Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD at Chalmers University of Technology where Omnisys was responsible for the overall design, implementation, and verification of the radiometers and backend, whereas GARD was responsible for the radiometer optics and calibration systems.

The SondRad instrument covers the water absorption lines at 183 GHz and 557 GHz. The 183 GHz channel is a side-looking radiometer, while the 557 GHz radiometer is placed along the rocket axis looking in the forward direction. Both channels employ sub-harmonically pumped Schottky mixers and Fast Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FFTS backends with 67 kHz resolution.

The radiometers include novel calibration systems specifically adjusted for use with each frequency channel. The 183 GHz channel employs a continuous wave CW pilot signal calibrating the entire receiving chain, while the intermediate frequency chain (the IF-chain of the 557 GHz channel is calibrated by injecting a signal from a reference noise source through a directional coupler.

The instrument collected complete spectra for both the 183 GHz and the 557 GHz with 300 Hz data rate for the 183 GHz channel and 10 Hz data rate for the 557 GHz channel for about 60 s reaching the apogee of the flight trajectory and 100 s after that. With lossless data compression using variable

Recent Improvements in Retrieving Near-Surface Air Temperature and Humidity Using Microwave Remote Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, J. Brent

2010-01-01

Detailed studies of the energy and water cycles require accurate estimation of the turbulent fluxes of moisture and heat across the atmosphere-ocean interface at regional to basin scale. Providing estimates of these latent and sensible heat fluxes over the global ocean necessitates the use of satellite or reanalysis-based estimates of near surface variables. Recent studies have shown that errors in the surface (10 meter)estimates of humidity and temperature are currently the largest sources of uncertainty in the production of turbulent fluxes from satellite observations. Therefore, emphasis has been placed on reducing the systematic errors in the retrieval of these parameters from microwave radiometers. This study discusses recent improvements in the retrieval of air temperature and humidity through improvements in the choice of algorithms (linear vs. nonlinear) and the choice of microwave sensors. Particular focus is placed on improvements using a neural network approach with a single sensor (Special Sensor Microwave/Imager) and the use of combined sensors from the NASA AQUA satellite platform. The latter algorithm utilizes the unique sampling available on AQUA from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A). Current estimates of uncertainty in the near-surface humidity and temperature from single and multi-sensor approaches are discussed and used to estimate errors in the turbulent fluxes.

Development and Assessment of the Sand Dust Prediction Model by Utilizing Microwave-Based Satellite Soil Moisture and Reanalysis Datasets in East Asian Desert Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyunglok Kim

2017-01-01

Full Text Available For several decades, satellite-based microwave sensors have provided valuable soil moisture monitoring in various surface conditions. We have first developed a modeled aerosol optical depth (AOD dataset by utilizing Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2, and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS soil moisture datasets in order to estimate dust outbreaks over desert areas of East Asia. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer- (MODIS- based AOD products were used as reference datasets to validate the modeled AOD (MA. The SMOS-based MA (SMOS-MA dataset showed good correspondence with observed AOD (R-value: 0.56 compared to AMSR2- and GLDAS-based MA datasets, and it overestimated AOD compared to observed AOD. The AMSR2-based MA dataset was found to underestimate AOD, and it showed a relatively low R-value (0.35 with respect to observed AOD. Furthermore, SMOS-MA products were able to simulate the short-term AOD trends, having a high R-value (0.65. The results of this study may allow us to acknowledge the utilization of microwave-based soil moisture datasets for investigation of near-real time dust outbreak predictions and short-term dust outbreak trend analysis.

Ramifications of a potential gap in passive microwave data for the long-term sea ice climate record

Science.gov (United States)

Meier, W.; Stewart, J. S.

2017-12-01

The time series of sea ice concentration and extent from passive microwave sensors is one of the longest satellite-derived climate records and the significant decline in Arctic sea ice extent is one of the most iconic indicators of climate change. However, this continuous and consistent record is under threat due to the looming gap in passive microwave sensor coverage. The record started in late 1978 with the launch of the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) and has continued with a series of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSMIS) instruments on U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites. The data from the different sensors are intercalibrated at the algorithm level by adjusting algorithm coefficients so that the output sea ice data is as consistent as possible between the older and the newer sensor. A key aspect in constructing the time series is to have at least two sensors operating simultaneously so that data from the older and newer sensor can be obtained from the same locations. However, with recent losses of the DMSP F19 and F20, the remaining SSMIS sensors are all well beyond their planned mission lifetime. This means that risk of failure is not small and is increasing with each day of operation. The newest passive microwave sensor, the JAXA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2), is a potential contributor to the time series (though it too is now beyond it's planned 5-year mission lifetime). However, AMSR2's larger antenna and higher spatial resolution presents a challenge in integrating its data with the rest of the sea ice record because the ice edge is quite sensitive to the sensor resolution, which substantially affects the total sea ice extent and area estimates. This will need to be adjusted for if AMSR2 is used to continue the time series. Here we will discuss efforts at NSIDC to integrate AMSR2 estimates into the sea ice climate record if needed. We

An Uncertainty Data Set for Passive Microwave Satellite Observations of Warm Cloud Liquid Water Path

Science.gov (United States)

Greenwald, Thomas J.; Bennartz, Ralf; Lebsock, Matthew; Teixeira, João.

2018-04-01

The first extended comprehensive data set of the retrieval uncertainties in passive microwave observations of cloud liquid water path (CLWP) for warm oceanic clouds has been created for practical use in climate applications. Four major sources of systematic errors were considered over the 9-year record of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E): clear-sky bias, cloud-rain partition (CRP) bias, cloud-fraction-dependent bias, and cloud temperature bias. Errors were estimated using a unique merged AMSR-E/Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Level 2 data set as well as observations from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization and the CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar. To quantify the CRP bias more accurately, a new parameterization was developed to improve the inference of CLWP in warm rain. The cloud-fraction-dependent bias was found to be a combination of the CRP bias, an in-cloud bias, and an adjacent precipitation bias. Globally, the mean net bias was 0.012 kg/m2, dominated by the CRP and in-cloud biases, but with considerable regional and seasonal variation. Good qualitative agreement between a bias-corrected AMSR-E CLWP climatology and ship observations in the Northeast Pacific suggests that the bias estimates are reasonable. However, a possible underestimation of the net bias in certain conditions may be due in part to the crude method used in classifying precipitation, underscoring the need for an independent method of detecting rain in warm clouds. This study demonstrates the importance of combining visible-infrared imager data and passive microwave CLWP observations for estimating uncertainties and improving the accuracy of these observations.

A brief comparison of radiometers at NSIDC and their potential to generate long ESDRs

Science.gov (United States)

Moth, P.; Johnston, T.; Haran, T. M.; Fowler, D. K.

2017-12-01

Radiometers have played a big part in Earth observing science. In this poster we compare three such instruments: the Advanced Very-High-resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The NASA National Snow and Ice Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) has archived cryospheric data from all three of these instruments. AVHRR was a 4-channel radiometer that was first launched in 1978 aboard the TIROS-N satellite. Subsequent missions launched improved versions of AVHRR with five and six channels, observing Earth in frequencies ranging from 0.58 μm to 12.5 μm with a resolution at nadir of 1.09 km. MODIS instruments fly onboard NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites. Launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively, they still produce much sought after data observed in 36 spectral bands ranging from 0.4 μm to 14.4 μm. Two bands image Earth at a nominal resolution of 250 m at nadir, five at 500 m, and the remaining 29 bands at 1 km. A ±55-degree scanning pattern at the sun-synchronous orbit of 705 km achieves a 2,330 km swath and provides global coverage every one to two days VIIRS, NOAA's latest radiometer, was launched aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite on October 28, 2011. Working collaboratively, NASA and NOAA are producing data that is archived and distributed via NASA DAACs. The VIIRS radiometer comprises 22 bands; five for high-resolution imagery, 16 at moderate resolution, and one panchromatic day/night band. VIIRS is a whiskbroom scanning radiometer that covers the spectrum between 0.412 μm and 12.01 μm and acquires spatial resolutions at nadir of 750 m, 375 m, and 750 m, respectively. Although these instruments are configured with different spectral bands, each was designed with an eye to the future. MODIS can be thought of as a successor to the AVHRR mission, adding capabilities that yielded better data

Land Surface Phenologies and Seasonalities of Croplands and Grasslands in the US Prairie Pothole Region Using Passive Microwave Data (2003-2015)

Science.gov (United States)

Alemu, W. G.; Henebry, G. M.

2017-12-01

Grasslands and wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) have been converted to croplands in recent years. Crops cultivated in the PPR are also changing: spring wheat and alfalfa/hay are being switched to corn and soybean due to biofuel demand. According to the USDA Cropland Data Layer (CDL) from 2003 to 2015, spring wheat significantly decreased (r2 = 0.74), while corn and soybeans significantly increased (r2 = 0.86). We characterized land surface phenologies and land surface seasonalities across the PPR using the finer temporal (twice daily) but much lower spatial (25 km) resolution Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR: blended from AMSR-E and AMSR2) enhanced land surface parameters for 2003-2015 (DOY 91-330 annual cycles). We tracked the temporal development of these land surface parameters as a function of accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD) based on the AMSR retrieved air temperature data. Growing degree-days (GDD) revealed distinct seasonality typical to temperate grasslands and croplands. GDD peaks were 23°C and it peaks at 1700°C AGDD. Precipitable water vapor (V) displayed seasonality comparable to GDD. Vegetation optical depth (VOD) revealed distinct land surface phenologies for grasslands versus croplands. We explored the changing crop fractions within the 25 km AMSR pixels using the CDL. Crop-dominated sites VOD time series caught the early spring growth, ploughing, and crop growth dynamics. In contrast, the VOD time series at grass-dominated sites exhibited a lower but more extended amplitude throughout the non-frozen season. VODs peaked at 1.6 and 1.3 for croplands and grasslands, respectively. Croplands peaked about a month later than grasslands (2200 °C AGDD vs. 1600 °C AGDD). The other parameters available from the AMSR dataset—soil moisture (sm), and fractional open water (fw)—together with the AGDD time series constructed from the AMSR air temperature data revealed the passage of storm systems during the growing season. Soil

Microwave Radiometer Systems, Design and Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Vine, David Le

Two important microwave remote sensors are the radar and the radiometer. There have been a number of books written on various aspects of radar, but there have been only a few written on microwave radiometers, especially on subjects of how to design and build radiometer systems. This book, which...

AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Rain Rate/Type GSFC Profiling Algorithm V002

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The AMSR-E/Aqua Level-2B rain product includes instantaneous rain rate and rain type over ice-free and snow-free land and ocean between 70 degrees north and south...

Evaluating the Utility of Remotely-Sensed Soil Moisture Retrievals for Operational Agricultural Drought Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Bolten, John D.; Crow, Wade T.; Zhan, Xiwu; Jackson, Thomas J.; Reynolds,Curt

2010-01-01

Soil moisture is a fundamental data source used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) to monitor crop growth stage and condition and subsequently, globally forecast agricultural yields. Currently, the USDA IPAD estimates surface and root-zone soil moisture using a two-layer modified Palmer soil moisture model forced by global precipitation and temperature measurements. However, this approach suffers from well-known errors arising from uncertainty in model forcing data and highly simplified model physics. Here we attempt to correct for these errors by designing and applying an Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system to integrate surface soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) into the USDA modified Palmer soil moisture model. An assessment of soil moisture analysis products produced from this assimilation has been completed for a five-year (2002 to 2007) period over the North American continent between 23degN - 50degN and 128degW - 65degW. In particular, a data denial experimental approach is utilized to isolate the added utility of integrating remotely-sensed soil moisture by comparing EnKF soil moisture results obtained using (relatively) low-quality precipitation products obtained from real-time satellite imagery to baseline Palmer model runs forced with higher quality rainfall. An analysis of root-zone anomalies for each model simulation suggests that the assimilation of AMSR-E surface soil moisture retrievals can add significant value to USDA root-zone predictions derived from real-time satellite precipitation products.

A New Approach in Downscaling Microwave Soil Moisture Product using Machine Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Abbaszadeh, Peyman; Yan, Hongxiang; Moradkhani, Hamid

2016-04-01

Understating the soil moisture pattern has significant impact on flood modeling, drought monitoring, and irrigation management. Although satellite retrievals can provide an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution of soil moisture at a global-scale, their soil moisture products (with a spatial resolution of 25-50 km) are inadequate for regional study, where a resolution of 1-10 km is needed. In this study, a downscaling approach using Genetic Programming (GP), a specialized version of Genetic Algorithm (GA), is proposed to improve the spatial resolution of satellite soil moisture products. The GP approach was applied over a test watershed in United States using the coarse resolution satellite data (25 km) from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E) soil moisture products, the fine resolution data (1 km) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index, and ground based data including land surface temperature, vegetation and other potential physical variables. The results indicated the great potential of this approach to derive the fine resolution soil moisture information applicable for data assimilation and other regional studies.

Monitored background radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruel, C.

1988-01-01

A monitored background radiometer is described comprising: a thermally conductive housing; low conductivity support means mounted on the housing; a sensing plate mounted on the low conductivity support means and spaced from the housing so as to be thermally insulated from the housing and having an outwardly facing first surface; the sensing plate being disposed relative to the housing to receive direct electromagnetic radiation from sources exterior to the radiometer upon the first surface only; means for controllably heating the sensing plate; first temperature sensitive means to measure the temperature of the housing; and second temperature sensitive means to measure the temperature of the sensing plate, so that the heat flux at the sensing plate may be determined from the temperatures of the housing and sensing plate after calibration of the radiometer by measuring the temperatures of the housing and sensing plate while controllably heating the sensing plate

Polarimetric Signatures from a Crop Covered Land Surface Measured by an L-band Polarimetric Radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Skou, Niels

2003-01-01

This paper describes preliminary results from field measurements of polarimetric azimuth signatures with the EMIRAD L-band polarimetric radiometer, performed over a land test site at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Avignon, France. Scans of 180 degrees in azimuth were carried...

About uncertainties in sea ice thickness retrieval from satellite radar altimetry: results from the ESA-CCI Sea Ice ECV Project Round Robin Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Kern, S.; Khvorostovsky, K.; Skourup, H.; Rinne, E.; Parsakhoo, Z. S.; Djepa, V.; Wadhams, P.; Sandven, S.

2014-03-01

One goal of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative sea ice Essential Climate Variable project is to provide a quality controlled 20 year long data set of Arctic Ocean winter-time sea ice thickness distribution. An important step to achieve this goal is to assess the accuracy of sea ice thickness retrieval based on satellite radar altimetry. For this purpose a data base is created comprising sea ice freeboard derived from satellite radar altimetry between 1993 and 2012 and collocated observations of snow and sea ice freeboard from Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) and CryoSat Validation Experiment (CryoVEx) air-borne campaigns, of sea ice draft from moored and submarine Upward Looking Sonar (ULS), and of snow depth from OIB campaigns, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E) and the Warren Climatology (Warren et al., 1999). An inter-comparison of the snow depth data sets stresses the limited usefulness of Warren climatology snow depth for freeboard-to-thickness conversion under current Arctic Ocean conditions reported in other studies. This is confirmed by a comparison of snow freeboard measured during OIB and CryoVEx and snow freeboard computed from radar altimetry. For first-year ice the agreement between OIB and AMSR-E snow depth within 0.02 m suggests AMSR-E snow depth as an appropriate alternative. Different freeboard-to-thickness and freeboard-to-draft conversion approaches are realized. The mean observed ULS sea ice draft agrees with the mean sea ice draft computed from radar altimetry within the uncertainty bounds of the data sets involved. However, none of the realized approaches is able to reproduce the seasonal cycle in sea ice draft observed by moored ULS satisfactorily. A sensitivity analysis of the freeboard-to-thickness conversion suggests: in order to obtain sea ice thickness as accurate as 0.5 m from radar altimetry, besides a freeboard estimate with centimetre accuracy, an ice-type dependent sea ice density is as mandatory

Microwave Radiometer Linearity Measured by Simple Means

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

2002-01-01

Modern spaceborne radiometer systems feature an almost perfect on-board calibration, hence the primary calibration task to be carried out before launch is a check of radiometer linearity. This paper describes two ways of measuring linearity of microwave radiometers only requiring relatively simple...

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 25 km Tb and Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids V002

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The AMSR-E/Aqua Level-3 25 km daily sea ice product includes 6.9 - 89.0 GHz TBs and sea ice concentration averages (daily, ascending, and descending) on a 25 km...

Nimbus-2 High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) Imagery of Cloud Cover at Night on 70 mm Film V001

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The HRIRN2IM data product contains scanned negatives of photofacsimile 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-2 High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer. The images contain...

The advanced along track scanning radiometer (aatsr) on esa's envisat satellite - an early assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Llewellyn-Jones, D.; Mutlow, C.; Smith, D.; Edwards, M.

The AATSR sensor is an imaging radiometer designed to measure top-of-the- atmosphere brightness temperature in seven thermal infrared, reflected infrared and visible wavelength channels. The main objective of the AATSR mission is to generate fields of global sea-surface temperature to the high levels of accuracy required for the monitoring and detection of climate change, and to support a broad range of associated research into the marine, terrestrial, cryospheric and atmospheric environments. An essential component of this objective is maintain continuity with the high-quality data-sets already collected form the two predecessor sensors, ATSR1 and 2 on ESA's ERS-1 and -2 satellites respectively. Following the successful launch of ENVISAT on March 1 2002, the AATSR sensor was activated and systematically brought up to full operating configuration in accordance with the agreed Switch-On and Data Acquisition Plan (SODAP). The early images form AATSR are of a quality that is consistent with its objective of effective data continuity. Since the instrument has been returning data, a programme of quality assessment has been taking place. This has included a systematic assessment of instrumental aspects such as signal-to-noise performance and image stability as well as the initial observations in the AATSR validation programme. In this programme, AATSR data-products are compared with correlative observations from other sources, which include, sea-borne radiometers, meteorological analysis fields and data from other satellites. This paper reports early results from some of the activities.

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb) Polar Grids V002

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The AMSR-E/Aqua Level-3 6.25 km daily sea ice product includes 89.0 GHz brightness temperature averages (daily, ascending, and descending) on a 6.25 km polar...

Development of a Compact High Altitude Imager and Sounding Radiometer (CHAISR)

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, R. K. Y.; Min, S.; Cho, Y. J.; Kim, K. H.; Ha, J. C.; Joo, S. W.

2017-12-01

Joint Civilian-Military Committee, under Advisory Council on Science and Technology, Korea, has approved a technology demonstration project for developing a lightweight HALE UAV (High-Altitude, Long Endurance). It aims to operate at lower stratosphere, i.e. altitude of 16 20 km, offering unique observational platform to atmospheric research community as pseudo-satellite. NIMS (National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Korea) is responsible for a payload for atmospheric science, a Compact High Altitude Imager and Sounding Radiometer (CHAISR) to demonstrate scientific observations at lower stratosphere in the interest of improving numerical weather prediction model. CHAISR consists of three microwave radiometers (MWR) with 16 channel, and medium resolution cameras operating in a visible and infrared spectrum. One of the technological challenges for CHAISR is to accommodate those instruments within 50 W of power consumption. CHAISR will experience temperature up to -75°C, while pressure as low as 50 hPa at operational altitude. It requires passive thermal control of the payload to keep electronic subsystems warm enough for instrument operation with minimal power available. Safety features, such as payload power management and thermal control, are considered with minimal user input. Three radiometers measure atmospheric brightness temperature at frequency at around 20, 40, and 50 GHz. Retrieval process yields temperature and humidity profiles with cross track scan along the flight line. Estimated total weight of all radiometer hardware, from the antennas to data acquisition system, is less than 0.8 kg and a maximum power consumption is 15.2 W. With not enough power for blackbody calibration target, radiometers use zenith sky view at lower stratosphere as an excellent calibration target for a conventional tipping-curve calibration. Spatial distributions of clouds from visible and surface temperature from thermal cameras are used as additional information for

The measurement of climate change using data from the Advanced Very High Resolution and Along Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Lawrence, S. P.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.; Smith, S. J.

2004-08-01

Global sea-surface temperature is an important indicator of climate change, with the ability to reflect warming/cooling climate trends. The detection of such trends requires rigorous measurements that are global, accurate, and consistent. Space instruments can provide the means to achieve these required attributes in sea-surface temperature data. Analyses of two independent data sets from the Advanced Very High Resolution and Along Track Scanning Radiometers series of space sensors during the period 1985 to 2000 reveal trends of increasing global temperature with magnitudes of 0.09°C and 0.13°C per decade, respectively, closely matching that expected due to current levels of greenhouse gas exchange. In addition, an analysis based upon singular value decomposition, allowing the removal of El Niño in order to examine areas of change other than the tropical Pacific region, indicates that the 1997 El Niño event affected sea-surface temperature globally. The methodology demonstrated here can be applied to other data sets, which cover long time series observations of geophysical observations in order to characterize long-term change. The conclusion is that satellite sea-surface temperature provides an important means to quantify and explore the processes of climate change.

Merging thermal and microwave satellite observations for a high-resolution soil moisture data product

Science.gov (United States)

Many societal applications of soil moisture data products require high spatial resolution and numerical accuracy. Current thermal geostationary satellite sensors (GOES Imager and GOES-R ABI) could produce 2-16km resolution soil moisture proxy data. Passive microwave satellite radiometers (e.g. AMSR...

Multilayered Clouds Identification and Retrieval for CERES Using MODIS

Science.gov (United States)

Sun-Mack, Sunny; Minnis, Patrick; Chen, Yan; Yi, Yuhong; Huang, Jainping; Lin, Bin; Fan, Alice; Gibson, Sharon; Chang, Fu-Lung

2006-01-01

Traditionally, analyses of satellite data have been limited to interpreting the radiances in terms of single layer clouds. Generally, this results in significant errors in the retrieved properties for multilayered cloud systems. Two techniques for detecting overlapped clouds and retrieving the cloud properties using satellite data are explored to help address the need for better quantification of cloud vertical structure. The first technique was developed using multispectral imager data with secondary imager products (infrared brightness temperature differences, BTD). The other method uses microwave (MWR) data. The use of BTD, the 11-12 micrometer brightness temperature difference, in conjunction with tau, the retrieved visible optical depth, was suggested by Kawamoto et al. (2001) and used by Pavlonis et al. (2004) as a means to detect multilayered clouds. Combining visible (VIS; 0.65 micrometer) and infrared (IR) retrievals of cloud properties with microwave (MW) retrievals of cloud water temperature Tw and liquid water path LWP retrieved from satellite microwave imagers appears to be a fruitful approach for detecting and retrieving overlapped clouds (Lin et al., 1998, Ho et al., 2003, Huang et al., 2005). The BTD method is limited to optically thin cirrus over low clouds, while the MWR method is limited to ocean areas only. With the availability of VIS and IR data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and MW data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer EOS (AMSR-E), both on Aqua, it is now possible to examine both approaches simultaneously. This paper explores the use of the BTD method as applied to MODIS and AMSR-E data taken from the Aqua satellite over non-polar ocean surfaces.

Newly devised infrared radiometer (ERI type IR ground scanner) and the surface temperature of the Mihara crater, O-shima

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shimozuru, D [Earthquake Res. Inst., Univ. of Tokyo; Kagiyama, T

1976-10-01

The infrared radiometer, a remote sensing tool, can be successfully used to measure the surface temperature of a volcanic or geothermal area. Many of these devices are available commercially for industrial use but their application to volcano observations is limited due to a wide field of view which prohibits detailed examination of specific points. A commercial radiometer was mounted on a balloon theodolite with an electrically driven rotating base. A telescope was attached to the radiometer to permit monitoring of the field of view. Radiometer output can be recorded either on a magnetic tape data recorder or a strip chart recorder. The device is also useful for continuous monitoring of the temperature of a vent or fumarole. The observed temperatures are dependent upon the wave length of actual spatial temperature distribution, the field of view and the scanning speed. Detailed information of both a theoretical and an experimental nature is provided. The improved radiometer was utilized to observe surface temperature in the caldera of Miharayama, Oshima in March, 1976. It was found that the vent temperature was markedly lower than had previously been recorded, as was the average surface temperature.

Hurricane Imaging Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Cecil, Daniel J.; Biswas, Sayak K.; James, Mark W.; Roberts, J. Brent; Jones, W. Linwood; Johnson, James; Farrar, Spencer; Sahawneh, Saleem; Ruf, Christopher S.; Morris, Mary;

A Time Series of Mean Global Sea Surface Temperature from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Veal, Karen L.; Corlett, Gary; Remedios, John; Llewellyn-Jones, David

2010-12-01

A climate data set requires a long time series of consistently processed data with suitably long periods of overlap of different instruments which allows characterization of any inter-instrument biases. The data obtained from ESA's three Along-Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSRs) together comprise an 18 year record of SST with overlap periods of at least 6 months. The data from all three ATSRs has been consistently processed. These factors together with the stability of the instruments and the precision of the derived SST makes this data set eminently suitable for the construction of a time series of SST that complies with many of the GCOS requirements for a climate data set. A time series of global and regional average SST anomalies has been constructed from the ATSR version 2 data set. An analysis of the overlap periods of successive instruments was used to remove intra-series biases and align the series to a common reference. An ATSR climatology has been developed and has been used to calculate the SST anomalies. The ATSR-1 time series and the AATSR time series have been aligned to ATSR-2. The largest adjustment is ~0.2 K between ATSR-2 and AATSR which is suspected to be due to a shift of the 12 μm filter function for AATSR. An uncertainty of 0.06 K is assigned to the relative anomaly record that is derived from the dual three-channel night-time data. A relative uncertainty of 0.07 K is assigned to the dual night-time two-channel record, except in the ATSR-1 period (1994-1996) where it is larger.

Mapping Daily and Maximum Flood Extents at 90-m Resolution During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Using Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Galantowicz, J. F.; Picton, J.; Root, B.

2017-12-01

Passive microwave remote sensing can provided a distinct perspective on flood events by virtue of wide sensor fields of view, frequent observations from multiple satellites, and sensitivity through clouds and vegetation. During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, we used AMSR2 (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2, JAXA) data to map flood extents starting from the first post-storm rain-free sensor passes. Our standard flood mapping algorithm (FloodScan) derives flooded fraction from 22-km microwave data (AMSR2 or NASA's GMI) in near real time and downscales it to 90-m resolution using a database built from topography, hydrology, and Global Surface Water Explorer data and normalized to microwave data footprint shapes. During Harvey and Irma we tested experimental versions of the algorithm designed to map the maximum post-storm flood extent rapidly and made a variety of map products available immediately for use in storm monitoring and response. The maps have several unique features including spanning the entire storm-affected area and providing multiple post-storm updates as flood water shifted and receded. From the daily maps we derived secondary products such as flood duration, maximum flood extent (Figure 1), and flood depth. In this presentation, we describe flood extent evolution, maximum extent, and local details as detected by the FloodScan algorithm in the wake of Harvey and Irma. We compare FloodScan results to other available flood mapping resources, note observed shortcomings, and describe improvements made in response. We also discuss how best-estimate maps could be updated in near real time by merging FloodScan products and data from other remote sensing systems and hydrological models.

Improved characterization of scenes with a combination of MMW radar and radiometer information

Science.gov (United States)

Dill, Stephan; Peichl, Markus; Schreiber, Eric; Anglberger, Harald

2017-05-01

For security related applications MMW radar and radiometer systems in remote sensing or stand-off configurations are well established techniques. The range of development stages extends from experimental to commercial systems on the civil and military market. Typical examples are systems for personnel screening at airports for concealed object detection under clothing, enhanced vision or landing aid for helicopter and vehicle based systems for suspicious object or IED detection along roads. Due to the physical principle of active (radar) and passive (radiometer) MMW measurement techniques the appearance of single objects and thus the complete scenario is rather different for radar and radiometer images. A reasonable combination of both measurement techniques could lead to enhanced object information. However, some technical requirements should be taken into account. The imaging geometry for both sensors should be nearly identical, the geometrical resolution and the wavelength should be similar and at best the imaging process should be carried out simultaneously. Therefore theoretical and experimental investigations on a suitable combination of MMW radar and radiometer information have been conducted. First experiments in 2016 have been done with an imaging linescanner based on a cylindrical imaging geometry [1]. It combines a horizontal line scan in azimuth with a linear motion in vertical direction for the second image dimension. The main drawback of the system is the limited number of pixel in vertical dimension at a certain distance. Nevertheless the near range imaging results where promising. Therefore the combination of radar and radiometer sensor was assembled on the DLR wide-field-of-view linescanner ABOSCA which is based on a spherical imaging geometry [2]. A comparison of both imaging systems is discussed. The investigations concentrate on rather basic scenarios with canonical targets like flat plates, spheres, corner reflectors and cylinders. First

Mapping global surface water inundation dynamics using synergistic information from SMAP, AMSR2 and Landsat

Science.gov (United States)

Du, J.; Kimball, J. S.; Galantowicz, J. F.; Kim, S.; Chan, S.; Reichle, R. H.; Jones, L. A.; Watts, J. D.

2017-12-01

A method to monitor global land surface water (fw) inundation dynamics was developed by exploiting the enhanced fw sensitivity of L-band (1.4 GHz) passive microwave observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. The L-band fw (fwLBand) retrievals were derived using SMAP H-polarization brightness temperature (Tb) observations and predefined L-band reference microwave emissivities for water and land endmembers. Potential soil moisture and vegetation contributions to the microwave signal were represented from overlapping higher frequency Tb observations from AMSR2. The resulting fwLBand global record has high temporal sampling (1-3 days) and 36-km spatial resolution. The fwLBand annual averages corresponded favourably (R=0.84, pretrievals showed favourable classification accuracy for water (commission error 31.84%; omission error 28.08%) and land (commission error 0.82%; omission error 0.99%) and seasonal wet and dry periods when compared to independent water maps derived from Landsat-8 imagery. The new fwLBand algorithms and continuing SMAP and AMSR2 operations provide for near real-time, multi-scale monitoring of global surface water inundation dynamics, potentially benefiting hydrological monitoring, flood assessments, and global climate and carbon modeling.

The implementation of sea ice model on a regional high-resolution scale

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Siva; Zakharov, Igor; Bobby, Pradeep; McGuire, Peter

2015-09-01

The availability of high-resolution atmospheric/ocean forecast models, satellite data and access to high-performance computing clusters have provided capability to build high-resolution models for regional ice condition simulation. The paper describes the implementation of the Los Alamos sea ice model (CICE) on a regional scale at high resolution. The advantage of the model is its ability to include oceanographic parameters (e.g., currents) to provide accurate results. The sea ice simulation was performed over Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea to retrieve important parameters such as ice concentration, thickness, ridging, and drift. Two different forcing models, one with low resolution and another with a high resolution, were used for the estimation of sensitivity of model results. Sea ice behavior over 7 years was simulated to analyze ice formation, melting, and conditions in the region. Validation was based on comparing model results with remote sensing data. The simulated ice concentration correlated well with Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI-SAF) data. Visual comparison of ice thickness trends estimated from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite (SMOS) agreed with the simulation for year 2010-2011.

Deriving a sea surface temperature record suitable for climate change research from the along-track scanning radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Merchant, C. J.; Llewellyn-Jones, D.; Saunders, R. W.; Rayner, N. A.; Kent, E. C.; Old, C. P.; Berry, D.; Birks, A. R.; Blackmore, T.; Corlett, G. K.; Embury, O.; Jay, V. L.; Kennedy, J.; Mutlow, C. T.; Nightingale, T. J.; O'Carroll, A. G.; Pritchard, M. J.; Remedios, J. J.; Tett, S.

We describe the approach to be adopted for a major new initiative to derive a homogeneous record of sea surface temperature for 1991 2007 from the observations of the series of three along-track scanning radiometers (ATSRs). This initiative is called (A)RC: (Advanced) ATSR Re-analysis for Climate. The main objectives are to reduce regional biases in retrieved sea surface temperature (SST) to less than 0.1 K for all global oceans, while creating a very homogenous record that is stable in time to within 0.05 K decade-1, with maximum independence of the record from existing analyses of SST used in climate change research. If these stringent targets are achieved, this record will enable significantly improved estimates of surface temperature trends and variability of sufficient quality to advance questions of climate change attribution, climate sensitivity and historical reconstruction of surface temperature changes. The approach includes development of new, consistent estimators for SST for each of the ATSRs, and detailed analysis of overlap periods. Novel aspects of the approach include generation of multiple versions of the record using alternative channel sets and cloud detection techniques, to assess for the first time the effect of such choices. There will be extensive effort in quality control, validation and analysis of the impact on climate SST data sets. Evidence for the plausibility of the 0.1 K target for systematic error is reviewed, as is the need for alternative cloud screening methods in this context.

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 12.5 km Tb, Sea Ice Conc., & Snow Depth Polar Grids V002

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The AMSR-E/Aqua Level 3 12.5 km daily sea ice product includes 18.7 - 89.0 GHz TBs, sea ice concentration averages (asc & desc), and 5-day snow depth over sea...

Optimizing available water capacity using microwave satellite data for improving irrigation management

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Manika; Bolten, John; Lakshmi, Venkat

2015-04-01

This work addresses the improvement of available water capacity by developing a technique for estimating soil hydraulic parameters through the utilization of satellite-retrieved near surface soil moisture. The prototype involves the usage of Monte Carlo analysis to assimilate historical remote sensing soil moisture data available from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) within the hydrological model. The main hypothesis used in this study is that near-surface soil moisture data contain useful information that can describe the effective hydrological conditions of the basin such that when appropriately In the method followed in this study the hydraulic parameters are derived directly from information on the soil moisture state at the AMSR-E footprint scale and the available water capacity is derived for the root zone by coupling of AMSR-E soil moisture with the physically-based hydrological model. The available capacity water, which refers to difference between the field capacity and wilting point of the soil and represent the soil moisture content at 0.33 bar and 15 bar respectively is estimated from the soil hydraulic parameters using the van Genuchten equation. The initial ranges of soil hydraulic parameters are taken in correspondence with the values available from the literature based on Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database within the particular AMSR-E footprint. Using the Monte Carlo simulation, the ranges are narrowed in the region where simulation shows a good match between predicted and near-surface soil moisture from AMSR-E. In this study, the uncertainties in accurately determining the parameters of the nonlinear soil water retention function for large-scale hydrological modeling is the focus of the development of the Bayesian framework. Thus, the model forecasting has been combined with the observational information to optimize the model state and the soil hydraulic parameters simultaneously. The optimization process is divided into

Novel Cyclotron-Based Radiometal Production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeGrado, Timothy R.

2013-01-01

Accomplishments: (1) Construction of prototype solution target for radiometal production; (2) Testing of prototype target for production of following isotopes: a. Zr-89. Investigation of Zr-89 production from Y-89 nitrate solution. i. Defined problems of gas evolution and salt precipitation. ii. Solved problem of precipitation by addition of nitric acid. iii. Solved gas evolution problem with addition of backpressure regulator and constant degassing of target during irradiations. iv. Investigated effects of Y-89 nitrate concentration and beam current. v. Published abstracts at SNM and ISRS meetings; (3) Design of 2nd generation radiometal solution target. a. Included reflux chamber and smaller target volume to conserve precious target materials. b. Included aluminum for prototype and tantalum for working model. c. Included greater varicosities for improved heat transfer; and, (4) Construction of 2nd generation radiometal solution target started

NASA Team 2 Sea Ice Concentration Algorithm Retrieval Uncertainty

Science.gov (United States)

Brucker, Ludovic; Cavalieri, Donald J.; Markus, Thorsten; Ivanoff, Alvaro

2014-01-01

Satellite microwave radiometers are widely used to estimate sea ice cover properties (concentration, extent, and area) through the use of sea ice concentration (IC) algorithms. Rare are the algorithms providing associated IC uncertainty estimates. Algorithm uncertainty estimates are needed to assess accurately global and regional trends in IC (and thus extent and area), and to improve sea ice predictions on seasonal to interannual timescales using data assimilation approaches. This paper presents a method to provide relative IC uncertainty estimates using the enhanced NASA Team (NT2) IC algorithm. The proposed approach takes advantage of the NT2 calculations and solely relies on the brightness temperatures (TBs) used as input. NT2 IC and its associated relative uncertainty are obtained for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres using the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) TB. NT2 IC relative uncertainties estimated on a footprint-by-footprint swath-by-swath basis were averaged daily over each 12.5-km grid cell of the polar stereographic grid. For both hemispheres and throughout the year, the NT2 relative uncertainty is less than 5%. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is low in the interior ice pack, and it increases in the marginal ice zone up to 5%. In the Northern Hemisphere, areas with high uncertainties are also found in the high IC area of the Central Arctic. Retrieval uncertainties are greater in areas corresponding to NT2 ice types associated with deep snow and new ice. Seasonal variations in uncertainty show larger values in summer as a result of melt conditions and greater atmospheric contributions. Our analysis also includes an evaluation of the NT2 algorithm sensitivity to AMSR-E sensor noise. There is a 60% probability that the IC does not change (to within the computed retrieval precision of 1%) due to sensor noise, and the cumulated probability shows that there is a 90% chance that the IC varies by less than

Characterizing Cropland Phenology in Major Grain Production Areas of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan by the Synergistic Use of Passive Microwave and Visible to Near Infrared Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Woubet G. Alemu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We demonstrate the synergistic use of surface air temperature retrieved from AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on Earth observing satellite and two vegetation indices (VIs from the shorter wavelengths of MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer to characterize cropland phenology in the major grain production areas of Northern Eurasia from 2003–2010. We selected 49 AMSR-E pixels across Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, based on MODIS land cover percentage data. AMSR-E air temperature growing degree-days (GDD captures the weekly, monthly, and seasonal oscillations, and well correlated with station GDD. A convex quadratic (CxQ model that linked thermal time measured as growing degree-days to accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD was fitted to each pixel’s time series yielding high coefficients of determination (0.88 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.98. Deviations of observed GDD from the CxQ model predicted GDD by site corresponded to peak VI for negative residuals (period of higher latent heat flux and low VI at beginning and end of growing season for positive residuals (periods of higher sensible heat flux. Modeled thermal time to peak, i.e., AGDD at peak GDD, showed a strong inverse linear trend with respect to latitude with r2 of 0.92 for Russia and Kazakhstan and 0.81 for Ukraine. MODIS VIs tracked similar seasonal responses in time and space and were highly correlated across the growing season with r2 > 0.95. Sites at lower latitude (≤49°N that grow winter and spring grains showed either a bimodal growing season or a shorter unimodal winter growing season with substantial inter-annual variability, whereas sites at higher latitude (≥56°N where spring grains are cultivated exhibited shorter, unimodal growing seasons. Sites between these extremes exhibited longer unimodal growing seasons. At some sites there were shifts between unimodal and bimodal patterns over the study period. Regional heat waves that devastated grain production

A 20 year independent record of sea surface temperature for climate from Along-Track Scanning Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Merchant, Christopher J.; Embury, Owen; Rayner, Nick A.; Berry, David I.; Corlett, Gary K.; Lean, Katie; Veal, Karen L.; Kent, Elizabeth C.; Llewellyn-Jones, David T.; Remedios, John J.; Saunders, Roger

2012-12-01

A new record of sea surface temperature (SST) for climate applications is described. This record provides independent corroboration of global variations estimated from SST measurements made in situ. Infrared imagery from Along-Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSRs) is used to create a 20 year time series of SST at 0.1° latitude-longitude resolution, in the ATSR Reprocessing for Climate (ARC) project. A very high degree of independence of in situ measurements is achieved via physics-based techniques. Skin SST and SST estimated for 20 cm depth are provided, with grid cell uncertainty estimates. Comparison with in situ data sets establishes that ARC SSTs generally have bias of order 0.1 K or smaller. The precision of the ARC SSTs is 0.14 K during 2003 to 2009, from three-way error analysis. Over the period 1994 to 2010, ARC SSTs are stable, with better than 95% confidence, to within 0.005 K yr-1(demonstrated for tropical regions). The data set appears useful for cleanly quantifying interannual variability in SST and major SST anomalies. The ARC SST global anomaly time series is compared to the in situ-based Hadley Centre SST data set version 3 (HadSST3). Within known uncertainties in bias adjustments applied to in situ measurements, the independent ARC record and HadSST3 present the same variations in global marine temperature since 1996. Since the in situ observing system evolved significantly in its mix of measurement platforms and techniques over this period, ARC SSTs provide an important corroboration that HadSST3 accurately represents recent variability and change in this essential climate variable.

Evaluation of Passive Multilayer Cloud Detection Using Preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO Cloud Profiles

Science.gov (United States)

Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Chang, F.; Huang, J.; Nguyen, L.; Ayers, J. K.; Spangenberg, D. A.; Yi, Y.; Trepte, C. R.

2006-12-01

During the last few years, several algorithms have been developed to detect and retrieve multilayered clouds using passive satellite data. Assessing these techniques has been difficult due to the need for active sensors such as cloud radars and lidars that can "see" through different layers of clouds. Such sensors have been available only at a few surface sites and on aircraft during field programs. With the launch of the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites on April 28, 2006, it is now possible to observe multilayered systems all over the globe using collocated cloud radar and lidar data. As part of the A- Train, these new active sensors are also matched in time ad space with passive measurements from the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E). The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) has been developing and testing algorithms to detect ice-over-water overlapping cloud systems and to retrieve the cloud liquid path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP) for those systems. One technique uses a combination of the CERES cloud retrieval algorithm applied to MODIS data and a microwave retrieval method applied to AMSR-E data. The combination of a CO2-slicing cloud retireval technique with the CERES algorithms applied to MODIS data (Chang et al., 2005) is used to detect and analyze such overlapped systems that contain thin ice clouds. A third technique uses brightness temperature differences and the CERES algorithms to detect similar overlapped methods. This paper uses preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO data to begin a global scale assessment of these different methods. The long-term goals are to assess and refine the algorithms to aid the development of an optimal combination of the techniques to better monitor ice 9and liquid water clouds in overlapped conditions.

Urban Heat Islands of the World's Major Cities Revealed at Multiple Scales Using Both Station Observations and Complementary Remotely Sensed Data Products

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, L. H.; Krehbiel, C.; Henebry, G. M.

2016-12-01

Urban heat islands (UHIs) have long been studied using both ground-based observations of air temperature and remotely sensed data. In the rapidly urbanizing world, cross-comparison between various datasets will allow us to characterize and model UHI effects more generally. Here we analyze UHIs of the world's major cities using station observations from the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN), surface air temperatures derived from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometers (AMSRs), and land surface temperatures (LST) estimated from Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We compute the two measurements of thermal time (accumulated diurnal degree-days or ADDD and nocturnal degree-days or ANDD) and the normalized difference accumulated thermal time index (NDATTI) to characterize urban and rural thermal differences and day-night dynamics over multiple growing seasons. Our preliminary results for 27 major cities and 83 urban-rural groupings in the USA and Canada indicate that daytime urban thermal accumulations from the passive microwave data (AMSRs) were generally lower than in adjacent rural areas, with only 18% of urban-rural groupings showing higher thermal accumulations in cities. In contrast, station observations and MODIS LST showed consistently higher ADDD in cities (82% and 93% for GHCN and MODIS data respectively). UHIs are more pronounced at night, with 55% (AMSR), 93% (GHCN) and 100% (MODIS) of urban-rural groupings showing higher ANDD in cities. Humidity appears to be a common factor driving the day-night thermal dynamics throughout all three datasets (Figure 1). Normalized day-night differences in thermal time metrics were consistently lower (>90% of urban-rural groupings) in urban than rural areas for both air temperature datasets (GHCN and AMSRs). With MODIS LST, only 70% of urban-rural groupings show lower NDATTI in cities. We will present results for the rest of the globe.

Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Polarization Sensitivity Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Junqiang; Xiong, Xiaoxiong; Waluschka, Eugene; Wang, Menghua

2016-01-01

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of five instruments onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 28, 2011. It is a whiskbroom radiometer that provides +/-56.28deg scans of the Earth view. It has 22 bands, among which 14 are reflective solar bands (RSBs). The RSBs cover a wavelength range from 410 to 2250 nm. The RSBs of a remote sensor are usually sensitive to the polarization of incident light. For VIIRS, it is specified that the polarization factor should be smaller than 3% for 410 and 862 nm bands and 2.5% for other RSBs for the scan angle within +/-45deg. Several polarization sensitivity tests were performed prelaunch for SNPP VIIRS. The first few tests either had large uncertainty or were less reliable, while the last one was believed to provide the more accurate information about the polarization property of the instrument. In this paper, the measured data in the last polarization sensitivity test are analyzed, and the polarization factors and phase angles are derived from the measurements for all the RSBs. The derived polarization factors and phase angles are band, detector, and scan angle dependent. For near-infrared bands, they also depend on the half-angle mirror side. Nevertheless, the derived polarization factors are all within the specification, although the strong detector dependence of the polarization parameters was not expected. Compared to the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on both Aqua and Terra satellites, the polarization effect on VIIRS RSB is much smaller.

Etched track radiometers in radon measurements: a review

CERN Document Server

Nikolaev, V A

1999-01-01

Passive radon radiometers, based on alpha particle etched track detectors, are very attractive for the assessment of radon exposure. The present review considers various devices used for measurement of the volume activity of radon isotopes and their daughters and determination of equilibrium coefficients. Such devices can be classified into 8 groups: (i) open or 'bare' detectors, (ii) open chambers, (iii) sup 2 sup 2 sup 2 Rn chambers with an inlet filter, (iv) advanced sup 2 sup 2 sup 2 Rn radiometers, (v) multipurpose radiometers, (vi) radiometers based on a combination of etched track detectors and an electrostatic field, (vii) radiometers based on etched track detectors and activated charcoal and (viii) devices for the measurement of radon isotopes and/or radon daughters by means of track parameter measurements. Some of them such as the open detector and the chamber with an inlet filter have a variety of modifications and are applied widely both in geophysical research and radon dosimetric surveys. At the...

A horizontal vane radiometer: experiment, theory and simulation

OpenAIRE

Wolfe, David; Lazarra, Andres; Garcia, Alejandro

2015-01-01

The existence of two motive forces on a Crookes radiometer has complicated the investigation of either force independently. The thermal creep shear force in particular has been subject to differing interpretations of the direction in which it acts and its order of magnitude. In this article we provide a horizontal vane radiometer design which isolates the thermal creep shear force. The horizontal vane radiometer is explored through experiment, kinetic theory, and the Direct Simulation Monte C...

BETA digital beta radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borovikov, N.V.; Kosinov, G.A.; Fedorov, Yu.N.

1989-01-01

Portable transportable digital beta radiometer providing for measuring beta-decay radionuclide specific activity in the range from 5x10 -9 up to 10 -6 Cu/kg (Cu/l) with error of ±25% is designed and introduced into commercial production for determination of volume and specific water and food radioactivity. The device specifications are given. Experience in the BETA radiometer application under conditions of the Chernobyl' NPP 30-km zone has shown that it is convenient for measuring specific activity of the order of 10 -8 Cu/kg, and application of a set of different beta detectors gives an opportunity to use it for surface contamination measurement in wide range of the measured value

Radiometer Testbed Development for SWOT

Science.gov (United States)

Kangaslahti, Pekka; Brown, Shannon; Gaier, Todd; Dawson, Douglas; Harding, Dennis; Fu, Lee-Lueng; Esteban-Fernandez, Daniel

2010-01-01

Conventional altimeters include nadir looking colocated 18-37 GHz microwave radiometer to measure wet tropospheric path delay. These have reduced accuracy in coastal zone (within 50 km from land) and do not provide wet path delay over land. The addition of high frequency channels to Jason-class radiometer will improve retrievals in coastal regions and enable retrievals over land. High-frequency window channels, 90, 130 and 166 GHz are optimum for improving performance in coastal region and channels on 183 GHz water vapor line are ideal for over-land retrievals.

The advantage of scanning in studying terrain contaminations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Angelov, V [Civil Defence Administration, Sofia (Bulgaria); Semova, T; Bonchev, Ts [Sofia Univ. (Bulgaria). Fizicheski Fakultet; Andreev, Ts [Kombinat Atomna Energetika, Kozloduj (Bulgaria); Mavrodiev, V [Sofia Univ. (Bulgaria). Fizicheski Fakultet; Jordanov, A

1996-12-31

A method of preventive or emergency characterisation of vast areas by terrain scanning in order to detect radioactive contamination is proposed. Implementation of the method by helicopter or by movable platform using automatic gamma-radiometers is considered. One-dimensional and three-dimensional presentation of the results are compared. It is concluded that investment in scanning systems will be justified in case of serious accidents when the decision making will depend heavily on reliable topological image of the radioactive contamination. 5 refs., 3 fig.

The advantage of scanning in studying terrain contaminations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelov, V.; Semova, T.; Bonchev, Ts.; Mavrodiev, V.; Jordanov, A.

1995-01-01

A method of preventive or emergency characterisation of vast areas by terrain scanning in order to detect radioactive contamination is proposed. Implementation of the method by helicopter or by movable platform using automatic gamma-radiometers is considered. One-dimensional and three-dimensional presentation of the results are compared. It is concluded that investment in scanning systems will be justified in case of serious accidents when the decision making will depend heavily on reliable topological image of the radioactive contamination. 5 refs., 3 fig

Prelaunch Performance of the 118 GHz Polarcube 3U Cubesat Temperature Sounding Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Periasamy, L.; Gasiewski, A. J.; Gallaher, D. W.; Sanders, B. T.; Belter, R.; Kraft, D.; Castillo, J.; Gordon, J. A.; Hurowitz, M.

2017-12-01

The low cost PolarCube 3U CubeSat supports a 118.75 GHz imaging spectrometer for temperature profiling of the troposphere and surface temperature. It is a demonstrator for a constellation of LEO passive microwave sensors at V-band and other frequencies using 3U/6U CubeSats. Such a satellite constellation for weather forecasting will provide data at high spatial and temporal resolution to observe rapidly evolving mesoscale weather. The satellite's payload is an eight channel, double sideband passive microwave temperature sounder with cross-track scanning and will provide 18 km surface resolution from a 400 km orbit. The radiometer implements a two-point calibration using an internal PIN switch and view of cold space. Although the instrument is based on a well established classical design, the challenges lie in developing a sensitive spectrometer that fits in a 1.5U volume, is low cost, consumes 4 W power and satisfies the CubeSat weight and envelope constraints. PolarCube is scheduled for launch on a Virgin Galactic flight in summer, 2018. The estimated radiometer sensitivity, ΔTrms varies from 0.3 to 2 K across the eight channels. The 50 MHz to 7 GHz 8-channel filter bank (designed with surface mount capacitors and inductors) fits on a 9x5 cm2 RO4350B PCB and includes 2-stage amplification and detector circuitry. The scanning reflector with an 8 cm2 main aperture uses a 3D printed corrugated feed that includes a WR8 to WC8 waveguide transition with a 17° bend. Initial performance results from the instrument using the 3D printed feed and IF/VA board obtained from airborne measurements over Antarctica on the NASA DC8 in early November 2016 indicate a well-functioning radiometer. The end-to-end characterization of the payload with the satellite bus, performance results from vibration and thermal-vacuum tests and roof-top measurements will be presented.

Novel multi-beam radiometers for accurate ocean surveillance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cappellin, C.; Pontoppidan, K.; Nielsen, P. H.

2014-01-01

Novel antenna architectures for real aperture multi-beam radiometers providing high resolution and high sensitivity for accurate sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean vector wind (OVW) measurements are investigated. On the basis of the radiometer requirements set for future SST/OVW missions...

Microwave integrated circuit radiometer front-ends for the Push Broom Microwave Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, R. F.; Hearn, C. P.

1982-01-01

Microwave integrated circuit front-ends for the L-band, S-band and C-band stepped frequency null-balanced noise-injection Dicke-switched radiometer to be installed in the NASA Langley airborne prototype Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) are described. These front-ends were developed for the fixed frequency of 1.413 GHz and the variable frequencies of 1.8-2.8 GHz and 3.8-5.8 GHz. Measurements of the noise temperature of these units were made at 55.8 C, and the results of these tests are given. While the overall performance was reasonable, improvements need to be made in circuit losses and noise temperatures, which in the case of the C-band were from 1000 to 1850 K instead of the 500 K specified. Further development of the prototypes is underway to improve performance and extend the frequency range.

Calibration of Correlation Radiometers Using Pseudo-Random Noise Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastián Pantoja

2009-08-01

Full Text Available The calibration of correlation radiometers, and particularly aperture synthesis interferometric radiometers, is a critical issue to ensure their performance. Current calibration techniques are based on the measurement of the cross-correlation of receivers’ outputs when injecting noise from a common noise source requiring a very stable distribution network. For large interferometric radiometers this centralized noise injection approach is very complex from the point of view of mass, volume and phase/amplitude equalization. Distributed noise injection techniques have been proposed as a feasible alternative, but are unable to correct for the so-called “baseline errors” associated with the particular pair of receivers forming the baseline. In this work it is proposed the use of centralized Pseudo-Random Noise (PRN signals to calibrate correlation radiometers. PRNs are sequences of symbols with a long repetition period that have a flat spectrum over a bandwidth which is determined by the symbol rate. Since their spectrum resembles that of thermal noise, they can be used to calibrate correlation radiometers. At the same time, since these sequences are deterministic, new calibration schemes can be envisaged, such as the correlation of each receiver’s output with a baseband local replica of the PRN sequence, as well as new distribution schemes of calibration signals. This work analyzes the general requirements and performance of using PRN sequences for the calibration of microwave correlation radiometers, and particularizes the study to a potential implementation in a large aperture synthesis radiometer using an optical distribution network.

The JET ECE heterodyne radiometer and investigations of fast phenomena

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartlett, D.V.; Porte, L.

1993-01-01

In this paper, the design and performance characteristics of the JET heterodyne radiometer are reviewed, and some novel aspects of the instrument are described. Areas where the radiometer could benefit from further improvement are highlighted, and those improvements currently in progress are discussed. Some measurements which demonstrate the radiometer's power as a diagnostic of fast phenomena are presented. (orig.)

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE): Changing patterns in the use of NRT satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, D.; Michael, K.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Harrison, S.; Ding, F.; Durbin, P. B.; Boller, R. A.; Cechini, M. F.; Rinsland, P. L.; Ye, G.; Mauoka, E.

2015-12-01

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (Earth Observing System) (LANCE) provides data and imagery approximately 3 hours from satellite observation, to monitor natural events globally and to meet the needs of the near real-time (NRT) applications community. This article describes LANCE, and how the use of NRT data and imagery has evolved. Since 2010 there has been a four-fold increase in both the volume of data and the number of files downloaded. Over the last year there has been a marked shift in the way in which users are accessing NRT imagery; users are gravitating towards Worldview and the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) and away from MODIS Rapid Response, in part due to the increased exposure through social media. In turn this is leading to a broader range of users viewing NASA NRT imagery. This article also describes new, and planned, product enhancements to LANCE. Over the last year, LANCE has expanded to support NRT products from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). LANCE elements are also planning to ingest and process NRT data from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and the advanced Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instruments onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite in the near future.

Mapping global precipitation with satellite borne microwave radiometer and infrared radiometer using Kalman filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noda, S.; Sasashige, K.; Katagami, D.; Ushio, T.; Kubota, T.; Okamoto, K.; Iida, Y.; Kida, S.; Shige, S.; Shimomura, S.; Aonashi, K.; Inoue, T.; Morimoto, T.; Kawasaki, Z.

2007-01-01

Estimates of precipitation at a high time and space resolution are required for many important applications. In this paper, a new global precipitation map with high spatial (0.1 degree) and temporal (1 hour) resolution using Kalman filter technique is presented and evaluated. Infrared radiometer data, which are available globally nearly everywhere and nearly all the time from geostationary orbit, are used with the several microwave radiometers aboard the LEO satellites. IR data is used as a means to move the precipitation estimates from microwave observation during periods when microwave data are not available at a given location. Moving vector is produced by computing correlations on successive images of IR data. When precipitation is moved, the Kalman filter is applied for improving the moving technique in this research. The new approach showed a better score than the technique without Kalman filter. The correlation coefficient was 0.1 better than without the Kalman filter about 6 hours after the last microwave overpasses, and the RMS error was improved about 0.1 mm/h with the Kalman filter technique. This approach is unique in that 1) the precipitation estimates from the microwave radiometer is mainly used, 2) the IR temperature in every hour is also used for the precipitation estimates based on the Kalman filter theory

Microfluidic radiolabeling of biomolecules with PET radiometals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng Dexing; Desai, Amit V.; Ranganathan, David; Wheeler, Tobias D.; Kenis, Paul J.A.; Reichert, David E.

2013-01-01

Introduction: A robust, versatile and compact microreactor has been designed, fabricated and tested for the labeling of bifunctional chelate conjugated biomolecules (BFC-BM) with PET radiometals. Methods: The developed microreactor was used to radiolabel a chelate, either 1,4,7,10-Tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) or 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid (NOTA) that had been conjugated to cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-DPhe-Lys) peptide, with both 64 Cu and 68 Ga respectively. The microreactor radiolabeling conditions were optimized by varying temperature, concentration and residence time. Results: Direct comparisons between the microreactor approach and conventional methods showed improved labeling yields and increased reproducibility with the microreactor under identical labeling conditions, due to enhanced mass and heat transfer at the microscale. More importantly, over 90% radiolabeling yields (incorporation of radiometal) were achieved with a 1:1 stoichiometry of bifunctional chelate biomolecule conjugate (BFC-BM) to radiometal in the microreactor, which potentially obviates extensive chromatographic purification that is typically required to remove the large excess of unlabeled biomolecule in radioligands prepared using conventional methods. Moreover, higher yields for radiolabeling of DOTA-functionalized BSA protein (Bovine Serum Albumin) were observed with 64 Cu/ 68 Ga using the microreactor, which demonstrates the ability to label both small and large molecules. Conclusions: A robust, reliable, compact microreactor capable of chelating radiometals with common chelates has been developed and validated. Based on our radiolabeling results, the reported microfluidic approach overall outperforms conventional radiosynthetic methods, and is a promising technology for the radiometal labeling of commonly utilized BFC-BM in aqueous solutions.

L-Band Polarimetric Correlation Radiometer with Subharmonic Sampling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rotbøll, Jesper; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Skou, Niels

2001-01-01

A novel L-band radiometer trading analog complexity for digital ditto has been designed and built. It is a fully polarimetric radiometer of the correlation type and it is based on the sub-harmonic sampling principle in which the L-band signal is directly sampled by a fast A to D converter...

CAROLS: A New Airborne L-Band Radiometer for Ocean Surface and Land Observations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zribi, Mehrez; Parde, Mickael; Boutin, Jacquline

2011-01-01

The "Cooperative Airborne Radiometer for Ocean and Land Studies" (CAROLS) L-Band radiometer was designed and built as a copy of the EMIRAD II radiometer constructed by the Technical University of Denmark team. It is a fully polarimetric and direct sampling correlation radiometer. It is installed ...

Wideband filter radiometers for blackbody temperature measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Boivin, L. P.; Bamber, C.; Gaertner, A. A.; Gerson, R. K.; Woods, D. J.; Woolliams, E. R.

2010-10-01

The use of high-temperature blackbody (HTBB) radiators to realize primary spectral irradiance scales requires that the operating temperature of the HTBB be accurately determined. We have developed five filter radiometers (FRs) to measure the temperature of the National Research Council of Canada's HTBB. The FRs are designed to minimize sensitivity to ambient temperature fluctuations. They incorporate air-spaced colored glass filters and a Si photodiode detector that are housed in a cell whose temperature is controlled to ±0.1°C by means of annular thermoelectric elements at the front and rear of the cell. These wideband filter radiometers operate in four different wavelength bands. The spectral responsivity measurements were performed in an underfill geometry for a power-mode calibration that is traceable to NRC's cryogenic radiometer. The spectral temperature sensitivity of each of these FRs has been measured. The apertures for these FRs were cold-formed by swaging machine-cut apertures onto precision dowel pins. A description of the filter radiometer design, fabrication and testing, together with a detailed uncertainty analysis, is presented. We derive the equations that relate the spectral irradiance measured by the FRs to the spectral radiance and temperature of the HTBB, and deal specifically with the change of index of refraction over the path of the radiation from the interior of the HTBB to the FRs. We believe these equations are more accurate than recently published derivations. Our measurements of the operating temperature of our HTBB working at temperatures near 2500 K, 2700 K and 2900 K, together with measurements using a pyrometer, show agreement between the five filter radiometers and with the pyrometer to within the estimated uncertainties.

Microfluidic radiolabeling of biomolecules with PET radiometals.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Dexing; Desai, Amit V; Ranganathan, David; Wheeler, Tobias D; Kenis, Paul J A; Reichert, David E

2013-01-01

A robust, versatile and compact microreactor has been designed, fabricated and tested for the labeling of bifunctional chelate conjugated biomolecules (BFC-BM) with PET radiometals. The developed microreactor was used to radiolabel a chelate, either 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) or 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid (NOTA) that had been conjugated to cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-DPhe-Lys) peptide, with both ⁶⁴Cu and ⁶⁸Ga respectively. The microreactor radiolabeling conditions were optimized by varying temperature, concentration and residence time. Direct comparisons between the microreactor approach and conventional methods showed improved labeling yields and increased reproducibility with the microreactor under identical labeling conditions, due to enhanced mass and heat transfer at the microscale. More importantly, over 90% radiolabeling yields (incorporation of radiometal) were achieved with a 1:1 stoichiometry of bifunctional chelate biomolecule conjugate (BFC-BM) to radiometal in the microreactor, which potentially obviates extensive chromatographic purification that is typically required to remove the large excess of unlabeled biomolecule in radioligands prepared using conventional methods. Moreover, higher yields for radiolabeling of DOTA-functionalized BSA protein (Bovine Serum Albumin) were observed with ⁶⁴Cu/⁶⁸Ga using the microreactor, which demonstrates the ability to label both small and large molecules. A robust, reliable, compact microreactor capable of chelating radiometals with common chelates has been developed and validated. Based on our radiolabeling results, the reported microfluidic approach overall outperforms conventional radiosynthetic methods, and is a promising technology for the radiometal labeling of commonly utilized BFC-BM in aqueous solutions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Determination of total ozone from DMSP multichannel filter radiometer measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luther, F.M.; Weichel, R.L.

1992-01-01

The multichannel filter radiometer (MFR) infrared sensor was first flown in 1977 on a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D series satellite operated by the US Air Force. The first four satellites in this series carried MFR sensors from which total atmospheric column ozone amounts may be derived. The MFR sensor was the first cross-track scanning sensor capable of measuring ozone. MFR sensor infrared measurements are taken day and night. The satellites are in polar sun-synchronous orbits providing daily global coverage. The series of four sensors spans a data period of nearly three years. The MFR sensor measures infrared radiances for 16 channels. Total ozone amounts are determined from sets of radiance measurements using an empirical relationship that is developed using linear regression analysis. Total ozone is modeled as a linear combination of terms involving functions of the MFR radiances for four channels (1, 3, 7 and 16) and the secant of the zenith angle. The MFR scans side to side in discrete steps of 40. The MFR sensor takes infrared radiance measurements at 25 cross-track scanning locations every 32 seconds. The instrument could take a theoretical maximum of 67,500 measurements per day, although typically 35,000 - 45,000 measurements are taken per day

Calibration of the TUD Ku-band Synthetic Aperture Radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laursen, Brian; Skou, Niels

1995-01-01

The TUD Synthetic Aperture Radiometer is a 2-channel demonstration model that can simulate a thinned aperture radiometer having an unfilled aperture consisting of several small antenna elements. Aperture synthesis obtained by interferometric measurements using the antenna elements in pairs, follo...

Soil Moisture ActivePassive (SMAP) L-Band Microwave Radiometer Post-Launch Calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Jinzheng; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Misra, Sidharth; Dinnat, Emmanuel P.; Hudson, Derek; Le Vine, David M.; De Amici, Giovanni; Mohammed, Priscilla N.; Yueh, Simon H.; Meissner, Thomas

2016-01-01

The SMAP microwave radiometer is a fully-polarimetric L-band radiometer flown on the SMAP satellite in a 6 AM/ 6 PM sun-synchronous orbit at 685 km altitude. Since April, 2015, the radiometer is under calibration and validation to assess the quality of the radiometer L1B data product. Calibration methods including the SMAP L1B TA2TB (from Antenna Temperature (TA) to the Earth’s surface Brightness Temperature (TB)) algorithm and TA forward models are outlined, and validation approaches to calibration stability/quality are described in this paper including future work. Results show that the current radiometer L1B data satisfies its requirements.

Utilization of downscaled microwave satellite data and GRACE Total Water Storage anomalies for improving streamflow prediction in the Lower Mekong Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Lakshmi, V.; Gupta, M.; Bolten, J. D.

2016-12-01

The Mekong river is the world's eighth largest in discharge with draining an area of 795,000 km² from the Eastern watershed of the Tibetan Plateau to the Mekong Delta including, Myanmar, Laos PDR, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and three provinces of China. The populations in these countries are highly dependent on the Mekong River and they are vulnerable to the availability and quality of the water resources within the Mekong River Basin. Soil moisture is one of the most important hydrological cycle variables and is available from passive microwave satellite sensors (such as AMSR-E, SMOS and SMAP), but their spatial resolution is frequently too coarse for effective use by land managers and decision makers. The merging of satellite observations with numerical models has led to improved land surface predictions. Although performance of the models have been continuously improving, the laboratory methods for determining key hydraulic parameters are time consuming and expensive. The present study assesses a method to determine the effective soil hydraulic parameters using a downscaled microwave remote sensing soil moisture product based on the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E). The soil moisture downscaling algorithm is based on a regression relationship between 1-km MODIS land surface temperature and 1-km Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to produce an enhanced spatial resolution ASMR-E-based soil moisture product. Since the optimized parameters are based on the near surface soil moisture information, further constraints are applied during the numerical simulation through the assimilation of GRACE Total Water Storage (TWS) within the land surface model. This work improves the hydrological fluxes and the state variables are optimized and the optimal parameter values are then transferred for retrieving hydrological fluxes. To evaluate the performance of the system in helping improve

Evaluation of a Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System Over West Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Bolten, J. D.; Crow, W.; Zhan, X.; Jackson, T.; Reynolds, C.

2009-05-01

A crucial requirement of global crop yield forecasts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) is the regional characterization of surface and sub-surface soil moisture. However, due to the spatial heterogeneity and dynamic nature of precipitation events and resulting soil moisture, accurate estimation of regional land surface-atmosphere interactions based sparse ground measurements is difficult. IPAD estimates global soil moisture using daily estimates of minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation applied to a modified Palmer two-layer soil moisture model which calculates the daily amount of soil moisture withdrawn by evapotranspiration and replenished by precipitation. We attempt to improve upon the existing system by applying an Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system to integrate surface soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) into the USDA soil moisture model. This work aims at evaluating the utility of merging satellite-retrieved soil moisture estimates with the IPAD two-layer soil moisture model used within the DBMS. We present a quantitative analysis of the assimilated soil moisture product over West Africa (9°N- 20°N; 20°W-20°E). This region contains many key agricultural areas and has a high agro- meteorological gradient from desert and semi-arid vegetation in the North, to grassland, trees and crops in the South, thus providing an ideal location for evaluating the assimilated soil moisture product over multiple land cover types and conditions. A data denial experimental approach is utilized to isolate the added utility of integrating remotely-sensed soil moisture by comparing assimilated soil moisture results obtained using (relatively) low-quality precipitation products obtained from real-time satellite imagery to baseline model runs forced with higher quality rainfall. An analysis of root-zone anomalies for each model

Optimization of procedure for calibration with radiometer/photometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Detilly, Isabelle

2009-01-01

A test procedure for the radiometer/photometer calibrations mark International Light at the Laboratorio de Fotometria y Tecnologia Laser (LAFTA) de la Escuela de Ingenieria Electrica de la Universidad de Costa Rica is established. Two photometric banks are used as experimental set and two calibrations were performed of the International Light. A basic procedure established in the laboratory, is used for calibration from measurements of illuminance and luminous intensity. Some dependent variations of photometric banks used in the calibration process, the programming of the radiometer/photometer and the applied methodology showed the results. The procedure for calibration with radiometer/photometer can be improved by optimizing the programming process of the measurement instrument and possible errors can be minimized by using the recommended procedure. (author) [es

A New Way to Demonstrate the Radiometer as a Heat Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Hladkouski, V. I.; Pinchuk, A. I.

2015-01-01

While the radiometer is readily available as a toy, A. E. Woodruff notes that it is also a very useful tool to help us understand how to resolve certain scientific problems. Many physicists think they know how the radiometer works, but only a few actually understand it. Here we present a demonstration that shows that a radiometer can be thought of…

The Impact of Indoor and Outdoor Radiometer Calibration on Solar Measurements: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Habte, Aron; Sengupta, Manajit; Andreas, Afshin; Reda, Ibrahim; Robinson, Justin

2016-07-01

Accurate solar radiation data sets are critical to reducing the expenses associated with mitigating performance risk for solar energy conversion systems, and they help utility planners and grid system operators understand the impacts of solar resource variability. The accuracy of solar radiation measured by radiometers depends on the instrument performance specification, installation method, calibration procedure, measurement conditions, maintenance practices, location, and environmental conditions. This study addresses the effect of calibration methodologies and the resulting calibration responsivities provided by radiometric calibration service providers such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and manufacturers of radiometers. Some of these radiometers are calibrated indoors, and some are calibrated outdoors. To establish or understand the differences in calibration methodology, we processed and analyzed field-measured data from these radiometers. This study investigates calibration responsivities provided by NREL's broadband outdoor radiometer calibration (BORCAL) and a few prominent manufacturers. The reference radiometer calibrations are traceable to the World Radiometric Reference. These different methods of calibration demonstrated 1% to 2% differences in solar irradiance measurement. Analyzing these values will ultimately assist in determining the uncertainties of the radiometer data and will assist in developing consensus on a standard for calibration.

The development of the advanced cryogenic radiometer facility at NRC

Science.gov (United States)

Gamouras, A.; Todd, A. D. W.; Côté, É.; Rowell, N. L.

2018-02-01

The National Research Council (NRC) of Canada has established a next generation facility for the primary realization of optical radiant power. The main feature of this facility is a new cryogenic electrical substitution radiometer with a closed-cycle helium cryocooler. A monochromator-based approach allows for detector calibrations at any desired wavelength. A custom-designed motion apparatus includes two transfer standard radiometer mounting ports which has increased our measurement capability by allowing the calibration of two photodetectors in one measurement cycle. Measurement uncertainties have been improved through several upgrades, including newly designed and constructed transimpedance amplifiers for the transfer standard radiometers, and a higher power broadband light source. The most significant improvements in uncertainty arise from the enhanced characteristics of the new cryogenic radiometer including its higher cavity absorptance and reduced non-equivalence effects.

Aquarius L-Band Radiometers Calibration Using Cold Sky Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Dinnat, Emmanuel P.; Le Vine, David M.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Brown, Shannon T.; Hong, Liang

2015-01-01

An important element in the calibration plan for the Aquarius radiometers is to look at the cold sky. This involves rotating the satellite 180 degrees from its nominal Earth viewing configuration to point the main beams at the celestial sky. At L-band, the cold sky provides a stable, well-characterized scene to be used as a calibration reference. This paper describes the cold sky calibration for Aquarius and how it is used as part of the absolute calibration. Cold sky observations helped establish the radiometer bias, by correcting for an error in the spillover lobe of the antenna pattern, and monitor the long-term radiometer drift.

Improvements to the swath-level near-surface atmospheric state parameter retrievals within the NRL Ocean Surface Flux System (NFLUX)

Science.gov (United States)

May, J. C.; Rowley, C. D.; Meyer, H.

2017-12-01

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Ocean Surface Flux System (NFLUX) is an end-to-end data processing and assimilation system used to provide near-real-time satellite-based surface heat flux fields over the global ocean. The first component of NFLUX produces near-real-time swath-level estimates of surface state parameters and downwelling radiative fluxes. The focus here will be on the satellite swath-level state parameter retrievals, namely surface air temperature, surface specific humidity, and surface scalar wind speed over the ocean. Swath-level state parameter retrievals are produced from satellite sensor data records (SDRs) from four passive microwave sensors onboard 10 platforms: the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) sensor onboard the DMSP F16, F17, and F18 platforms; the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) sensor onboard the NOAA-15, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, Metop-A, and Metop-B platforms; the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) sensor onboard the S-NPP platform; and the Advanced Microwave Scannin Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor onboard the GCOM-W1 platform. The satellite SDRs are translated into state parameter estimates using multiple polynomial regression algorithms. The coefficients to the algorithms are obtained using a bootstrapping technique with all available brightness temperature channels for a given sensor, in addition to a SST field. For each retrieved parameter for each sensor-platform combination, unique algorithms are developed for ascending and descending orbits, as well as clear vs cloudy conditions. Each of the sensors produces surface air temperature and surface specific humidity retrievals. The SSMIS and AMSR2 sensors also produce surface scalar wind speed retrievals. Improvement is seen in the SSMIS retrievals when separate algorithms are used for the even and odd scans, with the odd scans performing better than the even scans. Currently, NFLUX treats all SSMIS scans as even scans. Additional improvement in all of

A novel L-band polarimetric radiometer featuring subharmonic sampling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rotbøll, J.; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Skou, Niels

2003-01-01

A novel L-band radiometer trading analog components for digital circuits has been designed, built and operated. It is a fully polarimetric radiometer of the correlation type, and it is based on the subharmonic sampling principle in which the L-band signal is directly sampled by a fast A to D...

Spaceborne L-band Radiometers: Push-broom or Synthetic Aperture?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

2004-01-01

L-band radiometers can measure ocean salinity and soil moisture from space. A synthetic aperture radiometer system, SMOS, is under development by ESA for launch in 2007. A real aperture push-broom system, Aquarius, has been approved by NASA for launch in 2008. Pros et cons of the two fundamentally...

Detection and retrieval of multi-layered cloud properties using satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Minnis, Patrick; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Chen, Yan; Yi, Helen; Huang, Jianping; Nguyen, Louis; Khaiyer, Mandana M.

2005-10-01

Four techniques for detecting multilayered clouds and retrieving the cloud properties using satellite data are explored to help address the need for better quantification of cloud vertical structure. A new technique was developed using multispectral imager data with secondary imager products (infrared brightness temperature differences, BTD). The other methods examined here use atmospheric sounding data (CO2-slicing, CO2), BTD, or microwave data. The CO2 and BTD methods are limited to optically thin cirrus over low clouds, while the MWR methods are limited to ocean areas only. This paper explores the use of the BTD and CO2 methods as applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer EOS (AMSR-E) data taken from the Aqua satellite over ocean surfaces. Cloud properties derived from MODIS data for the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Project are used to classify cloud phase and optical properties. The preliminary results focus on a MODIS image taken off the Uruguayan coast. The combined MW visible infrared (MVI) method is assumed to be the reference for detecting multilayered ice-over-water clouds. The BTD and CO2 techniques accurately match the MVI classifications in only 51 and 41% of the cases, respectively. Much additional study is need to determine the uncertainties in the MVI method and to analyze many more overlapped cloud scenes.

ICESat Observations of Seasonal and Interannual Variations of Sea-Ice Freeboard and Estimated Thickness in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica (2003-2009)

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Donghui; Robbins, John W.

2010-01-01

Sea-ice freeboard heights for 17 ICESat campaign periods from 2003 to 2009 are derived from ICESat data. Freeboard is combined with snow depth from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data and nominal densities of snow, water and sea ice, to estimate sea-ice thickness. Sea-ice freeboard and thickness distributions show clear seasonal variations that reflect the yearly cycle of growth and decay of the Weddell Sea (Antarctica) pack ice. During October-November, sea ice grows to its seasonal maximum both in area and thickness; the mean freeboards are 0.33-0.41 m and the mean thicknesses are 2.10-2.59 m. During February-March, thinner sea ice melts away and the sea-ice pack is mainly distributed in the west Weddell Sea; the mean freeboards are 0.35-0.46 m and the mean thicknesses are 1.48-1.94 m. During May-June, the mean freeboards and thicknesses are 0.26-0.29 m and 1.32-1.37 m, respectively. The 6 year trends in sea-ice extent and volume are (0.023+/-0.051) x 10(exp 6)sq km/a (0.45%/a) and (0.007+/-1.0.092) x 10(exp 3)cu km/a (0.08%/a); however, the large standard deviations indicate that these positive trends are not statistically significant.

Dual color radiometer imagery and test results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silver, A.; Carlen, F.; Link, D.; Zegel, F.

1989-01-01

This paper presents a review of the technical characteristics of the Dual Color Radiometer and recent data and test results. The Dual Color Radiometer is a state-of-the-art device that provides simultaneous pixel to pixel registered thermal imagery in both the 3 to 5 and 8 to 12 micron regions. The device is unique in terms of its spatial and temperature resolution of less than 0.10 degrees C temperature and 0.10 milliradian spatial resolution. In addition, the device is tailored for use by the Automatic Target Recognizer (ATR) community

Combined Radar-Radiometer Surface Soil Moisture and Roughness Estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Akbar, Ruzbeh; Cosh, Michael H.; O'Neill, Peggy E.; Entekhabi, Dara; Moghaddam, Mahta

2017-01-01

A robust physics-based combined radar-radiometer, or Active-Passive, surface soil moisture and roughness estimation methodology is presented. Soil moisture and roughness retrieval is performed via optimization, i.e., minimization, of a joint objective function which constrains similar resolution radar and radiometer observations simultaneously. A data-driven and noise-dependent regularization term has also been developed to automatically regularize and balance corresponding radar and radiometer contributions to achieve optimal soil moisture retrievals. It is shown that in order to compensate for measurement and observation noise, as well as forward model inaccuracies, in combined radar-radiometer estimation surface roughness can be considered a free parameter. Extensive Monte-Carlo numerical simulations and assessment using field data have been performed to both evaluate the algorithms performance and to demonstrate soil moisture estimation. Unbiased root mean squared errors (RMSE) range from 0.18 to 0.03 cm3cm3 for two different land cover types of corn and soybean. In summary, in the context of soil moisture retrieval, the importance of consistent forward emission and scattering development is discussed and presented.

The Aquarius Ocean Salinity Mission High Stability L-band Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Pellerano, Fernando A.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey; Triesky, Michael; Horgan, Kevin; Forgione, Joshua; Caldwell, James; Wilson, William J.; Yueh, Simon; Spencer, Michael; McWatters, Dalia;

Radiometer Calibration and Characterization (RCC) User's Manual: Windows Version 4.0

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andreas, Afshin M. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Wilcox, Stephen M. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-02-29

The Radiometer Calibration and Characterization (RCC) software is a data acquisition and data archival system for performing Broadband Outdoor Radiometer Calibrations (BORCAL). RCC provides a unique method of calibrating broadband atmospheric longwave and solar shortwave radiometers using techniques that reduce measurement uncertainty and better characterize a radiometer's response profile. The RCC software automatically monitors and controls many of the components that contribute to uncertainty in an instrument's responsivity. This is a user's manual and guide to the RCC software.

Current Operational Use of and Future Needs for Microwave Imagery at NOAA

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, M.; McWilliams, G.; Chang, P.

2017-12-01

There are many applications of microwave imagery served by NOAA's operational products and services. They include the use of microwave imagery and derived products for monitoring precipitation, tropical cyclones, sea surface temperature under all weather conditions, wind speed, snow and ice cover, and even soil moisture. All of NOAA's line offices including the National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research rely on microwave imagery. Currently microwave imagery products used by NOAA come from a constellation of satellites that includes Air Force's Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS), the Japanese Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR), the Navy's WindSat, and NASA's Global Precipitation Monitoring (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI). Follow-on missions for SSMIS are very uncertain, JAXA approval for a follow-on to AMSR2 is still pending, and GMI is a research satellite (lacking high-latitude coverage) with no commitment for operational continuity. Operational continuity refers to a series of satellites, so when one satellite reaches its design life a new satellite is launched. EUMETSAT has made a commitment to fly a microwave imager in the mid-morning orbit. China and Russia have demonstrated on-orbit microwave imagers. Of utmost importance to NOAA, however, is the quality, access, and latency of the data This presentation will focus on NOAA's current requirements for microwave imagery data which, for the most part, are being fulfilled by AMSR2, SSMIS, and WindSat. It will include examples of products and applications of microwave imagery at NOAA. We will also discuss future needs, especially for improved temporal resolution which hopefully can be met by an international constellation of microwave imagers. Finally, we will discuss what we are doing to address the potential gap in imagery.

Design and Development of the SMAP Microwave Radiometer Electronics

Science.gov (United States)

Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Medeiros, James J.; Horgan, Kevin A.; Brambora, Clifford K.; Estep, Robert H.

2014-01-01

The SMAP microwave radiometer will measure land surface brightness temperature at L-band (1413 MHz) in the presence of radio frequency interference (RFI) for soil moisture remote sensing. The radiometer design was driven by the requirements to incorporate internal calibration, to operate synchronously with the SMAP radar, and to mitigate the deleterious effects of RFI. The system design includes a highly linear super-heterodyne microwave receiver with internal reference loads and noise sources for calibration and an innovative digital signal processor and detection system. The front-end comprises a coaxial cable-based feed network, with a pair of diplexers and a coupled noise source, and radiometer front-end (RFE) box. Internal calibration is provided by reference switches and a common noise source inside the RFE. The RF back-end (RBE) downconverts the 1413 MHz channel to an intermediate frequency (IF) of 120 MHz. The IF signals are then sampled and quantized by high-speed analog-to-digital converters in the radiometer digital electronics (RDE) box. The RBE local oscillator and RDE sampling clocks are phase-locked to a common reference to ensure coherency between the signals. The RDE performs additional filtering, sub-band channelization, cross-correlation for measuring third and fourth Stokes parameters, and detection and integration of the first four raw moments of the signals. These data are packetized and sent to the ground for calibration and further processing. Here we discuss the novel features of the radiometer hardware particularly those influenced by the need to mitigate RFI.

Special aerosol sources for certification and test of aerosol radiometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belkina, S.K.; Zalmanzon, Y.E.; Kuznetsov, Y.V.; Rizin, A.I.; Fertman, D.E.

1991-01-01

The results are presented of the development and practical application of new radionuclide source types (Special Aerosol Sources (SAS)), that meet the international standard recommendations, which are used for certification and test of aerosol radiometers (monitors) using model aerosols of plutonium-239, strontium-yttrium-90 or uranium of natural isotope composition and certified against Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR national radioactive aerosol standard or by means of a reference radiometer. The original technology for source production allows the particular features of sampling to be taken into account as well as geometry and conditions of radionuclides radiation registration in the sample for the given type of radiometer. (author)

Special aerosol sources for certification and test of aerosol radiometers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belkina, S.K.; Zalmanzon, Y.E.; Kuznetsov, Y.V.; Rizin, A.I.; Fertman, D.E. (Union Research Institute of Instrumentation, Moscow (USSR))

1991-01-01

The results are presented of the development and practical application of new radionuclide source types (Special Aerosol Sources (SAS)), that meet the international standard recommendations, which are used for certification and test of aerosol radiometers (monitors) using model aerosols of plutonium-239, strontium-yttrium-90 or uranium of natural isotope composition and certified against Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR national radioactive aerosol standard or by means of a reference radiometer. The original technology for source production allows the particular features of sampling to be taken into account as well as geometry and conditions of radionuclides radiation registration in the sample for the given type of radiometer. (author).

The accuracy of SST retrievals from AATSR: An initial assessment through geophysical validation against in situ radiometers, buoys and other SST data sets

Science.gov (United States)

Corlett, G. K.; Barton, I. J.; Donlon, C. J.; Edwards, M. C.; Good, S. A.; Horrocks, L. A.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.; Merchant, C. J.; Minnett, P. J.; Nightingale, T. J.; Noyes, E. J.; O'Carroll, A. G.; Remedios, J. J.; Robinson, I. S.; Saunders, R. W.; Watts, J. G.

The Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) was launched on Envisat in March 2002. The AATSR instrument is designed to retrieve precise and accurate global sea surface temperature (SST) that, combined with the large data set collected from its predecessors, ATSR and ATSR-2, will provide a long term record of SST data that is greater than 15 years. This record can be used for independent monitoring and detection of climate change. The AATSR validation programme has successfully completed its initial phase. The programme involves validation of the AATSR derived SST values using in situ radiometers, in situ buoys and global SST fields from other data sets. The results of the initial programme presented here will demonstrate that the AATSR instrument is currently close to meeting its scientific objectives of determining global SST to an accuracy of 0.3 K (one sigma). For night time data, the analysis gives a warm bias of between +0.04 K (0.28 K) for buoys to +0.06 K (0.20 K) for radiometers, with slightly higher errors observed for day time data, showing warm biases of between +0.02 (0.39 K) for buoys to +0.11 K (0.33 K) for radiometers. They show that the ATSR series of instruments continues to be the world leader in delivering accurate space-based observations of SST, which is a key climate parameter.

C-band Joint Active/Passive Dual Polarization Sea Ice Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, M. R.; Gifford, C. M.; Winstead, N. S.; Walton, W. C.; Dietz, J. E.

2017-12-01

A technique for synergistically-combining high-resolution SAR returns with like-frequency passive microwave emissions to detect thin (Radar (SAR) is high resolution (5-100m) but because of cross section ambiguities automated algorithms have had difficulty separating thin ice types from water. The radiometric emissivity of thin ice versus water at microwave frequencies is generally unambiguous in the early stages of ice growth. The method, developed using RADARSAT-2 and AMSR-E data, uses higher-ordered statistics. For the SAR, the COV (coefficient of variation, ratio of standard deviation to mean) has fewer ambiguities between ice and water than cross sections, but breaking waves still produce ice-like signatures for both polarizations. For the radiometer, the PRIC (polarization ratio ice concentration) identifies areas that are unambiguously water. Applying cumulative statistics to co-located COV levels adaptively determines an ice/water threshold. Outcomes from extensive testing with Sentinel and AMSR-2 data are shown in the results. The detection algorithm was applied to the freeze-up in the Beaufort, Chukchi, Barents, and East Siberian Seas in 2015 and 2016, spanning mid-September to early November of both years. At the end of the melt, 6 GHz PRIC values are 5-10% greater than those reported by radiometric algorithms at 19 and 37 GHz. During freeze-up, COV separates grease ice (cross-pol/co-pol SAR ratio corrects for COV deficiencies. In general, the dual-sensor detection algorithm reports 10-15% higher total ice concentrations than operational scatterometer or radiometer algorithms, mostly from ice edge and coastal areas. In conclusion, the algorithm presented combines high-resolution SAR returns with passive microwave emissions for automated ice detection at SAR resolutions.

The multi-filter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) - precision infrared radiometer (PIR) platform in Fairbanks: Scientific objectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stamnes, K.; Leontieva, E. [Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks (United States)

1996-04-01

The multi-filter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) and precision infrared radiometer (PIR) have been employed at the Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks to check their performance under arctic conditions. Drawing on the experience of the previous measurements in the Arctic, the PIR was equipped with a ventilator to prevent frost and moisture build-up. We adopted the Solar Infrared Observing Sytem (SIROS) concept from the Southern Great Plains Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) to allow implementation of the same data processing software for a set of radiation and meteorological instruments. To validate the level of performance of the whole SIROS prior to its incorporation into the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Cloud and Radiation Testbed Site instrumental suite for flux radiatin measurements, the comparison between measurements and model predictions will be undertaken to assess the MFRSR-PIR Arctic data quality.

L-band brightness temperature disaggregation for use with S-band and C-band radiometer data for WCOM

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, P.; Shi, J.; Zhao, T.; Cosh, M. H.; Bindlish, R.

2017-12-01

There are two passive microwave sensors onboard the Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM), which includes a synthetic aperture radiometer operating at L-S-C bands and a scanning microwave radiometer operating from C- to W-bands. It provides a unique opportunity to disaggregate L-band brightness temperature (soil moisture) with S-band C-bands radiometer data. In this study, passive-only downscaling methodologies are developed and evaluated. Based on the radiative transfer modeling, it was found that the TBs (brightness temperature) between the L-band and S-band exhibit a linear relationship, and there is an exponential relationship between L-band and C-band. We carried out the downscaling results by two methods: (1) downscaling with L-S-C band passive measurements with the same incidence angle from payload IMI; (2) downscaling with L-C band passive measurements with different incidence angle from payloads IMI and PMI. The downscaling method with L-S bands with the same incident angle was first evaluated using SMEX02 data. The RMSE are 2.69 K and 1.52 K for H and V polarization respectively. The downscaling method with L-C bands is developed with different incident angles using SMEX03 data. The RMSE are 2.97 K and 2.68 K for H and V polarization respectively. These results showed that high-resolution L-band brightness temperature and soil moisture products could be generated from the future WCOM passive-only observations.

A simple method to minimize orientation effects in a profiling radiometer

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Suresh, T.; Talaulikar, M.; Desa, E.; Matondkar, S.G.P.; SrinivasaKumar, T.; Lotlikar, A.

-fall radiometer is found to be a better option for measuring underwater light parameters as it avoids the effects of ship shadow and is easy to operate, the measurements demand profiling the radiometer vertical in water with minimum tilt. Here we present...

Challenges in application of Active Cold Loads for microwave radiometer calibration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Balling, Jan E.; Skou, Niels

2012-01-01

Two Active Cold Loads (ACLs) for microwave radiometer calibration, operating at X-band, are evaluated with respect to important stability parameters. Using a stable radiometer system as test bed, absolute levels of 77 K and 55 K are found. This paper identifies and summarizes potential challenges...

Calibration of IR test chambers with the missile defense transfer radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, Simon G.; Woods, Solomon I.; Carter, Adriaan C.; Jung, Timothy M.

2013-05-01

The Missile Defense Transfer Radiometer (MDXR) is designed to calibrate infrared collimated and flood sources over the fW/cm2 to W/cm2 power range from 3 μm to 28μ m in wavelength. The MDXR operates in three different modes: as a filter radiometer, a Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS)-based spectroradiometer, and as an absolute cryogenic radiometer (ACR). Since 2010, the MDXR has made measurements of the collimated infrared irradiance at the output port of seven different infrared test chambers at several facilities. We present a selection of results from these calibration efforts compared to signal predictions from the respective chamber models for the three different MDXR calibration modes. We also compare the results to previous measurements made of the same chambers with a legacy transfer radiometer, the NIST BXR. In general, the results are found to agree within their combined uncertainties, with the MDXR having 30 % lower uncertainty and greater spectral coverage.

Monitored background radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruel, C.

1988-01-01

This radiometer accurately measures IR and solar spectrum radiation in a vacuum, and accounts for radiation loss from its sensing plate by measuring the housing temperature. Calibration is performed by measuring the temperature of the sensing plate and housing while power to a heater attached to the sensing plate is varied. The square of the difference between the measured power dissipation of the heater and the heat absorbed by the sensing plate as determined from the heat balance equation of the sensing plate is minimized to obtain calibration factors for the heat balance equation

Design of a rocket-borne radiometer for stratospheric ozone measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, R.A.; Simeth, P.G.

1989-01-01

A four-filter ultraviolet radiometer for measuring stratospheric ozone is described. The payload is launched aboard a Super-Loki rocket to an apogee of 70 km. The instrument measures the solar ultraviolet irradiance over its filter wavelengths as it descends on a parachute. The amount of ozone in the path between the radiometer and the sun is calculated from the attenuation of solar flux using the Beer-Lambert law. Radar at the launch site measures the height of the instrument throughout its flight. The fundamental ozone value measured by the ROCOZ-A radiometer is the vertical ozone overburden as a function of geometric altitude. Ozone measurements are obtained for altitudes from 55 to 20 km, extending well above the altitude range of balloon-borne ozone-measuring instruments. The optics and electronics in the radiometer have been designed within relatively severe size and weight limitations imposed by the launch vehicle. The electronics in the improved rocket ozonesonde (ROCOZ-A) provide essentially drift-free outputs throughout 40-min ozone soundings at stratospheric temperatures. The modest cost of the payload precludes recovery and makes the instrument a versatile tool compared to larger ozonesondes

Comparison of global cloud liquid water path derived from microwave measurements with CERES-MODIS

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Y.; Minnis, P.; Huang, J.; Lin, B.; Ayers, K.; Sun-Mack, S.; Fan, A.

Cloud liquid water path LWP is a crucial parameter for climate studies due to the link that it provides between the atmospheric hydrological and radiative budgets Satellite-based visible infrared techniques such as the Visible Infrared Solar Split-Window Technique VISST can retrieve LWP for water clouds assumes single-layer over a variety of surfaces If the water clouds are overlapped by ice clouds the LWP of the underlying clouds can not be retrieved by such techniques However microwave techniques may be used to retrieve the LWP underneath ice clouds due to the microwave s insensitivity to cloud ice particles LWP is typically retrieved from satellite-observed microwave radiances only over ocean due to variations of land surface temperature and emissivity Recently Deeter and Vivekanandan 2006 developed a new technique for retrieving LWP over land In order to overcome the sensitivity to land surface temperature and emissivity their technique is based on a parameterization of microwave polarization-difference signals In this study a similar regression-based technique for retrieving LWP over land and ocean using Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS AMSR-E measurements is developed Furthermore the microwave surface emissivities are also derived using clear-sky fields of view based on the Clouds and Earth s Radiant Energy System Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer CERES-MODIS cloud mask These emissivities are used in an alternate form of the technique The results are evaluated using independent measurements such

CAROLS: A New Airborne L-Band Radiometer for Ocean Surface and Land Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ernesto Lopez-Baeza

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The “Cooperative Airborne Radiometer for Ocean and Land Studies” (CAROLS L-Band radiometer was designed and built as a copy of the EMIRAD II radiometer constructed by the Technical University of Denmark team. It is a fully polarimetric and direct sampling correlation radiometer. It is installed on board a dedicated French ATR42 research aircraft, in conjunction with other airborne instruments (C-Band scatterometer—STORM, the GOLD-RTR GPS system, the infrared CIMEL radiometer and a visible wavelength camera. Following initial laboratory qualifications, three airborne campaigns involving 21 flights were carried out over South West France, the Valencia site and the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean in 2007, 2008 and 2009, in coordination with in situ field campaigns. In order to validate the CAROLS data, various aircraft flight patterns and maneuvers were implemented, including straight horizontal flights, circular flights, wing and nose wags over the ocean. Analysis of the first two campaigns in 2007 and 2008 leads us to improve the CAROLS radiometer regarding isolation between channels and filter bandwidth. After implementation of these improvements, results show that the instrument is conforming to specification and is a useful tool for Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS satellite validation as well as for specific studies on surface soil moisture or ocean salinity.

A cost effective total power radiometer package for atmospheric research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyons, B.N.; Kelly, W.M.; Vizard, D.R.; Lidholm, U.S.

1993-01-01

Millimeter wave radiometers are being increasingly used for plasma diagnostics and remote sensing applications. To date however the widespread use of such systems, particularly for applications requiring frequency coverage above 100 GHz, have been inhibited by the lack of availability of an appropriately specified commercial package. This paper outlines the design and construction of such a radiometer package and gives details of results obtained to date

Modeling the Observed Microwave Emission from Shallow Multi-Layer Tundra Snow Using DMRT-ML

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nastaran Saberi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The observed brightness temperatures (Tb at 37 GHz from typical moderate density dry snow in mid-latitudes decreases with increasing snow water equivalent (SWE due to volume scattering of the ground emissions by the overlying snow. At a certain point, however, as SWE increases, the emission from the snowpack offsets the scattering of the sub-nivean emission. In tundra snow, the Tb slope reversal occurs at shallower snow thicknesses. While it has been postulated that the inflection point in the seasonal time series of observed Tb V 37 GHz of tundra snow is controlled by the formation of a thick wind slab layer, the simulation of this effect has yet to be confirmed. Therefore, the Dense Media Radiative Transfer Theory for Multi Layered (DMRT-ML snowpack is used to predict the passive microwave response from airborne observations over shallow, dense, slab-layered tundra snow. Airborne radiometer observations coordinated with ground-based in situ snow measurements were acquired in the Canadian high Arctic near Eureka, NT, in April 2011. The DMRT-ML was parameterized with the in situ snow measurements using a two-layer snowpack and run in two configurations: a depth hoar and a wind slab dominated pack. With these two configurations, the calibrated DMRT-ML successfully predicted the Tb V 37 GHz response (R correlation of 0.83 when compared with the observed airborne Tb footprints containing snow pits measurements. Using this calibrated model, the DMRT-ML was applied to the whole study region. At the satellite observation scale, observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E over the study area reflected seasonal differences between Tb V 37 GHz and Tb V 19 GHz that supports the hypothesis of the development of an early season volume scattering depth hoar layer, followed by the growth of the late season emission-dominated wind slab layer. This research highlights the necessity to consider the two

The performance of the new enhanced-resolution satellite passive microwave dataset applied for snow water equivalent estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, J.; Durand, M. T.; Jiang, L.; Liu, D.

2017-12-01

The newly-processed NASA MEaSures Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Brightness Temperature (CETB) reconstructed using antenna measurement response function (MRF) is considered to have significantly improved fine-resolution measurements with better georegistration for time-series observations and equivalent field of view (FOV) for frequencies with the same monomial spatial resolution. We are looking forward to its potential for the global snow observing purposes, and therefore aim to test its performance for characterizing snow properties, especially the snow water equivalent (SWE) in large areas. In this research, two candidate SWE algorithms will be tested in China for the years between 2005 to 2010 using the reprocessed TB from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E), with the results to be evaluated using the daily snow depth measurements at over 700 national synoptic stations. One of the algorithms is the SWE retrieval algorithm used for the FengYun (FY) - 3 Microwave Radiation Imager. This algorithm uses the multi-channel TB to calculate SWE for three major snow regions in China, with the coefficients adapted for different land cover types. The second algorithm is the newly-established Bayesian Algorithm for SWE Estimation with Passive Microwave measurements (BASE-PM). This algorithm uses the physically-based snow radiative transfer model to find the histogram of most-likely snow property that matches the multi-frequency TB from 10.65 to 90 GHz. It provides a rough estimation of snow depth and grain size at the same time and showed a 30 mm SWE RMS error using the ground radiometer measurements at Sodankyla. This study will be the first attempt to test it spatially for satellite. The use of this algorithm benefits from the high resolution and the spatial consistency between frequencies embedded in the new dataset. This research will answer three questions. First, to what extent can CETB increase the heterogeneity in the mapped SWE? Second, will

Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Measurements of CO2 in the Atmospheric Column

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, E. L.; Mclinden, M. L.; Miller, J. H.; Allan, G. R.; Lott, L. E.; Melroy, H. R.; Clarke, G. B.

2013-01-01

We have developed a low-cost, miniaturized laser heterodyne radiometer for highly sensitive measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmospheric column. In this passive design, sunlight that has undergone absorption by CO2 in the atmosphere is collected and mixed with continuous wave laser light that is step-scanned across the absorption feature centered at 1,573.6 nm. The resulting radio frequency beat signal is collected as a function of laser wavelength, from which the total column mole fraction can be de-convolved. We are expanding this technique to include methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), and with minor modifications, this technique can be expanded to include species such as water vapor (H2O) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Radiometric calibration of the reflective bands of NS001-Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) and modular multispectral radiometers (MMR)

Science.gov (United States)

Markham, Brian L.; Wood, Frank M., Jr.; Ahmad, Suraiya P.

1988-01-01

The NS001 Thematic Mapper Simulator scanner (TMS) and several modular multispectral radiometers (MMRs) are among the primary instruments used in the First ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment (FIFE). The NS001 has a continuously variable gain setting. Calibration of the NS001 data is influenced by drift in the dark current level of up to six counts during a mirror scan at typical gain settings. The MMR instruments are being used in their 1 deg FOV configuration on the helicopter and 15 deg FOV on the ground.

A new real time infrared background discrimination radiometer (BDR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kopolovich, Z.; Cabib, D.; Buckwald, R.A.

1989-01-01

This paper reports on a new radiometer (BDR) that has been developed, which discriminates small differences between an object and its surrounding background, and is able to measure an object's changing contrast when the contrast of a moving object is to be measured against a changing background. The difference in radiant emittance of a small object against its background or of two objects with respect to each other and this difference is small compared to the emittance itself. Practical examples of such measurements are contrast measurements of airplanes and missiles in flight, contrast measurements of small, weak objects on a warm background and uniformity measurements of radiant emittance from an object's surface. Previous instruments were unable to make such measurements since the process of contrast measurement with a fixed field of view radiometer is too slow for implementation on flying objects; detection of a small difference between two large DC signals is impossible in a traditional fixed field of view radiometer when the instrument itself is saturated

HURRICANE AND SEVERE STORM SENTINEL (HS3) HURRICANE IMAGING RADIOMETER (HIRAD) V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) was collected by the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD), which was a multi-band...

The Impact of Indoor and Outdoor Radiometer Calibration on Solar Measurements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Habte, Aron; Sengupta, Manajit; Andreas, Afshin; Reda, Ibrahim; Robinson, Justin

2016-06-02

This study addresses the effect of calibration methodologies on calibration responsivities and the resulting impact on radiometric measurements. The calibration responsivities used in this study are provided by NREL's broadband outdoor radiometer calibration (BORCAL) and a few prominent manufacturers. The BORCAL method provides outdoor calibration responsivity of pyranometers and pyrheliometers at a 45 degree solar zenith angle and responsivity as a function of solar zenith angle determined by clear-sky comparisons to reference irradiance. The BORCAL method also employs a thermal offset correction to the calibration responsivity of single-black thermopile detectors used in pyranometers. Indoor calibrations of radiometers by their manufacturers are performed using a stable artificial light source in a side-by-side comparison of the test radiometer under calibration to a reference radiometer of the same type. These different methods of calibration demonstrated 1percent to 2 percent differences in solar irradiance measurement. Analyzing these values will ultimately enable a reduction in radiometric measurement uncertainties and assist in developing consensus on a standard for calibration.

Real-time millimeter-wave imaging radiometer for avionic synthetic vision

Science.gov (United States)

Lovberg, John A.; Chou, Ri-Chee; Martin, Christopher A.

1994-07-01

ThermoTrex Corporation (TTC) has developed an imaging radiometer, the passive microwave camera (PMC), that uses an array of frequency-scanned antennas coupled to a multi-channel acousto-optic (Bragg cell) spectrum analyzer to form visible images of a scene through acquisition of thermal blackbody radiation in the millimeter-wave spectrum. The output of the Bragg cell is imaged by a standard video camera and passed to a computer for normalization and display at real-time frame rates. One application of this system could be its incorporation into an enhanced vision system to provide pilots with a clear view of the runway during fog and other adverse weather conditions. The unique PMC system architecture will allow compact large-aperture implementations because of its flat antenna sensor. Other potential applications include air traffic control, all-weather area surveillance, fire detection, and security. This paper describes the architecture of the TTC PMC and shows examples of images acquired with the system.

Evaluation of Radiometers Deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Solar Radiation Research Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Habte, Aron; Wilcox, Stephen; Stoffel, Thomas

2015-12-23

This study analyzes the performance of various commercially available radiometers used for measuring global horizontal irradiances and direct normal irradiances. These include pyranometers, pyrheliometers, rotating shadowband radiometers, and a pyranometer with fixed internal shading and are all deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Solar Radiation Research Laboratory. Data from 32 global horizontal irradiance and 19 direct normal irradiance radiometers are presented. The radiometers in this study were deployed for one year (from April 1, 2011, through March 31, 2012) and compared to measurements from radiometers with the lowest values of estimated measurement uncertainties for producing reference global horizontal irradiances and direct normal irradiances.

Radiometers for radon concentration in air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartak, J.; Machaj, B.; Pienkos, J.P.

2002-01-01

Constant grow of science and technology stimulates development of new improved measuring tools. New measuring demand arise also in radon concentration measurements. Varying rock stress and rock cracks influencing radon emanation encouraged research aimed at use of this phenomenon to predict crumps of mine formation among others based on variation of radon emanation. A measuring set was developed in the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology enabling long term monitoring of radon concentration in mine bore-hole. The set consists probe and probe controller. Detection threshold of the probe is 230 Bq/m 3 . The set can operate in the environment with methane explosion hazard. A radiometer employing Lucas cell as radiation detector for radon concentration in air was also developed its detection threshold is approx. 10 Bq/m 3 . Replaceable Lucas cell of the radiometer allows for measurement of high as well as low radon concentration in short time interval. (author)

Development of a High-Stability Microstrip-based L-band Radiometer for Ocean Salinity Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Pellerano, Fernando A.; Horgan, Kevin A.; Wilson, William J.; Tanner, Alan B.

2004-01-01

The development of a microstrip-based L-band Dicke radiometer with the long-term stability required for future ocean salinity measurements to an accuracy of 0.1 psu is presented. This measurement requires the L-band radiometers to have calibration stabilities of less than or equal to 0.05 K over 2 days. This research has focused on determining the optimum radiometer requirements and configuration to achieve this objective. System configuration and component performance have been evaluated with radiometer test beds at both JPL and GSFC. The GSFC testbed uses a cryogenic chamber that allows long-term characterization at radiometric temperatures in the range of 70 - 120 K. The research has addressed several areas including component characterization as a function of temperature and DC bias, system linearity, optimum noise diode injection calibration, and precision temperature control of components. A breadboard radiometer, utilizing microstrip-based technologies, has been built to demonstrate this long-term stability.

GRIP HURRICANE IMAGING RADIOMETER (HIRAD) V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GRIP Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) V1 dataset contains measurements of brightness temperature taken at 4, 5, 6 and 6.6 GHz, as well as MERRA 2 m wind...

Millimeter radiometer system technology

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, W. J.; Swanson, P. N.

1989-07-01

JPL has had a large amount of experience with spaceborne microwave/millimeter wave radiometers for remote sensing. All of the instruments use filled aperture antenna systems from 5 cm diameter for the microwave Sounder Units (MSU), 16 m for the microwave limb sounder (MLS) to 20 m for the large deployable reflector (LDR). The advantages of filled aperture antenna systems are presented. The requirements of the 10 m Geoplat antenna system, 10 m multified antenna, and the MLS are briefly discussed.

Measurement of radiosity coefficient by means of an infrared radiometer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okamoto, Yoshizo; Kaminaga, Fumito; Osakabe, Masahiro; Maekawa, Katsuhiro [Ibaraki Univ., Hitachi (Japan). Faculty of Engineering; Ishii, Toshimitsu; Ouoka, Norikazu; Etou, Motokuni

1991-02-01

An infrared radiometer has been used for measuring and visualizing the radiation temperature distribution of a surface in many fields. Measured radiation energy by the radiometer is a summation of an emitted radiation and a reflection, which is called a radiosity flux. The present paper shows the characteristics of the radiosity of tested materials. The infrared sensor in used to measure the erosion rate of the graphite by ion beam injection and the temperature distribution of a cutter. (author).

Measurement of radiosity coefficient by means of an infrared radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okamoto, Yoshizo; Kaminaga, Fumito; Osakabe, Masahiro; Maekawa, Katsuhiro; Ishii, Toshimitsu; Ouoka, Norikazu; Etou, Motokuni.

1991-01-01

An infrared radiometer has been used for measuring and visualizing the radiation temperature distribution of a surface in many fields. Measured radiation energy by the radiometer is a summation of an emitted radiation and a reflection, which is called a radiosity flux. The present paper shows the characteristics of the radiosity of tested materials. The infrared sensor in used to measure the erosion rate of the graphite by ion beam injection and the temperature distribution of a cutter. (author)

Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) Radiometer Subband Calibration and Calibration Drift

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Jinzheng; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; De Amici, Giovanni; Mohammed, Priscilla

2016-01-01

The SMAP is one of four first-tier missions recommended by the US National Research Council's Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, Space Studies Board, National Academies Press, 2007)]. The observatory was launched on Jan 31, 2015. The goal of the SMAP is to measure the global soil moisture and freeze/thaw from space. The L-band radiometer is the passive portion of the spaceborne instrument. It measures all four Stokes antenna temperatures and outputs counts. The Level 1B Brightness Temperature (L1B_TB) science algorithm converts radiometer counts to the Earths surface brightness temperature. The results are reported in the radiometer level 1B data product together with the calibrated antenna temperature (TA) and all of the corrections to the unwanted sources contribution. The calibrated L1B data product are required to satisfy the overall radiometer error budget of 1.3 K needed to meet the soil moisture requirement of 0.04 volumetric fraction uncertainty and the calibration drift requirement of no larger than 0.4 K per month.

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Radiometer Subband Calibration and Calibration Drift

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Jinzheng; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; De Amici, Giovanni; Mohammed, Priscilla N.

2016-01-01

The SMAP is one of four first-tier missions recommended by the US National Research Council's Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, Space Studies Board, National Academies Press, 2007). The observatory was launched on Jan 31, 2015. The goal of the SMAP is to measure the global soil moisture and freeze/thaw from space. The L-band radiometer is the passive portion of the spaceborne instrument. It measures all four Stokes antenna temperatures and outputs counts. The Level 1B Brightness Temperature (L1B_TB) science algorithm converts radiometer counts to the Earths surface brightness temperature. The results are reported in the radiometer level 1B data product together with the calibrated antenna temperature (TA) and all of the corrections to the unwanted sources contribution. The calibrated L1B data product are required to satisfy the overall radiometer error budget of 1.3 K needed to meet the soil moisture requirement of 0.04 volumetric fraction uncertainty and the calibration drift requirement of no larger than 0.4 K per month.

Narrow Field of View Zenith Radiometer (NFOV) Handbook

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chiu, C; Marshak, A; Hodges, G; Barnard, JC; Schmelzer, J

2008-11-01

The two-channel narrow field-of-view radiometer (NFOV2) is a ground-based radiometer that looks straight up and measures radiance directly above the instrument at wavelengths of 673 and 870 nm. The field-of-view of the instrument is 1.2 degrees, and the sampling time resolution is one second. Measurements of the NFOV2 have been used to retrieve optical properties for overhead clouds that range from patchy to overcast. With a one-second sampling rate of the NFOV2, faster than almost any other ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) instrument, we are able, for the first time, to capture changes in cloud optical properties at the natural time scale of cloud evolution.

PERBANDINGAN PENGUKURAN RADIOMETER DAN RADIOSONDE PADA MUSIM HUJAN DI DRAMAGA BOGOR

OpenAIRE

Athoillah, Ibnu; Dewi, Saraswati; Renggono, Findy

2016-01-01

IntisariBalai Besar Teknologi Modifikasi Cuaca (BB-TMC) BPPT bekerjasama dengan Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) melakukan kegiatan Intensive Observation Period (IOP) selama puncak musim hujan pada tanggal 18 Januari - 16 Februari 2016 di wilayah Jabodetabek. Salah satu peralatan yang digunakan untuk observasi adalah Radiometer dan Radiosonde. Pada penelitian ini akan difokuskan bagaimana perbandingan hasil dari pengukuran Radiometer dan Radiosonde selama kegiatan IOP teruta...

Optimum Image Formation for Spaceborne Microwave Radiometer Products.

Science.gov (United States)

Long, David G; Brodzik, Mary J

2016-05-01

This paper considers some of the issues of radiometer brightness image formation and reconstruction for use in the NASA-sponsored Calibrated Passive Microwave Daily Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature Earth System Data Record project, which generates a multisensor multidecadal time series of high-resolution radiometer products designed to support climate studies. Two primary reconstruction algorithms are considered: the Backus-Gilbert approach and the radiometer form of the scatterometer image reconstruction (SIR) algorithm. These are compared with the conventional drop-in-the-bucket (DIB) gridded image formation approach. Tradeoff study results for the various algorithm options are presented to select optimum values for the grid resolution, the number of SIR iterations, and the BG gamma parameter. We find that although both approaches are effective in improving the spatial resolution of the surface brightness temperature estimates compared to DIB, SIR requires significantly less computation. The sensitivity of the reconstruction to the accuracy of the measurement spatial response function (MRF) is explored. The partial reconstruction of the methods can tolerate errors in the description of the sensor measurement response function, which simplifies the processing of historic sensor data for which the MRF is not known as well as modern sensors. Simulation tradeoff results are confirmed using actual data.

Sources of errors in the measurements of underwater profiling radiometer

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Silveira, N.; Suresh, T.; Talaulikar, M.; Desa, E.; Matondkar, S.G.P.; Lotlikar, A.

to meet the stringent quality requirements of marine optical data for satellite ocean color sensor validation, development of algorithms and other related applications, it is very essential to take great care while measuring these parameters. There are two... of the pelican hook. The radiometer dives vertically and the cable is paid out with less tension, keeping in tandem with the descent of the radiometer while taking care to release only the required amount of cable. The operation of the release mechanism lever...

Japanese Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission status and application of satellite-based global rainfall map

Science.gov (United States)

Kachi, Misako; Shimizu, Shuji; Kubota, Takuji; Yoshida, Naofumi; Oki, Riko; Kojima, Masahiro; Iguchi, Toshio; Nakamura, Kenji

2010-05-01

As accuracy of satellite precipitation estimates improves and observation frequency increases, application of those data to societal benefit areas, such as weather forecasts and flood predictions, is expected, in addition to research of precipitation climatology to analyze precipitation systems. There is, however, limitation on single satellite observation in coverage and frequency. Currently, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is scheduled under international collaboration to fulfill various user requirements that cannot be achieved by the single satellite, like the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). The GPM mission is an international mission to achieve high-accurate and high-frequent rainfall observation over a global area. GPM is composed of a TRMM-like non-sun-synchronous orbit satellite (GPM core satellite) and constellation of satellites carrying microwave radiometer instruments. The GPM core satellite carries the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), which is being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and microwave radiometer provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Development of DPR instrument is in good progress for scheduled launch in 2013, and DPR Critical Design Review has completed in July - September 2009. Constellation satellites, which carry a microwave imager and/or sounder, are planned to be launched around 2013 by each partner agency for its own purpose, and will contribute to extending coverage and increasing frequency. JAXA's future mission, the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) - Water (GCOM-W) satellite will be one of constellation satellites. The first generation of GCOM-W satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2011, and it carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), which is being developed based on the experience of the AMSR-E on EOS Aqua satellite

Manual of program operation for data analysis from radiometer system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva Mello, L.A.R. da; Migliora, C.G.S.

1987-12-01

This manual describes how to use the software to retrieve and analyse data from radiometer systems and raingauges used in the 12 GHz PROPAGATION MEASUREMENTS/CANADA - TELEBRAS COOPERATION PROGRAM. The data retrieval and analisys is being carried out by CETUC, as part of the activities of the project Simulacao de Enlaces Satelite (SES). The software for these tasks has been supplied by the Canadian Research Centre (CRC), together with the measurement equipment. The two following sections describe the use of the data retrieval routines and the data analysis routines of program ATTEN. Also, a quick reference guide for commands that can be used when a microcomputer is local or remotely connected to a radiometer indoor unit is included as a last section. A more detailed description of these commands, their objectives and cautions that should de taken when using them can be found in the manual ''12 GHz Propagation Measurements System - Volume 1 - Dual Slope Radiometer and Data Aquisition System'', supplied by Diversitel Communications Inc. (author) [pt

Scanning Mechanism of the FY-3 Microwave Humidity Sounder

Science.gov (United States)

Schmid, Manfred; Jing, Li; Hehr, Christian

2010-01-01

Astrium GmbH Germany, developed the scanning equipment for the instrument package of the MicroWave Humidity Sounder (MWHS) flying on the FY-3 meteorological satellite (FY means Feng Yun, Wind and Cloud) in a sun-synchronized orbit of 850-km altitude and at an inclination of 98.8 . The scanning mechanism rotates at variable velocity comprising several acceleration / deceleration phases during each revolution. The Scanning Mechanism contains two output shafts, each rotating a parabolic offset Antenna Reflector. The mechanism is operated in closed loop by means of redundant control electronics. MWHS is a sounding radiometer for measurement of global atmospheric water vapour profiles. An Engineering Qualification Model was developed and qualified and a first Flight Model was launched early 2008. The system is now working for more than two years successful in orbit. A second Flight Model of the Antenna Scanning Mechanism and of its associated control electronics was built and delivered to the customer for application on the follow-on spacecraft that will be launched by the end of 2010.

First TSI observations of the new Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer (CLARA)

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, B.; Finsterle, W.; Koller, S.; Levesque, P. L.; Pfiffner, D.; Schmutz, W. K.

2017-12-01

Continuous and precise Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) measurements are indispensable to evaluate the influence of short- and long-term solar radiative emission variations on the Earth's energy budget. The existence of a potentially long-term trend in the suns activity and whether or not such a trend could be climate effective is still a matter of debate. The Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer (CLARA) is one of PMOD/WRC's future contributions to the almost seamless series of space borne TSI measurements since 1978. CLARA is one of three payloads of the Norwegian micro satellite NORSAT-1, along with Langmuir probes for space plasma research and an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver to monitor maritime traffic in Norwegian waters. NORSAT-1 was launched July 14th 2017 and the nominal operation of CLARA will start after the instrument commissioning beginning August 21st2017. We present the design, calibration and first TSI observations of CLARA, a new generation of active cavity Electrical Substitution Radiometers (ESR) comprising the latest radiometer developments of PMOD/WRC: i) A three-cavity design for degradation tracking and redundancy, ii) a digital control loop with feed forward system allowing for measurement cadences of 30s, iii) an aperture arrangement to reduce internal scattered light and iv) a new cavity and heatsink design to minimize non-equivalence, size and weight of the instrument. CLARA was end-to-end calibrated against the SI traceable cryogenic radiometer of the TSI Radiometer Facility (TRF) in Boulder (Colorado). The absolute measurement uncertainties for the three SI-traceable TSI detectors of CLARA are 567, 576 and 912 ppm (k = 1).

Calibration of aerosol radiometers. Special aerosol sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belkina, S.K.; Zalmanzon, Yu.E.; Kuznetsov, Yu.V.; Fertman, D.E.

1988-01-01

Problems of calibration of artificial aerosol radiometry and information-measurement systems of radiometer radiation control, in particular, are considered. Special aerosol source is suggested, which permits to perform certification and testing of aerosol channels of the systems in situ without the dismantling

Monolithic microwave integrated circuit water vapor radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Sukamto, L. M.; Cooley, T. W.; Janssen, M. A.; Parks, G. S.

1991-01-01

A proof of concept Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) is under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). WVR's are used to remotely sense water vapor and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere and are valuable for meteorological applications as well as for determination of signal path delays due to water vapor in the atmosphere. The high cost and large size of existing WVR instruments motivate the development of miniature MMIC WVR's, which have great potential for low cost mass production. The miniaturization of WVR components allows large scale deployment of WVR's for Earth environment and meteorological applications. Small WVR's can also result in improved thermal stability, resulting in improved calibration stability. Described here is the design and fabrication of a 31.4 GHz MMIC radiometer as one channel of a thermally stable WVR as a means of assessing MMIC technology feasibility.

Balloon-borne radiometer profiler: Field observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shaw, W.J.; Whiteman, C.D.; Anderson, G.A.; Alzheimer, J.M.; Hubbe, J.M.; Scott, K.A.

1995-03-01

This project involves the development of the capability of making routine soundings of broadband radiative fluxes and radiative flux divergences to heights of 1500m AGL. Described in this document are radiometers carried on a stabilized platform in a harness inserted in the tetherline of a tethered balloon meteriological sounding system. Field test results are given

Compact Front-end Prototype for Next Generation RFI-rejecting Polarimetric L-band Radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Brian Sveistrup; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Skou, Niels

2009-01-01

Realizing the need for lower noise figure and smaller physical size in todays higly sensitive radiometers, this paper presents a new compact analog front-end (AFE) for use with the existing L-band (1400-1427 MHz) radiometer designed and operated by the Technical University of Denmark. Using subha...

Tile Drainage Expansion Detection using Satellite Soil Moisture Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, J. M.; Cho, E.; Jia, X.

2017-12-01

In the past two decades, tile drainage installation has accelerated throughout the Red River of the North Basin (RRB) in parts of western Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, and a small area of northeastern South Dakota, because the flat topography and low-permeability soils in this region necessitated the removal of excess water to improve crop production. Interestingly, streamflow in the Red River has markedly increased and six of 13 major floods during the past century have occurred since the late 1990s. It has been suggested that the increase in RRB flooding could be due to change in agricultural practices, including extensive tile drainage installation. Reliable information on existing and future tile drainage installation is greatly needed to capture the rapid extension of tile drainage systems and to locate tile drainage systems in the north central U.S. including the RRB region. However, there are few reliable data of tile drainage installation records, except tile drainage permit records in the Bois de Sioux watershed (a sub-basin in southern part of the RRB where permits are required for tile drainage installation). This study presents a tile drainage expansion detection method based on a physical principle that the soil-drying rate may increase with increasing tile drainage for a given area. In order to capture the rate of change in soil drying rate with time over entire RRB (101,500 km2), two satellite-based microwave soil moisture records from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and AMSR2 were used during 2002 to 2016. In this study, a sub-watershed level (HUC10) potential tile drainage growth map was developed and the results show good agreement with tile drainage permit records of six sub-watersheds in the Bois de Sioux watershed. Future analyses will include improvement of the potential tile drainage map through additional information using optical- and thermal-based sensor products and evaluation of its

Improvement of shipborne sky radiometer and its demonstration aboard the Antarctic research vessel Shirase

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noriaki Tanaka

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The sun-tracking performance of a shipborne sky radiometer was improved to attain accurate aerosol optical thickness (AOT from direct solar measurements on a pitching and rolling vessel. Improvements were made in the accuracy of sun-pointing measurements, field-of-view expansion, sun-tracking speed, and measurement method. Radiometric measurements of direct solar and sky brightness distribution were performed using the shipborne sky radiometer onboard the Antarctic research vessel (R/V Shirase during JARE-51 (2009-2010 and JARE-52 (2010-2011. The temporal variation of signal intensity measured by the radiometer under cloudless conditions was smooth, demonstrating that the radiometer could measure direct sunlight onboard the R/V. AOT at 500 nm ranged from 0.01 to 0.34, and values over Southeast Asia and over the western Pacific Ocean in spring were higher than those over other regions. The Angstrom exponent ranged from －0.06 to 2.00, and values over Southeast Asia and off the coast near Sydney were the highest. The improved shipborne sky radiometer will contribute to a good understanding of the nature of aerosols over the ocean.

A Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Greenhouse Gas Measurements in the Atmospheric Column

Science.gov (United States)

Steel, Emily Wilson

2015-01-01

Laser Heterodyne Radiometry is a technique adapted from radio receiver technology has been used to measure trace gases in the atmosphere since the 1960s.By leveraging advances in the telecommunications industry, it has been possible to miniaturize this technology.The mini-LHR (Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer) has been under development at NASA Goddard Space flight Center since 2009. This sun-viewing instrument measures carbon dioxide and methane in the atmospheric column and operates in tandem with an AERONET sun photometer producing a simultaneous measure of aerosols. The mini-LHR has been extensively field tested in a range of locations ranging in the continental US as well as Alaska and Hawaii and now operates autonomously with sensitivities of approximately 0.2 ppmv and approximately10 ppbv, for carbon dioxide and methane respectively, for 10 averaged scans under clear sky conditions.

Satellite observations of rainfall effect on sea surface salinity in the waters adjacent to Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Chung-Ru; Hsu, Po-Chun; Lin, Chen-Chih; Huang, Shih-Jen

2017-10-01

Changes of oceanic salinity are highly related to the variations of evaporation and precipitation. To understand the influence of rainfall on the sea surface salinity (SSS) in the waters adjacent to Taiwan, satellite remote sensing data from the year of 2012 to 2014 are employed in this study. The daily rain rate data obtained from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's Microwave Imager (TRMM/TMI), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR), and WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer. The SSS data was derived from the measurements of radiometer instruments onboard the Aquarius satellite. The results show the average values of SSS in east of Taiwan, east of Luzon and South China Sea are 33.83 psu, 34.05 psu, and 32.84 psu, respectively, in the condition of daily rain rate higher than 1 mm/hr. In contrast to the rainfall condition, the average values of SSS are 34.07 psu, 34.26 psu, and 33.09 psu in the three areas, respectively at no rain condition (rain rate less than 1 mm/hr). During the cases of heavy rainfall caused by spiral rain bands of typhoon, the SSS is diluted with an average value of -0.78 psu when the average rain rate is higher than 4 mm/hr. However, the SSS was increased after temporarily decreased during the typhoon cases. A possible reason to explain this phenomenon is that the heavy rainfall caused by the spiral rain bands of typhoon may dilute the sea surface water, but the strong winds can uplift the higher salinity of subsurface water to the sea surface.

Estimating the maritime component of aerosol optical depth and its dependency on surface wind speed using satellite data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Lehahn

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Six years (2003–2008 of satellite measurements of aerosol parameters from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS and surface wind speeds from Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E, and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I, are used to provide a comprehensive perspective on the link between surface wind speed and marine aerosol optical depth over tropical and subtropical oceanic regions. A systematic comparison between the satellite derived fields in these regions allows to: (i separate the relative contribution of wind-induced marine aerosol to the aerosol optical depth; (ii extract an empirical linear equation linking coarse marine aerosol optical depth and wind intensity; and (iii identify a time scale for correlating marine aerosol optical depth and surface wind speed. The contribution of wind induced marine aerosol to aerosol optical depth is found to be dominated by the coarse mode elements. When wind intensity exceeds 4 m/s, coarse marine aerosol optical depth is linearly correlated with the surface wind speed, with a remarkably consistent slope of 0.009±0.002 s/m. A detailed time scale analysis shows that the linear correlation between the fields is well kept within a 12 h time frame, while sharply decreasing when the time lag between measurements is longer. The background aerosol optical depth, associated with aerosols that are not produced in-situ through wind driven processes, can be used for estimating the contributions of terrestrial and biogenic marine aerosol to over-ocean satellite retrievals of aerosol optical depth.

Assessment of Global Forecast Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM) using new satellite SST data

Science.gov (United States)

Ascione Kenov, Isabella; Sykes, Peter; Fiedler, Emma; McConnell, Niall; Ryan, Andrew; Maksymczuk, Jan

2016-04-01

There is an increased demand for accurate ocean weather information for applications in the field of marine safety and navigation, water quality, offshore commercial operations, monitoring of oil spills and pollutants, among others. The Met Office, UK, provides ocean forecasts to customers from governmental, commercial and ecological sectors using the Global Forecast Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM), an operational modelling system which covers the global ocean and runs daily, using the NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) ocean model with horizontal resolution of 1/4° and 75 vertical levels. The system assimilates salinity and temperature profiles, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH), and sea ice concentration observations on a daily basis. In this study, the FOAM system is updated to assimilate Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) SST data. Model results from one month trials are assessed against observations using verification tools which provide a quantitative description of model performance and error, based on statistical metrics, including mean error, root mean square error (RMSE), correlation coefficient, and Taylor diagrams. A series of hindcast experiments is used to run the FOAM system with AMSR2 and SEVIRI SST data, using a control run for comparison. Results show that all trials perform well on the global ocean and that largest SST mean errors were found in the Southern hemisphere. The geographic distribution of the model error for SST and temperature profiles are discussed using statistical metrics evaluated over sub-regions of the global ocean.

Ultra-portable field transfer radiometer for vicarious calibration of earth imaging sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Thome, Kurtis; Wenny, Brian; Anderson, Nikolaus; McCorkel, Joel; Czapla-Myers, Jeffrey; Biggar, Stuart

2018-06-01

A small portable transfer radiometer has been developed as part of an effort to ensure the quality of upwelling radiance from test sites used for vicarious calibration in the solar reflective. The test sites are used to predict top-of-atmosphere reflectance relying on ground-based measurements of the atmosphere and surface. The portable transfer radiometer is designed for one-person operation for on-site field calibration of instrumentation used to determine ground-leaving radiance. The current work describes the detector- and source-based radiometric calibration of the transfer radiometer highlighting the expected accuracy and SI-traceability. The results indicate differences between the detector-based and source-based results greater than the combined uncertainties of the approaches. Results from recent field deployments of the transfer radiometer using a solar radiation based calibration agree with the source-based laboratory calibration within the combined uncertainties of the methods. The detector-based results show a significant difference to the solar-based calibration. The source-based calibration is used as the basis for a radiance-based calibration of the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager that agrees with the OLI calibration to within the uncertainties of the methods.

ultra-Stable Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (5STAR)

Science.gov (United States)

Dunagan, S. E.; Johnson, R. R.; Redemann, J.; Holben, B. N.; Schmid, B.; Flynn, C. J.; Fahey, L.; LeBlanc, S. E.; Liss, J.; Kacenelenbogen, M. S.; Segal-Rosenhaimer, M.; Shinozuka, Y.; Dahlgren, R. P.; Pistone, K.; Karol, Y.

2017-12-01

The Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR) combines airborne sun tracking and sky scanning with diffraction spectroscopy to improve knowledge of atmospheric constituents and their links to air pollution and climate. Direct beam hyperspectral measurement of optical depth improves retrievals of gas constituents and determination of aerosol properties. Sky scanning enhances retrievals of aerosol type and size distribution. Hyperspectral cloud-transmitted radiance measurements enable the retrieval of cloud properties from below clouds. These measurements tighten the closure between satellite and ground-based measurements. 4STAR incorporates a modular sun-tracking/ sky-scanning optical head with optical fiber signal transmission to rack mounted spectrometers, permitting miniaturization of the external optical tracking head, and future detector evolution. 4STAR has supported a broad range of flight experiments since it was first flown in 2010. This experience provides the basis for a series of improvements directed toward reducing measurement uncertainty and calibration complexity, and expanding future measurement capabilities, to be incorporated into a new 5STAR instrument. A 9-channel photodiode radiometer with AERONET-matched bandpass filters will be incorporated to improve calibration stability. A wide dynamic range tracking camera will provide a high precision solar position tracking signal as well as an image of sky conditions around the solar axis. An ultrasonic window cleaning system design will be tested. A UV spectrometer tailored for formaldehyde and SO2 gas retrievals will be added to the spectrometer enclosure. Finally, expansion capability for a 4 channel polarized radiometer to measure the Stokes polarization vector of sky light will be incorporated. This paper presents initial progress on this next-generation 5STAR instrument. Keywords: atmosphere; climate; pollution; radiometry; technology; hyperspectral; fiber optic

A horizontal vane radiometer: Experiment, theory, and simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wolfe, David; Larraza, Andres, E-mail: larraza@nps.edu [Department of Physics, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93940 (United States); Garcia, Alejandro [Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, San Jose, California 95152 (United States)

2016-03-15

The existence of two motive forces on a Crookes radiometer has complicated the investigation of either force independently. The thermal creep shear force in particular has been subject to differing interpretations of the direction in which it acts and its order of magnitude. In this article, we provide a horizontal vane radiometer design which isolates the thermal creep shear force. The horizontal vane radiometer is explored through experiment, kinetic theory, and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The qualitative agreement between the three methods of investigation is good except for a dependence of the force on the width of the vane even when the temperature gradient is narrower than the vane which is present in the DSMC method results but not in the theory. The experimental results qualitatively resemble the theory in this regard. The quantitative agreement between the three methods of investigation is better than an order of magnitude in the cases examined. The theory is closer to the experimental values for narrow vanes and the simulations are closer to the experimental values for the wide vanes. We find that the thermal creep force acts from the hot side to the cold side of the vane. We also find the peak in the radiometer’s angular speed as a function of pressure is explained as much by the behavior of the drag force as by the behavior of the thermal creep force.

A horizontal vane radiometer: Experiment, theory, and simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolfe, David; Larraza, Andres; Garcia, Alejandro

2016-01-01

The existence of two motive forces on a Crookes radiometer has complicated the investigation of either force independently. The thermal creep shear force in particular has been subject to differing interpretations of the direction in which it acts and its order of magnitude. In this article, we provide a horizontal vane radiometer design which isolates the thermal creep shear force. The horizontal vane radiometer is explored through experiment, kinetic theory, and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The qualitative agreement between the three methods of investigation is good except for a dependence of the force on the width of the vane even when the temperature gradient is narrower than the vane which is present in the DSMC method results but not in the theory. The experimental results qualitatively resemble the theory in this regard. The quantitative agreement between the three methods of investigation is better than an order of magnitude in the cases examined. The theory is closer to the experimental values for narrow vanes and the simulations are closer to the experimental values for the wide vanes. We find that the thermal creep force acts from the hot side to the cold side of the vane. We also find the peak in the radiometer’s angular speed as a function of pressure is explained as much by the behavior of the drag force as by the behavior of the thermal creep force.

GPM GROUND VALIDATION DUAL POLARIZATION RADIOMETER GCPEX V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GPM Ground Validation Dual Polarization Radiometer GCPEx dataset provides brightness temperature measurements at frequencies 90 GHz (not polarized) and 150 GHz...

Improved noise-adding radiometer for microwave receivers

Science.gov (United States)

Batelaan, P. D.; Stelzried, C. T.; Goldstein, R. M.

1973-01-01

Use of input switch and noise reference standard is avoided by using noise-adding technique. Excess noise from solid state noise-diode is coupled into receiver through directional coupler and square-wave modulated at low rate. High sensitivity receivers for radioastronomy applications are utilized with greater confidence in stability of radiometer.

A radiometer for stochastic gravitational waves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballmer, Stefan W

2006-01-01

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration recently reported a new upper limit on an isotropic stochastic background of gravitational waves obtained based on the data from the third LIGO science run (S3). Here I present a new method for obtaining directional upper limits on stochastic gravitational waves that essentially implements a gravitational wave radiometer. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration intends to use this method for future LIGO science runs

Improving terrestrial evaporation estimates over continental Australia through assimilation of SMOS soil moisture

Science.gov (United States)

Martens, B.; Miralles, D.; Lievens, H.; Fernández-Prieto, D.; Verhoest, N. E. C.

2016-06-01

Terrestrial evaporation is an essential variable in the climate system that links the water, energy and carbon cycles over land. Despite this crucial importance, it remains one of the most uncertain components of the hydrological cycle, mainly due to known difficulties to model the constraints imposed by land water availability on terrestrial evaporation. The main objective of this study is to assimilate satellite soil moisture observations from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission into an existing evaporation model. Our over-arching goal is to find an optimal use of satellite soil moisture that can help to improve our understanding of evaporation at continental scales. To this end, the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) is used to simulate evaporation fields over continental Australia for the period September 2010-December 2013. SMOS soil moisture observations are assimilated using a Newtonian Nudging algorithm in a series of experiments. Model estimates of surface soil moisture and evaporation are validated against soil moisture probe and eddy-covariance measurements, respectively. Finally, an analogous experiment in which Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) soil moisture is assimilated (instead of SMOS) allows to perform a relative assessment of the quality of both satellite soil moisture products. Results indicate that the modelled soil moisture from GLEAM can be improved through the assimilation of SMOS soil moisture: the average correlation coefficient between in situ measurements and the modelled soil moisture over the complete sample of stations increased from 0.68 to 0.71 and a statistical significant increase in the correlations is achieved for 17 out of the 25 individual stations. Our results also suggest a higher accuracy of the ascending SMOS data compared to the descending data, and overall higher quality of SMOS compared to AMSR-E retrievals over Australia. On the other hand, the effect of soil moisture data

Analyzing Non Stationary Processes in Radiometers

Science.gov (United States)

Racette, Paul

2010-01-01

The lack of well-developed techniques for modeling changing statistical moments in our observations has stymied the application of stochastic process theory for many scientific and engineering applications. Non linear effects of the observation methodology is one of the most perplexing aspects to modeling non stationary processes. This perplexing problem was encountered when modeling the effect of non stationary receiver fluctuations on the performance of radiometer calibration architectures. Existing modeling approaches were found not applicable; particularly problematic is modeling processes across scales over which they begin to exhibit non stationary behavior within the time interval of the calibration algorithm. Alternatively, the radiometer output is modeled as samples from a sequence random variables; the random variables are treated using a conditional probability distribution function conditioned on the use of the variable in the calibration algorithm. This approach of treating a process as a sequence of random variables with non stationary stochastic moments produce sensible predictions of temporal effects of calibration algorithms. To test these model predictions, an experiment using the Millimeter wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) was conducted. The MIR with its two black body calibration references was configured in a laboratory setting to observe a third ultra-stable reference (CryoTarget). The MIR was programmed to sequentially sample each of the three references in approximately a 1 second cycle. Data were collected over a six-hour interval. The sequence of reference measurements form an ensemble sample set comprised of a series of three reference measurements. Two references are required to estimate the receiver response. A third reference is used to estimate the uncertainty in the estimate. Typically, calibration algorithms are designed to suppress the non stationary effects of receiver fluctuations. By treating the data sequence as an ensemble

The design of an in-water optical radiometer

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Desa, E.S.; Desa, B.A; De

insights into the role playEd. by absorption and scattering processes in the optical properties of water masses. In this paper, we shall describe our design approach to current development effort on a profiling optical radiometer that will measure upwelling...

Microfluidic labeling of biomolecules with radiometals for use in nuclear medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Wheeler, Tobias D; Zeng, Dexing; Desai, Amit V; Önal, Birce; Reichert, David E; Kenis, Paul J A

2010-12-21

Radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals, used as imaging and therapeutic agents in nuclear medicine, consist of a radiometal that is bound to a targeting biomolecule (BM) using a bifunctional chelator (BFC). Conventional, macroscale radiolabeling methods use an excess of the BFC-BM conjugate (ligand) to achieve high radiolabeling yields. Subsequently, to achieve maximal specific activity (minimal amount of unlabeled ligand), extensive chromatographic purification is required to remove unlabeled ligand, often resulting in longer synthesis times and loss of imaging sensitivity due to radioactive decay. Here we describe a microreactor that overcomes the above issues through integration of efficient mixing and heating strategies while working with small volumes of concentrated reagents. As a model reaction, we radiolabel 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) conjugated to the peptide cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-DPhe-Lys) with (64)Cu(2+). We show that the microreactor (made from polydimethylsiloxane and glass) can withstand 260 mCi of activity over 720 hours and retains only minimal amounts of (64)Cu(2+) (50 µM), yields of over 90% can be achieved in the microreactor when using a 1:1 stoichiometry of radiometal to BFC-BM. These high yields eliminate the need for use of excess amounts of often precious BM and obviate the need for a chromatographic purification process to remove unlabeled ligand. The results reported here demonstrate the potential of microreactor technology to improve the production of patient-tailored doses of radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals in the clinic.

Processor breadboard for on-board RFI detection and mitigation in MetOp-SG radiometers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Kristensen, Steen S.; Kovanen, Arhippa

2015-01-01

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is an increasing threat to proper operation of space-borne Earth viewing microwave radiometer systems. There is a steady growth in active services, and tougher requirements to sensitivity and fidelity of future radiometer systems. Thus it has been decided...... that the next generation MetOp satellites must include some kind of RFI detection and mitigation system at Ku band. This paper describes a breadboard processor that detects and mitigates RFI on-board the satellite. Thus cleaned data can be generated in real time, and following suitable integration, downloaded...... to ground at the modest data rate usually associated with radiometer systems....

Evaluating Solar Resource Data Obtained from Multiple Radiometers Deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Habte, A.; Sengupta, M.; Andreas, A.; Wilcox, S.; Stoffel, T.

2014-09-01

Solar radiation resource measurements from radiometers are used to predict and evaluate the performance of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power systems, validate satellite-based models for estimating solar resources, and advance research in solar forecasting and climate change. This study analyzes the performance of various commercially available radiometers used for measuring global horizontal irradiances (GHI) and direct normal irradiances (DNI). These include pyranometers, pyrheliometers, rotating shadowband irradiometers, and a pyranometer with a shading ring deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL). The radiometers in this study were deployed for one year (from April 1, 2011, through March 31, 2012) and compared to measurements from radiometers with the lowest values of estimated measurement uncertainties for producing reference GHI and DNI.

A precise narrow-beam filter infrared radiometer and its use with lidar in the ARM Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Platt, C.M.R.

1992-05-01

The first six months of the grant (December 1991--May 1992) have been taken up with the design and specification for the new narrow-beam radiometer. The radiometer will be built and tested at the Division of Atmospheric Research over the next three months. Improved algorithms for obtaining cloud extinction have also been developed. It is proposed during 1993 to use the radiometer in conjunction with a new CSIRO 3-wavelength lidar in the ARM PROBE experiment at Kavieng, New Guinea, which is a test mission under tropical conditions for the ARM CART Tropical West Pacific site, and is part of the TOGA COARE experiment. During the latter part of 1992, the radiometer will be tested thoroughly and tested at the Division of Atmospheric Research, Aspendale

Flower elliptical constellation of millimeter-wave radiometers for precipitating cloud monitoring at geostationary scale

Science.gov (United States)

Marzano, F. S.; Cimini, D.; Montopoli, M.; Rossi, T.; Mortari, D.; di Michele, S.; Bauer, P.

2009-04-01

Millimeter-wave observation of the atmospheric parameters is becoming an appealing goal within satellite radiometry applications. The major technological advantage of millimeter-wave (MMW) radiometers is the reduced size of the overall system, for given performances, with respect to microwave sensor. On the other hand, millimeter-wave sounding can exploit window frequencies and various gaseous absorption bands at 50/60 GHz, 118 GHz and 183 GHz. These bands can be used to estimate tropospheric temperature profiles, integrated water vapor and cloud liquid content and, using a differentia spectral mode, light rainfall and snowfall. Millimeter-wave radiometers, for given observation conditions, can also exhibit relatively small field-of-views (FOVs), of the order of some kilometers for low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. However, the temporal resolution of LEO millimeter-wave system observations remains a major drawback with respect to the geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellites. An overpass every about 12 hours for a single LEO platform (conditioned to a sufficiently large swath of the scanning MMW radiometer) is usually too much when compared with the typical temporal scale variation of atmospheric fields. This feature cannot be improved by resorting to GEO platforms due to their high orbit altitude and consequent degradation of the MMW-sensor FOVs. A way to tackle this impasse is to draw our attention at the regional scale and to focus non-circular orbits over the area of interest, exploiting the concept of micro-satellite flower constellations. The Flower Constellations (FCs) is a general class of elliptical orbits which can be optimized, through genetic algorithms, in order to maximize the revisiting time and the orbital height, ensuring also a repeating ground-track. The constellation concept nicely matches the choice of mini-satellites as a baseline choice, due to their small size, weight (less than 500 kilograms) and relatively low cost (essential when

PHyTIR - A Prototype Thermal Infrared Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Jau, Bruno M.; Hook, Simon J.; Johnson, William R.; Foote, Marc C.; Paine, Christopher G.; Pannell, Zack W.; Smythe, Robert F.; Kuan, Gary M.; Jakoboski, Julie K.; Eng, Bjorn T.

2013-01-01

This paper describes the PHyTIR (Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer) instrument, which is the engineering model for the proposed HyspIRI (Hyperspectral Infrared Imager) earth observing instrument. The HyspIRI mission would be comprised of the HyspIRI TIR (Thermal Infrared Imager), and a VSWIR (Visible Short-Wave Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer). Both instruments would be used to address key science questions related to the earth's carbon cycle, ecosystems, climate, and solid earth properties. Data gathering of volcanic activities, earthquakes, wildfires, water use and availability, urbanization, and land surface compositions and changes, would aid the predictions and evaluations of such events and the impact they create. Even though the proposed technology for the HyspIRI imager is mature, the PHyTIR prototype is needed to advance the technology levels for several of the instrument's key components, and to reduce risks, in particular to validate 1) the higher sensitivity, spatial resolution, and higher throughput required for this focal plane array, 2) the pointing accuracy, 2) the characteristics of several spectral channels, and 4) the use of ambient temperature optics. The PHyTIR telescope consists of the focal plane assembly that is housed within a cold housing located inside a vacuum enclosure; all mounted to a bulkhead, and an optical train that consists of 3 powered mirrors; extending to both sides of the bulkhead. A yoke connects the telescope to a scan mirror. The rotating mirror enables to scan- a large track on the ground. This structure is supported by kinematic mounts, linking the telescope assembly to a base plate that would also become the spacecraft interface for HyspIRI. The focal plane's cooling units are also mounted to the base plate, as is an overall enclosure that has two viewing ports with large exterior baffles, shielding the focal plane from incoming stray light. PHyTIR's electronics is distributed inside and near the vacuum

Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GeoCAPE) Filter Radiometer (FR)

Science.gov (United States)

Kotecki, Carl; Chu, Martha; Wilson, Mark; Clark, Mike; Nanan, Bobby; Matson, Liz; McBirney, Dick; Smith, Jay; Earle, Paul; Choi, Mike;

Construction and calibration of solar radiometers: pyranometer and pyrheliometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Escobedo, J.F.; Passos, E.F.; Souza, M.F. de

1988-01-01

This paper reports the construction and development of solar radiometers and discusses some characteristic parameters such as linearity, sensitivity and time constant, using an Eppley black-and-white pyranometer as reference. (author) [pt

Boreal Inundation Mapping with SMAP Radiometer Data for Methane Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Seungbum; Brisco, Brian; Poncos, Valentin

2017-04-01

Inundation and consequent anoxic condition induce methane release, which is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Boreal regions contain large amounts of organic carbon, which is a potentially major methane emission source under climatic warming conditions. Boreal wetlands in particular are one of the largest sources of uncertainties in global methane budget. Wetland spatial extent together with the gas release rate remains highly unknown. Characterization of the existing inundation database is poor, because of the inundation under clouds and dense vegetation. In this work, the inundation extent is derived using brightness temperature data acquired by the L-band Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, which offers the L-band capabilities to penetrate clouds and vegetation at 3-day revisit. The fidelity of the SMAP watermask is assessed as a first step in this investigation by comparing with the following data sets: 3-m resolution maps derived using Radarsat synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in northern Canada and multi-sensor climatology over Siberia. Because Radarsat coverages are limited despite its high spatial resolution, at the time and location where Radarsats are not available, we also compare with 3-km resolution SMAP SAR data that are concurrent with the SMAP radiometer data globally until July 2015. Inundation extents were derived with Radarsat, SMAP SAR, and SMAP radiometer over the 60 km x 60km area at Peace Athabasca Delta (PAD), Canada on 6 days in spring and summer 2015. The SMAP SAR results match the locations of Radarsat waterbodies. However, the SMAP SAR underestimates the water extent, mainly over mixed pixels that have subpixel land presence. The threshold value (-3 dB) applied to the SMAP SAR was determined previously over the global domain. The threshold is dependent on the type of local landcover within a mixed pixel. Further analysis is needed to locally optimize the threshold. The SMAP radiometer water fraction over Peace

Dynamic response of the thermometric net radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

J. D. Wilson; W. J. Massman; G. E. Swaters

2009-01-01

We computed the dynamic response of an idealized thermometric net radiometer, when driven by an oscillating net longwave radiation intended roughly to simulate rapid fluctuations of the radiative environment such as might be expected during field use of such devices. The study was motivated by curiosity as to whether non-linearity of the surface boundary conditions...

Microfluidic Radiometal Labeling Systems for Biomolecules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reichert, D E; Kenis, P J. A.

2011-12-29

In a typical labeling procedure with radiometals, such as Cu-64 and Ga-68; a very large (~ 100-fold) excess of the non-radioactive reactant (precursor) is used to promote rapid and efficient incorporation of the radioisotope into the PET imaging agent. In order to achieve high specific activities, careful control of reaction conditions and extensive chromatographic purifications are required in order to separate the labeled compounds from the cold precursors. Here we propose a microfluidic approach to overcome these problems, and achieve high specific activities in a more convenient, semi-automated fashion and faster time frame. Microfluidic reactors, consisting of a network of micron-sized channels (typical dimensions in the range 10 - 300¼m), filters, separation columns, electrodes and reaction loops/chambers etched onto a solid substrate, are now emerging as an extremely useful technology for the intensification and miniaturization of chemical processes. The ability to manipulate, process and analyze reagent concentrations and reaction interfaces in both space and time within the channel network of a microreactor provides the fine level of reaction control that is desirable in PET radiochemistry practice. These factors can bring radiometal labeling, specifically the preparation of radio-labeled biomolecules such as antibodies, much closer to their theoretical maximum specific activities.

Hybrid PSO-ASVR-based method for data fitting in the calibration of infrared radiometer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Sen; Li, Chengwei, E-mail: heikuanghit@163.com [School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 (China)

2016-06-15

The present paper describes a hybrid particle swarm optimization-adaptive support vector regression (PSO-ASVR)-based method for data fitting in the calibration of infrared radiometer. The proposed hybrid PSO-ASVR-based method is based on PSO in combination with Adaptive Processing and Support Vector Regression (SVR). The optimization technique involves setting parameters in the ASVR fitting procedure, which significantly improves the fitting accuracy. However, its use in the calibration of infrared radiometer has not yet been widely explored. Bearing this in mind, the PSO-ASVR-based method, which is based on the statistical learning theory, is successfully used here to get the relationship between the radiation of a standard source and the response of an infrared radiometer. Main advantages of this method are the flexible adjustment mechanism in data processing and the optimization mechanism in a kernel parameter setting of SVR. Numerical examples and applications to the calibration of infrared radiometer are performed to verify the performance of PSO-ASVR-based method compared to conventional data fitting methods.

Application of RUB-01P beta radiometer to control contamination of milk and dairy produce

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bachurin, A.V.; Donskaya, G.A.; Koroleva, M.S.; Titov, S.K.

1990-01-01

RUB-01P beta-radiometer to control radioactive contamination of milk and dairy produce characterized by a number of advantages as compared to RKB-4-1eM manufactured earlier is described. Device is designed using a new element base, simgle-action, characterized by increased reliability, can operate on-line with ELEKTRONIKA MK-64 programmed microcalculater. Radiometer output is printed out to a void operator errors and to record measurement results. Radiometer main error is maximum 50 %. Data on device sensitivity at measurements using BDZhB-05P, BDZhB-06P1, BDZhB-06P detection units are given

Physical, biological, and chemical data from radiometer, profiling reflectance radiometer, and CTD casts in a world-wide distribution as part of the SeaWiFS/SIMBIOS project from 13 September 1981 to 16 December 1999 (NODC Accession 0000632)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Physical, biological, and chemical data were collected using radiometer, profiling reflectance radiometer, and CTD casts in a world-wide distribution from 13...

Effect of a spacer moiety on radiometal labelled Neurotensin derivatives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mascarin, A.; Valverde, I.E.; Mindt, T.L. [Univ. of Basel Hospital (Switzerland). Div. of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry

2013-07-01

The binding sequence of the regulatory peptide Neurotensin, NT(8-13), represents a promising tumour-specific vector for the development of radiopeptides useful in nuclear oncology for the diagnosis (imaging) and therapy of cancer. A number of radiometal-labelled NT(8-13) derivatives have been reported, however, the effect of the spacer which connects the vector with the radiometal complex has yet not been investigated systematically. Because a spacer moiety can influence potentially important biological characteristics of radiopeptides, we synthesized three [DOTA({sup 177}Lu)]-X-NT(8-13) derivatives and evaluated the effect of a spacer (X) on the physico-chemical properties of the conjugate including lipophilicity, stability, and in vitro receptor affinity and cell internalization. (orig.)

Description and Performance of an L-Band Radiometer with Digital Beamforming

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan F. Marchan-Hernandez

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the description and performance tests of an L-band microwave radiometer with Digital Beamforming (DBF, developed for the Passive Advanced Unit (PAU for ocean monitoring project. PAU is an instrument that combines, in a single receiver and without time multiplexing, a microwave radiometer at L-band (PAU-RAD and a GPS-reflectometer (PAU-GNSS-R. This paper focuses on the PAU‑RAD beamformer’s first results, analyzing the hardware and software required for the developed prototype. Finally, it discusses the first results measured in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC anechoic chamber.

Next-Generation Thermal Infrared Multi-Body Radiometer Experiment (TIMBRE)

Science.gov (United States)

Kenyon, M.; Mariani, G.; Johnson, B.; Brageot, E.; Hayne, P.

2016-10-01

We have developed an instrument concept called TIMBRE which belongs to the important class of instruments called thermal imaging radiometers (TIRs). TIMBRE is the next-generation TIR with unparalleled performance compared to the state-of-the-art.

New improved algorithm for sky calibration of L-band radiometers JLBARA and ELBARA II

KAUST Repository

Dimitrov, Marin

2012-03-01

We propose a new algorithm for sky calibration of the L-band radiometers JLBARA and ELBARA II, introducing the effective transmissivities of the instruments. The suggested approach was tested using experimental data obtained at the Selhausen test site, Germany. It was shown that for JLBARA the effective transmissivities depend strongly on the air temperature and decrease with increasing air temperature, while for ELBARA II such strong dependence was not observed. It was also shown that the effective transmissivities account for the antenna and feed cable loss effects, and for the variations of the radiometer gain due to air temperature changes. The new calibration algorithm reduces significantly the bias of brightness temperature estimates for both radiometers, especially for JLBARA. © 2012 IEEE.

New improved algorithm for sky calibration of L-band radiometers JLBARA and ELBARA II

KAUST Repository

Dimitrov, Marin; Kostov, K. G.; Jonard, Franç ois; Jadoon, Khan; Schwank, Mike; Weihermü ller, Lutz; Hermes, Normen; Vanderborght, Jan P.; Vereecken, Harry

2012-01-01

We propose a new algorithm for sky calibration of the L-band radiometers JLBARA and ELBARA II, introducing the effective transmissivities of the instruments. The suggested approach was tested using experimental data obtained at the Selhausen test site, Germany. It was shown that for JLBARA the effective transmissivities depend strongly on the air temperature and decrease with increasing air temperature, while for ELBARA II such strong dependence was not observed. It was also shown that the effective transmissivities account for the antenna and feed cable loss effects, and for the variations of the radiometer gain due to air temperature changes. The new calibration algorithm reduces significantly the bias of brightness temperature estimates for both radiometers, especially for JLBARA. © 2012 IEEE.

Estimating Snow Water Storage in North America Using CLM4, DART, and Snow Radiance Data Assimilation

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Yonghwan; Yang, Zong-Liang; Zhao, Long; Hoar, Timothy J.; Toure, Ally M.; Rodell, Matthew

2016-01-01

This paper addresses continental-scale snow estimates in North America using a recently developed snow radiance assimilation (RA) system. A series of RA experiments with the ensemble adjustment Kalman filter are conducted by assimilating the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) brightness temperature T(sub B) at 18.7- and 36.5-GHz vertical polarization channels. The overall RA performance in estimating snow depth for North America is improved by simultaneously updating the Community Land Model, version 4 (CLM4), snow/soil states and radiative transfer model (RTM) parameters involved in predicting T(sub B) based on their correlations with the prior T(sub B) (i.e., rule-based RA), although degradations are also observed. The RA system exhibits a more mixed performance for snow cover fraction estimates. Compared to the open-loop run (0.171m RMSE), the overall snow depth estimates are improved by 1.6% (0.168m RMSE) in the rule-based RA whereas the default RA (without a rule) results in a degradation of 3.6% (0.177mRMSE). Significant improvement of the snow depth estimates in the rule-based RA as observed for tundra snow class (11.5%, p < 0.05) and bare soil land-cover type (13.5%, p < 0.05). However, the overall improvement is not significant (p = 0.135) because snow estimates are degraded or marginally improved for other snow classes and land covers, especially the taiga snow class and forest land cover (7.1% and 7.3% degradations, respectively). The current RA system needs to be further refined to enhance snow estimates for various snow types and forested regions.

Assessing Temporal Stability for Coarse Scale Satellite Moisture Validation in the Maqu Area, Tibet

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatti, Haris Akram; Rientjes, Tom; Verhoef, Wouter; Yaseen, Muhammad

2013-01-01

This study evaluates if the temporal stability concept is applicable to a time series of satellite soil moisture images so to extend the common procedure of satellite image validation. The area of study is the Maqu area, which is located in the northeastern part of the Tibetan plateau. The network serves validation purposes of coarse scale (25–50 km) satellite soil moisture products and comprises 20 stations with probes installed at depths of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 cm. The study period is 2009. The temporal stability concept is applied to all five depths of the soil moisture measuring network and to a time series of satellite-based moisture products from the Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E). The in-situ network is also assessed by Pearsons's correlation analysis. Assessments by the temporal stability concept proved to be useful and results suggest that probe measurements at 10 cm depth best match to the satellite observations. The Mean Relative Difference plot for satellite pixels shows that a RMSM pixel can be identified but in our case this pixel does not overlay any in-situ station. Also, the RMSM pixel does not overlay any of the Representative Mean Soil Moisture (RMSM) stations of the five probe depths. Pearson's correlation analysis on in-situ measurements suggests that moisture patterns over time are more persistent than over space. Since this study presents first results on the application of the temporal stability concept to a series of satellite images, we recommend further tests to become more conclusive on effectiveness to broaden the procedure of satellite validation. PMID:23959237

Impact of Soil Moisture Assimilation on Land Surface Model Spin-Up and Coupled LandAtmosphere Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Santanello, Joseph A., Jr.; Kumar, Sujay V.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Lawston, P.

2016-01-01

Advances in satellite monitoring of the terrestrial water cycle have led to a concerted effort to assimilate soil moisture observations from various platforms into offline land surface models (LSMs). One principal but still open question is that of the ability of land data assimilation (LDA) to improve LSM initial conditions for coupled short-term weather prediction. In this study, the impact of assimilating Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) soil moisture retrievals on coupled WRF Model forecasts is examined during the summers of dry (2006) and wet (2007) surface conditions in the southern Great Plains. LDA is carried out using NASAs Land Information System (LIS) and the Noah LSM through an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) approach. The impacts of LDA on the 1) soil moisture and soil temperature initial conditions for WRF, 2) land-atmosphere coupling characteristics, and 3) ambient weather of the coupled LIS-WRF simulations are then assessed. Results show that impacts of soil moisture LDA during the spin-up can significantly modify LSM states and fluxes, depending on regime and season. Results also indicate that the use of seasonal cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) is more advantageous compared to the traditional annual CDF bias correction strategies. LDA performs consistently regardless of atmospheric forcing applied, with greater improvements seen when using coarser, global forcing products. Downstream impacts on coupled simulations vary according to the strength of the LDA impact at the initialization, where significant modifications to the soil moisture flux- PBL-ambient weather process chain are observed. Overall, this study demonstrates potential for future, higher-resolution soil moisture assimilation applications in weather and climate research.

Disaggregation of remotely sensed soil moisture under all sky condition using machine learning approach in Northeast Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, S.; Kim, H.; Choi, M.; Kim, K.

2016-12-01

Estimating spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture is crucial to hydrological applications such as flood, drought, and near real-time climate forecasting. Recent advances in space-based passive microwave measurements allow the frequent monitoring of the surface soil moisture at a global scale and downscaling approaches have been applied to improve the spatial resolution of passive microwave products available at local scale applications. However, most downscaling methods using optical and thermal dataset, are valid only in cloud-free conditions; thus renewed downscaling method under all sky condition is necessary for the establishment of spatiotemporal continuity of datasets at fine resolution. In present study Support Vector Machine (SVM) technique was utilized to downscale a satellite-based soil moisture retrievals. The 0.1 and 0.25-degree resolution of daily Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) L3 soil moisture datasets from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) were disaggregated over Northeast Asia in 2015. Optically derived estimates of surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and its cloud products were obtained from MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the purpose of downscaling soil moisture in finer resolution under all sky condition. Furthermore, a comparison analysis between in situ and downscaled soil moisture products was also conducted for quantitatively assessing its accuracy. Results showed that downscaled soil moisture under all sky condition not only preserves the quality of AMSR2 LPRM soil moisture at 1km resolution, but also attains higher spatial data coverage. From this research we expect that time continuous monitoring of soil moisture at fine scale regardless of weather conditions would be available.

Quantifying the clear-sky bias of satellite-derived infrared LST

Science.gov (United States)

Ermida, S. L.; Trigo, I. F.; DaCamara, C.

2017-12-01

Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the most relevant parameters when addressing the physical processes that take place at the surface of the Earth. Satellite data are particularly appropriate for measuring LST over the globe with high temporal resolution. Remote-sensed LST estimation from space-borne sensors has been systematically performed over the Globe for nearly 3 decades and geostationary LST climate data records are now available. The retrieval of LST from satellite observations generally relies on measurements in the thermal infrared (IR) window. Although there is a large number of IR sensors on-board geostationary satellites and polar orbiters suitable for LST retrievals with different temporal and spatial resolutions, the use of IR observations limits LST estimates to clear sky conditions. As a consequence, climate studies based on IR LST are likely to be affected by the restriction of LST data to cloudless conditions. However, such "clear sky bias" has never been quantified and, therefore, the actual impact of relying only on clear sky data is still to be determined. On the other hand, an "all-weather" global LST database may be set up based on passive microwave (MW) measurements which are much less affected by clouds. An 8-year record of all-weather MW LST is here used to quantify the clear-sky bias of IR LST at global scale based on MW observations performed by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Selection of clear-sky and cloudy pixels is based on information derived from measurements performed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on-board the same satellite.

Calibration of the solar UV radiometers in Finland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leszczynski, K; Jokela, K; Visuri, R; Ylianttila, L [Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety, Helsinki (Finland). Non-Ionizing Radiation Lab.

1997-12-31

In this report, the main emphasis is given to (1) the problems associated with the basic calibration of the spectroradiometer and (2) the year-to-year variability of the calibrations of the solar UV network radiometers. Also, the results from intercomparisons of the Brewer and OL 742 spectroradiometers are included

Calibration of the solar UV radiometers in Finland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leszczynski, K.; Jokela, K.; Visuri, R.; Ylianttila, L. [Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety, Helsinki (Finland). Non-Ionizing Radiation Lab.

1996-12-31

In this report, the main emphasis is given to (1) the problems associated with the basic calibration of the spectroradiometer and (2) the year-to-year variability of the calibrations of the solar UV network radiometers. Also, the results from intercomparisons of the Brewer and OL 742 spectroradiometers are included

Characterisation of optical filters for broadband UVA radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Alves, Luciana C.; Coelho, Carla T.; Corrêa, Jaqueline S. P. M.; Menegotto, Thiago; Ferreira da Silva, Thiago; Aparecida de Souza, Muriel; Melo da Silva, Elisama; Simões de Lima, Maurício; Dornelles de Alvarenga, Ana Paula

2016-07-01

Optical filters were characterized in order to know its suitability for use in broadband UVA radiometer head for spectral irradiance measurements. The spectral transmittance, the angular dependence and the spatial uniformity of the spectral transmittance of the UVA optical filters were investigated. The temperature dependence of the transmittance was also studied.

Remote Sensing of Surface Soil Moisture using Semi-Concurrent Radar and Radiometer Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Li, L.; Ouellette, J. D.; Colliander, A.; Cosh, M. H.; Caldwell, T. G.; Walker, J. P.

2017-12-01

Radar backscatter and radiometer brightness temperature both have well-documented sensitivity to surface soil moisture, particularly in the microwave regime. While radiometer-derived soil moisture retrievals have been shown to be stable and accurate, they are only available at coarse spatial resolutions on the order of tens of kilometers. Backscatter from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is similarly sensitive to soil moisture but can yield higher spatial resolutions, with pixel sizes about an order of magnitude smaller. Soil moisture retrieval from radar backscatter is more difficult, however, due to the combined sensitivity of radar scattering to surface roughness, vegetation structure, and soil moisture. The algorithm uses a time-series of SAR data to retrieval soil moisture information, constraining the SAR-derived soil moisture estimates with radiometer observations. This effectively combines the high spatial resolution offered by SAR with the precision offered by passive radiometry. The algorithm is a change detection approach which maps changes in the radar backscatter to changes in surface soil moisture. This new algorithm differs from existing retrieval techniques in that it does not require ancillary vegetation information, but assumes vegetation and surface roughness are stable between pairs of consecutive radar overpasses. Furthermore, this method does not require a radar scattering model for the vegetation canopy, nor the use of a training data set. The algorithm works over a long time series, and is constrained by hard bounds which are defined using a coarse-resolution radiometer soil moisture product. The presentation will include soil moisture retrievals from Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) SAR data. Two sets of optimization bounds will constrain the radar change detection algorithm: one defined by SMAP radiometer retrievals and one defined by WindSat radiometer retrievals. Retrieved soil moisture values will be presented on a world map and will

A W-Band Radiometer with the Offset Parabolic Antenna for Radiometric Measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Wu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the development of a W-band noise-adding radiometer which combines the millimeter-wave (MMW radiometric measurements with a high-resolution imager. The offset parabolic antenna is presented to achieve an accurate measurement and a high resolution. To reduce the cross-polarization level of the antenna, a multimode feed horn with a multistep structure is proposed to match the focal region fields of the reflector. It has advantages over the corrugated horns in lower mass and easier manufacturing. In addition, due to an unavoidable settling time for the noise-adding radiometer output signal passing through the low-pass filter, a theoretical criterion for the optimum duty cycle determination to reject extraneous contributions from the transient is proposed in this paper. The appropriate duty cycle threshold is 0.33 for the developed W-band radiometer. Also, a geometric correction method is presented to correct the obtained passive image suffering from a distortion for a better image interpretation. Preliminary experimental results are given to illustrate and verify the presented techniques.

Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Huricane Satellite (HURSAT)-Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is used to extend the HURSAT data set such that appling the Objective Dvorak technique...

Assessment of Radiometer Calibration with GPS Radio Occultation for the MiRaTA CubeSat Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Marinan, Anne D.; Cahoy, Kerri L.; Bishop, Rebecca L.; Lui, Susan S.; Bardeen, James R.; Mulligan, Tamitha; Blackwell, William J.; Leslie, R. Vincent; Osaretin, Idahosa; Shields, Michael

2017-01-01

The Microwave Radiometer Technology Acceleration (MiRaTA) is a 3U CubeSat mission sponsored by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO). The science payload on MiRaTA consists of a tri-band microwave radiometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (GPSRO) sensor. The microwave radiometer takes measurements of all-weather temperature (V-band, 50-57 GHz), water vapor (G-band, 175-191 GHz), and cloud ice (G-band, 205 GHz) to provide observations used to improve weather forecasting. The Aerospace Corporation's GPSRO experiment, called the Compact TEC (Total Electron Content) and Atmospheric GPS Sensor (CTAGS), measures profiles of temperature and pressure in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (∼20 km) and electron density in the ionosphere (over 100 km). The MiRaTA mission will validate new technologies in both passive microwave radiometry and GPS radio occultation: (1) new ultra-compact and low-power technology for multi-channel and multi-band passive microwave radiometers, (2) the application of a commercial off the shelf (COTS) GPS receiver and custom patch antenna array technology to obtain neutral atmospheric GPSRO retrieval from a nanosatellite, and (3) a new approach to spaceborne microwave radiometer calibration using adjacent GPSRO measurements. In this paper, we focus on objective (3), developing operational models to meet a mission goal of 100 concurrent radiometer and GPSRO measurements, and estimating the temperature measurement precision for the CTAGS instrument based on thermal noise. Based on an analysis of thermal noise of the CTAGS instrument, the expected temperature retrieval precision is between 0.17 K and 1.4 K, which supports the improvement of radiometric calibration to 0.25 K. PMID:28828144

Accurate antenna reflector loss measurements for radiometer calibration budget

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

1996-01-01

Antenna reflector losses may play an important role in the calibration budget for a microwave radiometer. If the losses are small they are difficult to measure by traditional means. However, they can be assessed directly by radiometric means using the sky brightness temperature as incident...

Development of an improved Newtonian total radiometer, its evaluation and calibration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castrejon G, R.; Morales, A.

1998-01-01

Measuring of radiant energy by optical non intrusive means is an important topic of research in many areas of science and technology. Precise evaluation of thermal energy emitted by hot bodies leads to a better understanding of the energy interchange phenomena between the body and its surroundings. To this end, a wide spectrum optical radiometer was developed. In this article we describe the construction and evaluation of this instrument and the physical principles involved in its design and operation. Among other advantages, the linear response of the instrument allows easily a precise calibration. Additionally, we give a procedure to obtain a known source of radiation that was used to calibrate the radiometer. (Author)

Low level beta-activity radiometer with compensation of the background

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vankov, I [and others

1996-12-31

New type of the low level beta-activity scintillation detector system is developed. The procedure of finding the beta activity and the operation of the recording unit of the radiometer are considered. 3 refs.; 5 figs.

MCM Polarimetric Radiometers for Planar Arrays

Science.gov (United States)

Kangaslahti, Pekka; Dawson, Douglas; Gaier, Todd

2007-01-01

A polarimetric radiometer that operates at a frequency of 40 GHz has been designed and built as a prototype of multiple identical units that could be arranged in a planar array for scientific measurements. Such an array is planned for use in studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB). All of the subsystems and components of this polarimetric radiometer are integrated into a single multi-chip module (MCM) of substantially planar geometry. In comparison with traditional designs of polarimetric radiometers, the MCM design is expected to greatly reduce the cost per unit in an array of many such units. The design of the unit is dictated partly by a requirement, in the planned CMB application, to measure the Stokes parameters I, Q, and U of the CMB radiation with high sensitivity. (A complete definition of the Stokes parameters would exceed the scope of this article. In necessarily oversimplified terms, I is a measure of total intensity of radiation, while Q and U are measures of the relationships between the horizontally and vertically polarized components of radiation.) Because the sensitivity of a single polarimeter cannot be increased significantly, the only way to satisfy the high-sensitivity requirement is to make a large array of polarimeters that operate in parallel. The MCM includes contact pins that can be plugged into receptacles on a standard printed-circuit board (PCB). All of the required microwave functionality is implemented within the MCM; any required supporting non-microwave ("back-end") electronic functionality, including the provision of DC bias and control signals, can be implemented by standard PCB techniques. On the way from a microwave antenna to the MCM, the incoming microwave signal passes through an orthomode transducer (OMT), which splits the radiation into an h + i(nu) beam and an h - i(nu) beam (where, using complex-number notation, h denotes the horizontal component, nu denotes the vertical component, and +/-i denotes a +/-90deg phase

First middle-atmospheric zonal wind profile measurements with a new ground-based microwave Doppler-spectro-radiometer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Rüfenacht

2012-11-01

Full Text Available We report on the wind radiometer WIRA, a new ground-based microwave Doppler-spectro-radiometer specifically designed for the measurement of middle-atmospheric horizontal wind by observing ozone emission spectra at 142.17504 GHz. Currently, wind speeds in five levels between 30 and 79 km can be retrieved which makes WIRA the first instrument able to continuously measure horizontal wind in this altitude range. For an integration time of one day the measurement error on each level lies at around 25 m s⁻¹. With a planned upgrade this value is expected to be reduced by a factor of 2 in the near future. On the altitude levels where our measurement can be compared to wind data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF very good agreement in the long-term statistics as well as in short time structures with a duration of a few days has been found.

WIRA uses a passive double sideband heterodyne receiver together with a digital Fourier transform spectrometer for the data acquisition. A big advantage of the radiometric approach is that such instruments can also operate under adverse weather conditions and thus provide a continuous time series for the given location. The optics enables the instrument to scan a wide range of azimuth angles including the directions east, west, north, and south for zonal and meridional wind measurements. The design of the radiometer is fairly compact and its calibration does not rely on liquid nitrogen which makes it transportable and suitable for campaign use. WIRA is conceived in a way that it can be operated remotely and does hardly require any maintenance.

In the present paper, a description of the instrument is given, and the techniques used for the wind retrieval based on the determination of the Doppler shift of the measured atmospheric ozone emission spectra are outlined. Their reliability was tested using Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, a time series of 11

First middle-atmospheric zonal wind profile measurements with a new ground-based microwave Doppler-spectro-radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Rüfenacht, R.; Kämpfer, N.; Murk, A.

2012-11-01

We report on the wind radiometer WIRA, a new ground-based microwave Doppler-spectro-radiometer specifically designed for the measurement of middle-atmospheric horizontal wind by observing ozone emission spectra at 142.17504 GHz. Currently, wind speeds in five levels between 30 and 79 km can be retrieved which makes WIRA the first instrument able to continuously measure horizontal wind in this altitude range. For an integration time of one day the measurement error on each level lies at around 25 m s-1. With a planned upgrade this value is expected to be reduced by a factor of 2 in the near future. On the altitude levels where our measurement can be compared to wind data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) very good agreement in the long-term statistics as well as in short time structures with a duration of a few days has been found. WIRA uses a passive double sideband heterodyne receiver together with a digital Fourier transform spectrometer for the data acquisition. A big advantage of the radiometric approach is that such instruments can also operate under adverse weather conditions and thus provide a continuous time series for the given location. The optics enables the instrument to scan a wide range of azimuth angles including the directions east, west, north, and south for zonal and meridional wind measurements. The design of the radiometer is fairly compact and its calibration does not rely on liquid nitrogen which makes it transportable and suitable for campaign use. WIRA is conceived in a way that it can be operated remotely and does hardly require any maintenance. In the present paper, a description of the instrument is given, and the techniques used for the wind retrieval based on the determination of the Doppler shift of the measured atmospheric ozone emission spectra are outlined. Their reliability was tested using Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, a time series of 11 months of zonal wind measurements over Bern (46°57' N

Effect of Chamber Wall Proximity on Radiometer Force Production (Preprint)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Selden, N. P; Gimelshein, N. E; Gimelshein, S. F; Ketsdever, A. D

2008-01-01

... on a given radiometer configuration in both the free molecule and transitional regimes. The contribution of the chamber walls to both the flowfield structure and radiometric force production were examined for helium, argon, and nitrogen test gases...

Nimbus-2 Level 2 Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (MRIR) V001

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Nimbus II Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (MRIR) was designed to measure electromagnetic radiation emitted and reflected from the earth and its atmosphere...

Spatiotemporal Variability of Earth's Radiation Balance Components from Russian Radiometer IKOR-M

Science.gov (United States)

Cherviakov, M.

2016-12-01

The radiometer IKOR-M was created in National Research Saratov State University for satellite monitoring of the outgoing reflected short-wave radiation, which is one of the components of Earth's radiation budget. Such information can be used in different models of long-term weather forecasts, in researches of climate change trends and in calculation of absorbed solar radiation values and albedo of the Earth-atmosphere system. The IKOR-M product archive is available online at all times. A searchable catalogue of data products is continually updated and users may search and download data products via the Earth radiation balance components research laboratory website as soon as they become available. Two series of measurements from two different IKOR-M are available. The first radiometer had worked from October 2009 to August 2014 and second - from August 2014 to the present. Therefore, there is a period when both radiometers work at the same time. Top-of-atmosphere fluxes deduced from the "Meteor-M" No 1 measurement in August, 2014 show very good agreement with the fluxes determined from "Meteor-M" No 2. The scale relationship of the IKOR-M radiometers on "Meteor - M" No 1 and No 2 satellites found by comparing of the global distribution maps for monthly averaged albedo values. The seasonal and interannual variations of OSR, albedo and ASR were discussed. The variations between SW radiation budget components seem to be within observational uncertainty and natural variability governed by cloudiness, water vapor and aerosol variations. It was assessed spatial and temporal variations of albedo and the absorbed solar radiation over different regions. Latitudinal distributions of albedo and ASR were estimated in more detail. Meridional cross sections over oceans and land were used separately for this estimation. It was shown that the albedo and ASR data received from the radiometer IKOR-M can be used to detect El Nino in the Pacific Ocean. The reported study was funded by

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Microwave Radiometer Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) Mitigation: Initial On-Orbit Results

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed, Priscilla N.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Johnson, Joel T.; Aksoy, Mustafa; Bringer, Alexandra

2015-01-01

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, launched in January 2015, provides global measurements of soil moisture using a microwave radiometer. SMAPs radiometer passband lies within the passive frequency allocation. However, both unauthorized in-band transmitters as well as out-of-band emissions from transmitters operating at frequencies adjacent to this allocated spectrum have been documented as sources of radio frequency interference (RFI) to the L-band radiometers on SMOS and Aquarius. The spectral environment consists of high RFI levels as well as significant occurrences of low level RFI equivalent to 0.1 to 10 K. The SMAP ground processor reports the antenna temperature both before and after RFI mitigation is applied. The difference between these quantities represents the detected RFI level. The presentation will review the SMAP RFI detection and mitigation procedure and discuss early on-orbit RFI measurements from the SMAP radiometer. Assessments of global RFI properties and source types will be provided, as well as the implications of these results for SMAP soil moisture measurements.

Change in Water Cycle- Important Issue on Climate Earth System

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Pratik

climate forecasts. Aqua is a major mission of the Earth Observing System (EOS), an international program centered in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to study the Earth in detail from the unique vantage point of space. Focused on key measurements identified by a consensus of U.S. and international scientists, EOS is further enabling studies of the complex interactions amongst the Earth's land, ocean, air, ice and biological systems. Aqua's contributions to monitoring water in the Earth's environment will involve all six of Aqua's instruments: the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer- Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). Frozen water in the oceans, in the form of sea ice, will be examined with both AMSR-E and MODIS data, the former allowing routine monitoring of sea ice at a coarse resolution and the latter providing greater spatial resolution but only under cloud-free conditions. Sea ice can insulate the underlying liquid water against heat loss to the often frigid overlying polar atmosphere and also reflects sunlight that would otherwise be available to warm the ocean. AMSR-E measurements will allow the routine derivation of sea ice concentrations in both polar regions, through taking advantage of the marked contrast in microwave emissions of sea ice and liquid water. This will continue, with improved resolution and accuracy, a 22-year satellite record of changes in the extent of polar ice. MODIS, with its finer resolution, will permit the identification of individual ice flows, when unobscured by clouds. AMSR-E and MODIS will also provide monitoring, the AIRS/AMSU/HSB combination will provide more-accurate space-based measurements of atmospheric temperature and water vapor than have ever been obtained before, with the highest vertical

Application of ground-based, multi-channel microwave radiometer in the nowcasting of intense convective weather through instability indices of the atmosphere

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chan, P.W.; Hon, K.K. [Hong Kong Observatory, Hong Kong (China)

2011-08-15

A ground-based microwave radiometer gives the possibility of providing continuously available temperature and humidity profiles of the troposphere, from which instability indices of the atmosphere could be derived. This paper studies the possibility of correlating the radiometer-based instability indices with the occurrence of intense convective activity, namely, the occurrence of lightning. The correlation so established could be useful for the nowcasting of convective weather: the weather forecaster follows the evolution of the radiometer-based instability indices in order to access the chance for lightning to occur. The quality of the radiometer-based instability indices is first established by comparing with the radiosonde-based indices. Though there are biases and spreads in the scatter plots of the two datasets, the radiometer-based indices appear to follow the trend of the radiosonde-based indices in spite of the differences in measurement locations and working principles of the two instruments. The thresholds of instability indices for the occurrence of lightning (using 1 discharge) are then determined, specifically for the radiometer in use and the climatological condition in Hong Kong. It turns out that, among all the indices considered in this paper, KI has the best performance in terms of probability of detection of lightning occurrence, particularly for non-summer months, by using an optimum threshold. Finally, the correlation between the instability index and the amount of lightning strokes (within a certain distance from the radiometer) is established. It turns out that the correlation is the best using the minimum value of humidity index, with correlation coefficient of 0.55. The distance from the radiometer considered is about 30 km (having the best correlation between the number of lightning discharges and the instability index), which may be taken as the area over which the radiometer's measurement is considered to be representative of the

Use of ground-based radiometers for L-Band Freeze/Thaw retrieval in a boreal forest site

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, A.; Sonnentag, O.; Derksen, C.; Toose, P.; Pappas, C.; Mavrovic, A.; El Amine, M.; Royer, A.; Berg, A. A.; Rowlandson, T. L.; Barr, A.; Black, T. A.

2017-12-01

The boreal forest is the second largest land biome in the world and thus plays a major role in the global and regional climate systems. The extent, timing and duration of the seasonal freeze/thaw (F/T) state influences vegetation developmental stages (phenology) and, consequently, constitutes an important control on how boreal forest ecosystems exchange carbon, water and energy with the atmosphere. Recently, new L-Band satellite-derived F/T information has become available. However, disentangling the seasonally differing contributions from forest overstory and understory vegetation, and the ground surface to the satellite signal remains challenging. Here we present results from an ongoing campaign with two L-Band surface-based radiometers (SBR) installed on a micrometeorological tower at the Southern Old Black Spruce site (53.99°N / 105.12°W) in central Saskatchewan. One radiometer unit is installed on top of the tower viewing the multi-layer vegetation canopy from above. A second radiometer unit is installed within the multi-layer canopy, viewing the understory and the ground surface only. The objectives of our study are to (i) disentangle the L-Band F/T signal contribution of boreal forest overstory from the combined understory and ground surface contribution, and (ii) link the L-Band F/T signal to related boreal forest structural and functional characteristics. Analysis of these radiometer measurements made from September to November 2016 shows that when the ground surface is thawed, the main contributor to both radiometer signals is soil moisture. The Pearson correlation coefficient between brightness temperature (TB) at vertical polarization (V-pol) and soil permittivity is 0.79 for the radiometer above the canopy and 0.74 for the radiometer below the canopy. Under cold conditions when the soil was thawed (snow insulation) and the trees were frozen (below 0°C), TB at V-pol is negatively correlated with tree permittivity. The freezing tree contribution to

Insolation measurements with a portable CuS-CdS radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Windawi, H. M.

1976-01-01

Solar radiation measurements were carried out with a portable Cu2S-Cds radiometer. The measurements were found to be accurate to better than 5% (better than 3% when sophisticated metering is employed). Calibration to an Eppley precision pyranometer is discussed.

CORRECTION OF THE TEMPERATURE EFFECT IN 1020 NM BAND OF SUN-SKY RADIOMETER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Aerosol is an important part of the earth-atmosphere system. It can directly and indirectly influence solar radiation and then affect the energy balance of earth-atmosphere system. AERONET, as the largest ground-based observation network, provides multi-parameters of aerosol from more than 600 hundred sites using sun-sky radiometer, which contains 9 channels from 340 nm to 1640 nm. Among which, 1020 nm channel is greatly influenced by the temperature. In this paper, a new correction method of 1020 nm band is introduced. The new method transfers the temperature correction coefficient of the master radiometer to the comparative one. The filed calibration experiment shown that the temperature correction coefficient obtained by this method is close to the result from the temperature controlled chamber, and the difference is about 2.1 %. This new method is easy-to-use, and its accuracy is comparable to the standard one. It is more applicable for large-scale instrument calibration. In principle, this method is applicable to all bands of the sun-sky radiometer.

Correction of the Temperature Effect in 1020 NM Band of Sun-Sky Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Li, K.; Li, Z.; Li, D.; Xie, Y.; Xu, H.

2018-04-01

Aerosol is an important part of the earth-atmosphere system. It can directly and indirectly influence solar radiation and then affect the energy balance of earth-atmosphere system. AERONET, as the largest ground-based observation network, provides multi-parameters of aerosol from more than 600 hundred sites using sun-sky radiometer, which contains 9 channels from 340 nm to 1640 nm. Among which, 1020 nm channel is greatly influenced by the temperature. In this paper, a new correction method of 1020 nm band is introduced. The new method transfers the temperature correction coefficient of the master radiometer to the comparative one. The filed calibration experiment shown that the temperature correction coefficient obtained by this method is close to the result from the temperature controlled chamber, and the difference is about 2.1 %. This new method is easy-to-use, and its accuracy is comparable to the standard one. It is more applicable for large-scale instrument calibration. In principle, this method is applicable to all bands of the sun-sky radiometer.

Inspection of feasible calibration conditions for UV radiometer detectors with the KI/KIO3 actinometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiang, Zhimin; Li, Wentao; Li, Mengkai; Bolton, James R; Qu, Jiuhui

2015-01-01

UV radiometers are widely employed for irradiance measurements, but their periodical calibrations not only induce an extra cost but also are time-consuming. In this study, the KI/KIO3 actinometer was applied to calibrate UV radiometer detectors at 254 nm with a quasi-collimated beam apparatus equipped with a low-pressure UV lamp, and feasible calibration conditions were identified. Results indicate that a washer constraining the UV light was indispensable, while the size (10 or 50 mL) of a beaker containing the actinometer solution had little influence when a proper washer was used. The absorption or reflection of UV light by the internal beaker wall led to an underestimation or overestimation of the irradiance determined by the KI/KIO3 actinometer, respectively. The proper range of the washer internal diameter could be obtained via mathematical analysis. A radiometer with a longer service time showed a greater calibration factor. To minimize the interference from the inner wall reflection of the collimating tube, calibrations should be conducted at positions far enough away from the tube bottom. This study demonstrates that after the feasible calibration conditions are identified, the KI/KIO3 actinometer can be applied readily to calibrate UV radiometer detectors at 254 nm. © 2014 The American Society of Photobiology.

A New 1DVAR Retrieval for AMSR2 and GMI: Validation and Sensitivites

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, D.; Kummerow, C. D.

2015-12-01

A new non-raining retrieval has been developed for microwave imagers and applied to the GMI and AMSR2 sensors. With the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) as the forward model for the physical retrieval, a 1-dimensional variational method finds the atmospheric state which minimizes the difference between observed and simulated brightness temperatures. A key innovation of the algorithm development is a method to calculate the sensor error covariance matrix that is specific to the forward model employed and includes off-diagonal elements, allowing the algorithm to handle various forward models and sensors with little cross-talk. The water vapor profile is resolved by way of empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and then summed to get total precipitable water (TPW). Validation of retrieved 10m wind speed, TPW, and sea surface temperature (SST) is performed via comparison with buoys and radiosondes as well as global models and other remotely sensed products. In addition to the validation, sensitivity experiments investigate the impact of ancillary data on the under-constrained retrieval, a concern for climate data records that strive to be independent of model biases. The introduction of model analysis data is found to aid the algorithm most at high frequency channels and affect TPW retrievals, whereas wind and cloud water retrievals show little effect from ingesting further ancillary data.

Implementation of Active Thermal Control (ATC) for the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Mikhaylov, Rebecca; Kwack, Eug; French, Richard; Dawson, Douglas; Hoffman, Pamela

2014-01-01

NASA's Earth Observing Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) Mission is scheduled to launch in November 2014 into a 685 kilometer near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. SMAP will provide comprehensive global mapping measurements of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state in order to enhance understanding of the processes that link the water, energy, and carbon cycles. The primary objectives of SMAP are to improve worldwide weather and flood forecasting, enhance climate prediction, and refine drought and agriculture monitoring during its three year mission. The SMAP instrument architecture incorporates an L-band radar and an L-band radiometer which share a common feed horn and parabolic mesh reflector. The instrument rotates about the nadir axis at approximately 15 revolutions per minute, thereby providing a conically scanning wide swath antenna beam that is capable of achieving global coverage within three days. In order to make the necessary precise surface emission measurements from space, the electronics and hardware associated with the radiometer must meet tight short-term (instantaneous and orbital) and long-term (monthly and mission) thermal stabilities. Maintaining these tight thermal stabilities is quite challenging because the sensitive electronics are located on a fast spinning platform that can either be in full sunlight or total eclipse, thus exposing them to a highly transient environment. A passive design approach was first adopted early in the design cycle as a low-cost solution. With careful thermal design efforts to cocoon and protect all sensitive components, all stability requirements were met passively. Active thermal control (ATC) was later added after the instrument Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to mitigate the threat of undetected gain glitches, not for thermal-stability reasons. Gain glitches are common problems with radiometers during missions, and one simple way to avoid gain glitches is to use the in-flight set point programmability that ATC

Design and first plasma measurements of the ITER-ECE prototype radiometer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Austin, M. E.; Brookman, M. W.; Rowan, W. L. [Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 (United States); Danani, S. [ITER-India/Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gandhinagar 382428 (India); Bryerton, E. W.; Dougherty, P. [Virginia Diodes, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 (United States)

2016-11-15

On ITER, second harmonic optically thick electron cyclotron emission (ECE) in the range of 220-340 GHz will supply the electron temperature (T{sub e}). To investigate the requirements and capabilities prescribed for the ITER system, a prototype radiometer covering this frequency range has been developed by Virginia Diodes, Inc. The first plasma measurements with this instrument have been carried out on the DIII-D tokamak, with lab bench tests and measurements of third through fifth harmonic ECE from high T{sub e} plasmas. At DIII-D the instrument shares the transmission line of the Michelson interferometer and can simultaneously acquire data. Comparison of the ECE radiation temperature from the absolutely calibrated Michelson and the prototype receiver shows that the ITER radiometer provides accurate measurements of the millimeter radiation across the instrument band.

Measurement of small antenna reflector losses for radiometer calibration budget

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels

1997-01-01

Antenna reflector losses play an important role in the calibration budget for a microwave radiometer. If the losses are small, they are difficult to measure by traditional means. However, they can be assessed directly by radiometric means using the sky brightness temperature as incident radiation...

The EUMETSAT Polar System - Second Generation (EPS-SG) micro-wave imaging (MWI) mission

Science.gov (United States)

Bojkov, B. R.; Accadia, C.; Klaes, D.; Canestri, A.; Cohen, M.

2017-12-01

The EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) will be followed by a second generation system called EPS-SG. This new family of missions will contribute to the Joint Polar System being jointly set up with NOAA in the timeframe 2020-2040. These satellites will fly, like Metop (EPS), in a sun synchronous, low earth orbit at 830 km altitude and 09:30 local time descending node, providing observations over the full globe with revisit times of 12 hours. EPS-SG consists of two different satellites configurations, the EPS-SGa series dedicated to IR and MW sounding, and the EPS-SGb series dedicated to microwave imaging and scatterometry. The EPS-SG family will consist of three successive launches of each satellite-type. The Microwave Imager (MWI) will be hosted on Metop-SGb series of satellites, with the primary objective of supporting Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) at regional and global scales. Other applications will be observation of surface parameters such as sea ice concentration and hydrology applications. The 18 MWI instrument frequencies range from 18.7 GHz to 183 GHz. All MWI channels up to 89 GHz will measure V- and H polarizations. The MWI was also designed to provide continuity of measurements for select heritage microwave imager channels (e.g. SSM/I, AMSR-E). The additional sounding channels such as the 50-55 and 118 GHz bands will provide additional cloud and precipitation information over sea and land. This combination of channels was successfully tested on the NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed - Microwave Sounder (NAST-M) airborne radiometer, and it is the first time that will be implemented in a conical scanning configuration in a single instrument. An overview of the EPS-SG programme and the MWI instrument will be presented.

Sensitivity of Support Vector Machine Predictions of Passive Microwave Brightness Temperature Over Snow-covered Terrain in High Mountain Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, J. A.; Forman, B. A.

2017-12-01

High Mountain Asia (HMA) serves as a water supply source for over 1.3 billion people, primarily in south-east Asia. Most of this water originates as snow (or ice) that melts during the summer months and contributes to the run-off downstream. In spite of its critical role, there is still considerable uncertainty regarding the total amount of snow in HMA and its spatial and temporal variation. In this study, the NASA Land Information Systems (LIS) is used to model the hydrologic cycle over the Indus basin. In addition, the ability of support vector machines (SVM), a machine learning technique, to predict passive microwave brightness temperatures at a specific frequency and polarization as a function of LIS-derived land surface model output is explored in a sensitivity analysis. Multi-frequency, multi-polarization passive microwave brightness temperatures as measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) over the Indus basin are used as training targets during the SVM training process. Normalized sensitivity coefficients (NSC) are then computed to assess the sensitivity of a well-trained SVM to each LIS-derived state variable. Preliminary results conform with the known first-order physics. For example, input states directly linked to physical temperature like snow temperature, air temperature, and vegetation temperature have positive NSC's whereas input states that increase volume scattering such as snow water equivalent or snow density yield negative NSC's. Air temperature exhibits the largest sensitivity coefficients due to its inherent, high-frequency variability. Adherence of this machine learning algorithm to the first-order physics bodes well for its potential use in LIS as the observation operator within a radiance data assimilation system aimed at improving regional- and continental-scale snow estimates.

A new multi-sensor integrated index for drought monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, W.; Wang, L.; Tian, C.

2017-12-01

Drought is perceived as one of the most expensive and least understood natural disasters. The remote-sensing-based integrated drought indices, which integrate multiple variables, could reflect the drought conditions more comprehensively than single drought indices. However, most of current remote-sensing-based integrated drought indices focus on agricultural drought (i.e., deficit in soil moisture), their application in monitoring meteorological drought (i.e., deficit in precipitation) was limited. More importantly, most of the remote-sensing-based integrated drought indices did not take into consideration of the spatially non-stationary nature of the related variables, so such indices may lose essential local details when integrating multiple variables. In this regard, we proposed a new mathematical framework for generating integrated drought index for meteorological drought monitoring. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) model and principal component analysis were used to composite Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) based temperature condition index (TCI), the Vegetation Index based on the Universal Pattern Decomposition method (VIUPD) based vegetation condition index (VCI), tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) based Precipitation Condition Index (PCI) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) based soil moisture condition index (SMCI). We called the new remote-sensing-based integrated drought index geographical-location-based integrated drought index (GLIDI). We examined the utility of the GLIDI for drought monitoring in various climate divisions across the continental United States (CONUS). GLIDI showed high correlations with in-situ drought indices and outperformed most other existing drought indices. The results also indicate that the performance of GLIDI is not affected by environmental factors such as land cover, precipitation, temperature and soil conditions. As such, the GLIDI has considerable potential for

A Novel Hydro-information System for Improving National Weather Service River Forecast System

Science.gov (United States)

Nan, Z.; Wang, S.; Liang, X.; Adams, T. E.; Teng, W. L.; Liang, Y.

2009-12-01

A novel hydro-information system has been developed to improve the forecast accuracy of the NOAA National Weather Service River Forecast System (NWSRFS). An MKF-based (Multiscale Kalman Filter) spatial data assimilation framework, together with the NOAH land surface model, is employed in our system to assimilate satellite surface soil moisture data to yield improved evapotranspiration. The latter are then integrated into the distributed version of the NWSRFS to improve its forecasting skills, especially for droughts, but also for disaster management in general. Our system supports an automated flow into the NWSRFS of daily satellite surface soil moisture data, derived from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), and the forcing information of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). All data are custom processed, archived, and supported by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center (GES DISC). An optional data fusing component is available in our system, which fuses NEXRAD Stage III precipitation data with the NLDAS precipitation data, using the MKF-based framework, to provide improved precipitation inputs. Our system employs a plug-in, structured framework and has a user-friendly, graphical interface, which can display, in real-time, the spatial distributions of assimilated state variables and other model-simulated information, as well as their behaviors in time series. The interface can also display watershed maps, as a result of the integration of the QGIS library into our system. Extendibility and flexibility of our system are achieved through the plug-in design and by an extensive use of XML-based configuration files. Furthermore, our system can be extended to support multiple land surface models and multiple data assimilation schemes, which would further increase its capabilities. Testing of the integration of the current system into the NWSRFS is

Diagnosing Warm Frontal Cloud Formation in a GCM: A Novel Approach Using Conditional Subsetting

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, James F.; Naud, Catherine M.; DelGenio, Anthony D.

2013-01-01

This study analyzes characteristics of clouds and vertical motion across extratropical cyclone warm fronts in the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model. The validity of the modeled clouds is assessed using a combination of satellite observations from CloudSat, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), and the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis. The analysis focuses on developing cyclones, to test the model's ability to generate their initial structure. To begin, the extratropical cyclones and their warm fronts are objectively identified and cyclone-local fields are mapped into a vertical transect centered on the surface warm front. To further isolate specific physics, the cyclones are separated using conditional subsetting based on additional cyclone-local variables, and the differences between the subset means are analyzed. Conditional subsets are created based on 1) the transect clouds and 2) vertical motion; 3) the strength of the temperature gradient along the warm front, as well as the storm-local 4) wind speed and 5) precipitable water (PW). The analysis shows that the model does not generate enough frontal cloud, especially at low altitude. The subsetting results reveal that, compared to the observations, the model exhibits a decoupling between cloud formation at high and low altitudes across warm fronts and a weak sensitivity to moisture. These issues are caused in part by the parameterized convection and assumptions in the stratiform cloud scheme that are valid in the subtropics. On the other hand, the model generates proper covariability of low-altitude vertical motion and cloud at the warm front and a joint dependence of cloudiness on wind and PW.

The MJO Transition from Shallow to Deep Convection in CloudSat/CALIPSO Data and GISS GCM Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

DelGenio, Anthony G.; Chen, Yonghua; Kim, Daehyun; Yao, Mao-Sung

2013-01-01

The relationship between convective penetration depth and tropospheric humidity is central to recent theories of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). It has been suggested that general circulation models (GCMs) poorly simulate the MJO because they fail to gradually moisten the troposphere by shallow convection and simulate a slow transition to deep convection. CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) data are analyzed to document the variability of convection depth and its relation to water vapor during the MJO transition from shallow to deep convection and to constrain GCM cumulus parameterizations. Composites of cloud occurrence for 10MJO events show the following anticipatedMJO cloud structure: shallow and congestus clouds in advance of the peak, deep clouds near the peak, and upper-level anvils after the peak. Cirrus clouds are also frequent in advance of the peak. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EarthObserving System (EOS) (AMSR-E) columnwater vapor (CWV) increases by;5 mmduring the shallow- deep transition phase, consistent with the idea of moisture preconditioning. Echo-top height of clouds rooted in the boundary layer increases sharply with CWV, with large variability in depth when CWV is between;46 and 68 mm. International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project cloud classifications reproduce these climatological relationships but correctly identify congestus-dominated scenes only about half the time. A version of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Model E2 (GISS-E2) GCM with strengthened entrainment and rain evaporation that produces MJO-like variability also reproduces the shallow-deep convection transition, including the large variability of cloud-top height at intermediate CWV values. The variability is due to small grid-scale relative humidity and lapse rate anomalies for similar values of CWV. 1.

GPM GROUND VALIDATION ADVANCED MICROWAVE RADIOMETER RAIN IDENTIFICATION (ADMIRARI) GCPEX V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx dataset measures brightness temperature at three frequencies (10.7, 21.0...

Preliminary Evaluation of the SMAP Radiometer Soil Moisture Product over China Using In Situ Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yayong Sun

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP satellite makes coincident global measurements of soil moisture using an L-band radar instrument and an L-band radiometer. It is crucial to evaluate the errors in the newest L-band SMAP satellite-derived soil moisture products, before they are routinely used in scientific research and applications. This study represents the first evaluation of the SMAP radiometer soil moisture product over China. In this paper, a preliminary evaluation was performed using sparse in situ measurements from 655 China Meteorological Administration (CMA monitoring stations between 1 April 2015 and 31 August 2016. The SMAP radiometer-derived soil moisture product was evaluated against two schemes of original soil moisture and the soil moisture anomaly in different geographical zones and land cover types. Four performance metrics, i.e., bias, root mean square error (RMSE, unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE, and the correlation coefficient (R, were used in the accuracy evaluation. The results indicated that the SMAP radiometer-derived soil moisture product agreed relatively well with the in situ measurements, with ubRMSE values of 0.058 cm3·cm−3 and 0.039 cm3·cm−3 based on original data and anomaly data, respectively. The values of the SMAP radiometer-based soil moisture product were overestimated in wet areas, especially in the Southwest China, South China, Southeast China, East China, and Central China zones. The accuracies over croplands and in Northeast China were the worst. Soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation are crucial factors contributing to the error in the soil moisture product. Moreover, radio frequency interference contributes to the overestimation over the northern portion of the East China zone. This study provides guidelines for the application of the SMAP-derived soil moisture product in China and acts as a reference for improving the retrieval algorithm.

Long-term temporal stability of the National Institute of Standards and Technology spectral irradiance scale determined with absolute filter radiometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Howard W.; Gibson, Charles E.

2002-01-01

The temporal stability of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spectral irradiance scale as measured with broadband filter radiometers calibrated for absolute spectral irradiance responsivity is described. The working standard free-electron laser (FEL) lamps and the check standard FEL lamps have been monitored with radiometers in the ultraviolet and the visible wavelength regions. The measurements made with these two radiometers reveal that the NIST spectral irradiance scale as compared with an absolute thermodynamic scale has not changed by more than 1.5% in the visible from 1993 to 1999. Similar measurements in the ultraviolet reveal that the corresponding change is less than 1.5% from 1995 to 1999. Furthermore, a check of the spectral irradiance scale by six different filter radiometers calibrated for absolute spectral irradiance responsivity based on the high-accuracy cryogenic radiometer shows that the agreement between the present scale and the detector-based scale is better than 1.3% throughout the visible to the near-infrared wavelength region. These results validate the assigned spectral irradiance of the widely disseminated NIST or NIST-traceable standard sources

L-Band Radiometers Measuring Salinity From Space: Atmospheric Propagation Effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Hofman-Bang, Dorthe

2005-01-01

Microwave radiometers can measure sea surface salinity from space using L-band frequencies around 1.4 GHz. However, requirements to the accuracy of the measurements, in order to be satisfactory for the user, are so stringent that the influence of the intervening atmosphere cannot be neglected...

Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) Handbook With subsections for derivative instruments: Multifilter Radiometer (MFR) Normal Incidence Multifilter Radiometer (NIMFR)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hodges, Gary B. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.; Michalsky, Joseph J. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.

2016-03-01

The visible Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) is a passive instrument that measures global and diffuse components of solar irradiance at six narrowband channels and one open, or broadband, channel (Harrison et al. 1994). Direct irradiance is not a primary measurement, but is calculated using diffuse and global measurements. To collect one data record, the MFRSR takes measurements at four different shadowband positions. The first measurement is taken with the shadowband in the nadir (home) position. The next three measurements are, in order, the first side-band, sun-blocked, and second side-band. The side-band measurements are used to correct for the portion of the sky obscured by the shadowband. The nominal wavelengths of the narrowband channels are 415, 500, 615, 673, 870, and 940 nm. From such measurements, one may infer the atmosphere’s aerosol optical depth at each wavelength. In turn, these optical depths may be used to derive information about the column abundances of ozone and water vapor (Michalsky et al. 1995), as well as aerosol (Harrison and Michalsky 1994) and other atmospheric constituents.

Rotating shadowband radiometer development and analysis of spectral shortwave data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michalsky, J.; Harrison, L.; Min, Q. [State Univ. of New York, Albany, NY (United States)] [and others

1996-04-01

Our goals in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program are improved measurements of spectral shortwave radiation and improved techniques for the retrieval of climatologically sensitive parameters. The multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) that was developed during the first years of the ARM program has become a workhorse at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site, and it is widely deployed in other climate programs. We have spent most of our effort this year developing techniques to retrieve column aerosol, water vapor, and ozone from direct beam spectral measurements of the MFRSR. Additionally, we have had some success in calculating shortwave surface diffuse spectral irradiance. Using the surface albedo and the global irradiance, we have calculated cloud optical depths. From cloud optical depth and liquid water measured with the microwave radiometer, we have calculated effective liquid cloud particle radii. The rest of the text will provide some detail regarding each of these efforts.

Atmospheric correction for JPSS-2 VIIRS response versus scan angle measurements

Science.gov (United States)

McIntire, Jeffrey; Moeller, Chris; Oudrari, Hassan; Xiong, Xiaoxiong

2017-09-01

The Joint Polar Satellite System 2 (JPSS-2) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) includes one spectral band centered in a strong atmospheric absorption region. As much of the pre-launch calibration is performed under laboratory ambient conditions, accurately accounting for the absorption, and thereby ensuring the transfer of the sensor calibration to on-orbit operations, is necessary to generate science quality data products. This work is focused on the response versus scan angle (RVS) measurements, which characterize the relative scan angle dependent reflectance of the JPSS-2 VIIRS instrument optics. The spectral band of interest, centered around 1378 nm, is within a spectral region strongly effected by water vapor absorption. The methodology used to model the absolute humidity and the atmospheric transmittance under the laboratory conditions is detailed. The application of this transmittance to the RVS determination is then described including an uncertainty estimate; a comparison to the pre-launch measurements from earlier sensor builds is also performed.

Remote sensing of the lightning heating effect duration with ground-based microwave radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Sulin; Pan, Yun; Lei, Lianfa; Ma, Lina; Li, Qing; Wang, Zhenhui

2018-06-01

Artificially triggered lightning events from May 26, 2017 to July 16, 2017 in Guangzhou Field Experiment Site for Lightning Research and Test (GFESL) were intentionally remotely sensed with a ground-based microwave radiometer for the first time in order to obtain the features of lightning heating effect. The microwave radiometer antenna was adjusted to point at a certain elevation angle towards the expected artificially triggered lightning discharging path. Eight of the 16 successfully artificially triggered lightning events were captured and the brightness temperature data at four frequencies in K and V bands were obtained. The results from data time series analysis show that artificially triggered lightning can make the radiometer generate brightness temperature pulses, and the amplitudes of these pulses are in the range of 2.0 K to 73.8 K. The brightness temperature pulses associated with 7 events can be used to estimate the duration of lightning heating effect through accounting the number of the pulses in the continuous pulse sequence and the sampling interval between four frequencies. The maximum duration of the lightning heating effect is 1.13 s, the minimum is 0.172 s, and the average is 0.63 s.

Maritime Aerosol optical properties measured by ship-borne sky radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Aoki, K.

2017-12-01

Maritime aerosols play an important role in the earth climate change. We started the measurements of aerosol optical properties since 1994 by using ship-borne sky radiometer (POM-01 MK-II and III; Prede Co. Ltd., Japan) over the ocean. We report the results of an aerosol optical properties over the ocean by using Research Vessel of the ship-borne sky radiometers. Aerosol optical properties observation were made in MR10-02 to MR16-09 onboard the R/V Mirai, JAMSTEC. The sky radiometer measure the direct and diffuse solar radiance with seven interference filters (0.315, 0.4, 0.5, 0.675, 0.87, 0.94, and 1.02 µm). Observation interval was made every five minutes by once, only in daytime under the clear sky conditions. GPS provides the position with longitude and latitude and heading direction of the vessel, and azimuth and elevation angle of the sun. The aerosol optical properties were computed using the SKYRAD.pack version 4.2. The obtained Aerosol optical properties (Aerosol optical thickness, Ångström exponent, Single scattering albedo, and etc.) and size distribution volume clearly showed spatial and temporal variability over the ocean. Aerosol optical thickness found over the near the coast (Asia and Tropical area) was high and variable. The size distribution volume have peaks at small particles at Asian coast and large particles at Tropical coast area. We provide the information, in this presentation, on the aerosol optical properties measurements with temporal and spatial variability in the Maritime Aerosol. This project is validation satellite of GCOM-C/SGLI, JAXA and other. The GCOM-C satellite scheduled to be launched in 2017 JFY.

PAU-SA: A Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radiometer Test Bed for Potential Improvements in Future Missions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merce Vall-llosera

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS mission is an Earth Explorer Opportunity mission from the European Space Agency (ESA. Its goal is to produce global maps of soil moisture and ocean salinity using the Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS. The purpose of the Passive Advanced Unit Synthetic Aperture (PAU-SA instrument is to study and test some potential improvements that could eventually be implemented in future missions using interferometric radiometers such as the Geoestacionary Atmosferic Sounder (GAS, the Precipitation and All-weather Temperature and Humidity (PATH and the Geostationary Interferometric Microwave Sounder (GIMS. Both MIRAS and PAU-SA are Y-shaped arrays with uniformly distributed antennas, but the receiver topology and the processing unit are quite different. The purpose of this work is to identify the elements in the MIRAS’s design susceptible of improvement and apply them in the PAU-SA instrument demonstrator, to test them in view of these future interferometric radiometer missions.

The Transition of High-Resolution NASA MODIS Sea Surface Temperatures into the WRF Environmental Modeling System

Science.gov (United States)

Case, Jonathan L.; Jedlove, Gary J.; Santos, Pablo; Medlin, Jeffrey M.; Rozumalski, Robert A.

2009-01-01

format for a seamless incorporation into WRF via the WPS utilities. The full-resolution, 1-km MODIS product is sub-sampled to 2-km grid spacing due to limitations in handling very large dimensions in the GRIB-1 data format. The GRIB-1 files are posted online at ftp://ftp.nsstc.org/sstcomp/WRF/, which is directly accessed by the WRF EMS scripts. The MODIS SST composites are also downloaded to the EMS data server, which is accessible by the WRF EMS users and NWS WFOs. The SPoRT MODIS SST composite provides the model with superior detail of the ocean gradients around Florida and surrounding waters, whereas the operational RTG SST typically depicts a relatively smooth field and is not able to capture sharp horizontal gradients in SST. Differences of 2-3 C are common over small horizontal distances, leading to enhanced SST gradients on either side of the Gulf Stream and along the edges of the cooler shelf waters. These sharper gradients can in turn produce atmospheric responses in simulated temperature and wind fields as depicted in LaCasse et al. Differences in atmospheric verification statistics over a several month study were generally small in the vicinity of south Florida; however, the validation of SSTs at specific buoy locations revealed important improvements in the biases and RMS errors, especially in the vicinity of the cooler shelf waters off the east-central Florida coast. A current weakness in the MODIS SST product is the occurrence of occasional discontinuities caused by high latency in SST coverage due to persistent cloud cover. An enhanced method developed by Jedlovec et al. (2009, GHRSST User Symposium) reduces the occurrence of these problems by adding Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer -- EOS (AMSR-E) SST data to the compositing process. Enhanced SST composites are produced over the ocean regions surrounding the Continental U.S. at four times each day corresponding to Terra and Aqua equator crossing times. For a given day and overpass time, both MODInd

Development of an Internally-Calibrated Wide-Band Airborne Microwave Radiometer to Provide High-Resolution Wet-Tropospheric Path Delay Measurements for SWOT (HAMMR - High-frequency Airborne Microwave and Millimeter-wave Radiometer)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Development of an Internally-Calibrated Wide-Band Airborne Microwave Radiometer to Provide High-Resolution Wet-Tropospheric Path Delay Measurements for SWOT (HAMMR -...

Measurement of synchrotron radiation from the NBS SURF II using a silicon radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, A.R.

1980-01-01

A project is described in which the synchrotron radiation output from the NBS storage ring known as SURF II, is measured using a well characterized silicon based radiometer. This device consists of a silicon photodiode coupled with two interference filters to restrict the spectral response to a finite and convenient spectral region for the measurement. Considerations required for the characterization of the radiometer will be discussed. The absolute radiant flux from the storage ring is also calculable from various machine parameters. A measurement of the number of circulating electrons will be derived from electron counting techniques at low levels. This will yield an important intercomparison between the synchrotron flux measurements determined in two entirely different ways. (orig.)

Calibration OGSE for a multichannel radiometer for Mars atmosphere studies

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez, J. J.; Álvarez, F. J.; Gonzalez-Guerrero, M.; Apéstigue, V.; Martin, I.; Fernández, J. M.; Fernán, A. A.; Arruego, I.

2017-09-01

This work describes several OGSEs (Optical Ground Support Equipment) developed by INTA (Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technology - Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial) for the calibration and characterization of their self-manufactured multichannel radiometers (Solar Irradiance Sensors - SIS) for planetary atmospheric studies in the frame of some Martian missions at which INTA is participating.

A 4 U Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Measurements from an Occultation-Viewing CubSat

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Emily L.; DiGregorio, A. J.; Riot, Vincent J.; Ammons, Mark S.; Bruner, WIlliam W.; Carter, Darrell; Mao, Jianping; Ramanathan, Anand; Strahan, Susan E.; Oman, Luke D.;

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission: Overview and Status

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Arthur Y.

2012-01-01

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission is an international satellite mission specifically designed to unify and advance precipitation measurements from a constellation of research and operational microwave sensors. NASA and JAXA will deploy a Core Observatory in 2014 to serve as a reference satellite to unify precipitation measurements from the constellation of sensors. The GPM Core Observatory will carry a Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a conical-scanning multi-channel (10-183 GHz) GPM Microwave Radiometer (GMI). The DPR will be the first dual-frequency radar in space to provide not only measurements of 3-D precipitation structures but also quantitative information on microphysical properties of precipitating particles. The DPR and GMI measurements will together provide a database that relates vertical hydrometeor profiles to multi-frequency microwave radiances over a variety of environmental conditions across the globe. This combined database will be used as a common transfer standard for improving the accuracy and consistency of precipitation retrievals from all constellation radiometers. For global coverage, GPM relies on existing satellite programs and new mission opportunities from a consortium of partners through bilateral agreements with either NASA or JAXA. Each constellation member may have its unique scientific or operational objectives but contributes microwave observations to GPM for the generation and dissemination of unified global precipitation data products. In addition to the DPR and GMI on the Core Observatory, the baseline GPM constellation consists of the following sensors: (1) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) instruments on the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, (2) the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-2) on the GCOM-W1 satellite of JAXA, (3) the Multi-Frequency Microwave Scanning Radiometer (MADRAS) and the multi-channel microwave humidity sounder

Infrared fibers for radiometer thermometry in hypothermia and hyperthermia treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katzir, A.; Bowman, H.F.; Asfour, Y.; Zur, A.; Valeri, C.R.

1989-01-01

Hypothermia is a condition which results from prolonged exposure to a cold environment. Rapid and efficient heating is needed to rewarm the patient from 32-35 degrees C to normal body temperature. Hyperthermia in cancer treatment involves heating malignant tumors to 42.5-43.0 degrees C for an extended period (e.g., 30 min) in an attempt to obtain remission. Microwave or radio frequency heating is often used for rewarming in hypothermia or for temperature elevation in hyperthermia treatment. One severe problem with such heating is the accurate measurement and control of temperature in the presence of a strong electromagnetic field. For this purpose, we have developed a fiberoptic radiometer system which is based on a nonmetallic, infrared fiber probe, which can operate either in contact or noncontact mode. In preliminary investigations, the radiometer worked well in a strong microwave or radiofrequency field, with an accuracy of +/- 0.5 degrees C. This fiberoptic thermometer was used to control the surface temperature of objects within +/- 2 degrees C

Potential of Future Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) Ocean Surface Wind Observations for Determining Tropical Storm Vortex Intensity and Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Atlas, Robert; Bailey, M. C.; Black, Peter; James, Mark; Johnson, James; Jones, Linwood; Miller, Timothy; Ruf, Christopher; Uhlhorn, Eric

2008-01-01

The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is an innovative technology development, which offers the potential of new and unique remotely sensed observations of both extreme oceanic wind events and strong precipitation from either UAS or satellite platforms. It is based on the airborne Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR), which is a proven aircraft remote sensing technique for observing tropical cyclone ocean surface wind speeds and rain rates, including those of major hurricane intensity. The proposed HIRAD instrument advances beyond the current nadir viewing SFMR to an equivalent wide-swath SFMR imager using passive microwave synthetic thinned aperture radiometer technology. This sensor will operate over 4-7 GHz (C-band frequencies) where the required tropical cyclone remote sensing physics has been validated by both SFMR and WindSat radiometers. HIRAD incorporates a unique, technologically advanced array antenna and several other technologies successfully demonstrated by the NASA's Instrument Incubator Program. A brassboard version of the instrument is complete and has been successfully tested in an anechoic chamber, and development of the aircraft instrument is well underway. HIRAD will be a compact, lightweight, low-power instrument with no moving parts that will produce wide-swath imagery of ocean vector winds and rain during hurricane conditions when existing microwave sensors (radiometers or scatterometers) are hindered. Preliminary studies show that HIRAD will have a significant positive impact on analyses as either a new aircraft or satellite sensor.

1999-2003 Shortwave Characterizations of Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS)/Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Broadband Active Cavity Radiometer Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Robert B., III; Smith, George L.; Wong, Takmeng

2008-01-01

From October 1984 through May 2005, the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS/ )/Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE)ERBE nonscanning active cavity radiometers (ACR) were used to monitor long-term changes in the earth radiation budget components of the incoming total solar irradiance (TSI), earth-reflected TSI, and earth-emitted outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). From September1984 through September 1999, using on-board calibration systems, the ERBS/ERBE ACR sensor response changes, in gains and offsets, were determined from on-orbit calibration sources and from direct observations of the incoming TSI through calibration solar ports at measurement precision levels approaching 0.5 W/sq m , at satellite altitudes. On October 6, 1999, the onboard radiometer calibration system elevation drive failed. Thereafter, special spacecraft maneuvers were performed to observe cold space and the sun in order to define the post-September 1999 geometry of the radiometer measurements, and to determine the October 1999-September 2003 ERBS sensor response changes. Analyses of these special solar and cold space observations indicate that the radiometers were pointing approximately 16 degrees away from the spacecraft nadir and on the anti-solar side of the spacecraft. The special observations indicated that the radiometers responses were stable at precision levels approaching 0.5 W/sq m . In this paper, the measurement geometry determinations and the determinations of the radiometers gain and offset are presented, which will permit the accurate processing of the October 1999 through September 2003 ERBE data products at satellite and top-of-the-atmosphere altitudes.

Ozone, spectral irradiance and aerosol measurements with the Brewer spectro radiometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marenco, F.; Di Sarra, A.

2001-01-01

In this technical report a detailed description of the Brewer spectro radiometer, a widespread instrument for ozone and ultraviolet radiation, is given. The methodologies used to measure these quantities and for instrument calibration are described in detail. Finally a new methodology, developed by ENEA to derive the aerosol optical depth from the Brewer routine total ozone measurements, is described. This methodology is based on Langley extrapolation, on the determination of the transmissivity of the Brewer neutral density filters, and on a statistically significant number of half days of measurements obtained in could-free conditions. Results of this method, obtained with the Brewer of the ENEA station for climate observations Roberto Sarao, located in the island of Lampedusa, are reported. These results confirm the validity of the method, thanks to independent measurements taken in 1999 with a Multi filter Rotating Shadow band Radiometer. This methodology allows researchers to obtain an aerosol climatology from ozone measurements obtained at several sites world-wide [it

PAU/RAD: Design and Preliminary Calibration Results of a New L-Band Pseudo-Correlation Radiometer Concept

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enric Valencia

2008-07-01

Full Text Available The Passive Advanced Unit (PAU for ocean monitoring is a new type of instrument that combines in a single receiver and without time multiplexing, a polarimetric pseudo-correlation microwave radiometer at L-band (PAU-RAD and a GPS reflectometer (PAU-GNSS/R. These instruments in conjunction with an infra-red radiometer (PAU-IR will respectively provide the sea surface temperature and the sea state information needed to accurately retrieve the sea surface salinity from the radiometric measurements. PAU will consist of an array of 4x4 receivers performing digital beamforming and polarization synthesis both for PAU-RAD and PAU-GNSS/R. A concept demonstrator of the PAU instrument with only one receiver has been implemented (PAU-One Receiver or PAU-OR. PAU-OR has been used to test and tune the calibration algorithms that will be applied to PAU. This work describes in detail PAU-OR’s radiometer calibration algorithms and their performance.

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Project Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document SMAP L1B Radiometer Data Product: L1B_TB

Science.gov (United States)

Piepmeier, Jeffrey; Mohammed, Priscilla; De Amici, Giovanni; Kim, Edward; Peng, Jinzheng; Ruf, Christopher; Hanna, Maher; Yueh, Simon; Entekhabi, Dara

2016-01-01

The purpose of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer calibration algorithm is to convert Level 0 (L0) radiometer digital counts data into calibrated estimates of brightness temperatures referenced to the Earth's surface within the main beam. The algorithm theory in most respects is similar to what has been developed and implemented for decades for other satellite radiometers; however, SMAP includes two key features heretofore absent from most satellite borne radiometers: radio frequency interference (RFI) detection and mitigation, and measurement of the third and fourth Stokes parameters using digital correlation. The purpose of this document is to describe the SMAP radiometer and forward model, explain the SMAP calibration algorithm, including approximations, errors, and biases, provide all necessary equations for implementing the calibration algorithm and detail the RFI detection and mitigation process. Section 2 provides a summary of algorithm objectives and driving requirements. Section 3 is a description of the instrument and Section 4 covers the forward models, upon which the algorithm is based. Section 5 gives the retrieval algorithm and theory. Section 6 describes the orbit simulator, which implements the forward model and is the key for deriving antenna pattern correction coefficients and testing the overall algorithm.

Recent Enhancements in NOAA's JPSS Land Product Suite and Key Operational Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Csiszar, I. A.; Yu, Y.; Zhan, X.; Vargas, M.; Ek, M. B.; Zheng, W.; Wu, Y.; Smirnova, T. G.; Benjamin, S.; Ahmadov, R.; James, E.; Grell, G. A.

2017-12-01

A suite of operational land products has been produced as part of NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program to support a wide range of operational applications in environmental monitoring, prediction, disaster management and mitigation, and decision support. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) and the operational JPSS satellite series forms the basis of six fundamental and multiple additional added-value environmental data records (EDRs). A major recent improvement in the land-based VIIRS EDRs has been the development of global gridded products, providing a format and science content suitable for ingest into NOAA's operational land surface and coupled numerical weather prediction models. VIIRS near-real-time Green Vegetation Fraction is now in the process of testing for full operational use, while land surface temperature and albedo are under testing and evaluation. The operational 750m VIIRS active fire product, including fire radiative power, is used to support emission modeling and air quality applications. Testing the evaluation for operational NOAA implementation of the improved 375m VIIRS active fire product is also underway. Added-value and emerging VIIRS land products include vegetation health, phenology, near-real-time surface type and surface condition change, and other biogeophysical variables. As part of the JPSS program, a global soil moisture data product has also been generated from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor on the GCOM-W1 (Global Change Observation Mission - Water 1) satellite since July 2012. This product is included in the blended NESDIS Soil Moisture Operational Products System, providing soil moisture data as a critical input for land surface modeling.

Island based radar and microwave radiometer measurements of stratus cloud parameters during the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frisch, A.S. [Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Fairall, C.W.; Snider, J.B. [NOAA Environmental Technology Lab., Boulder, CO (United States); Lenshow, D.H.; Mayer, S.D. [National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)

1996-04-01

During the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) in June 1992, simultaneous measurements were made with a vertically pointing cloud sensing radar and a microwave radiometer. The radar measurements are used to estimate stratus cloud drizzle and turbulence parameters. In addition, with the microwave radiometer measurements of reflectivity, we estimated the profiles of cloud liquid water and effective radius. We used radar data for computation of vertical profiles of various drizzle parameters such as droplet concentration, modal radius, and spread. A sample of these results is shown in Figure 1. In addition, in non-drizzle clouds, with the radar and radiometer we can estimate the verticle profiles of stratus cloud parameters such as liquid water concentration and effective radius. This is accomplished by assuming a droplet distribution with droplet number concentration and width constant with height.

Reprocessing the Historical Satellite Passive Microwave Record at Enhanced Spatial Resolutions using Image Reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Hardman, M.; Brodzik, M. J.; Long, D. G.; Paget, A. C.; Armstrong, R. L.

2015-12-01

Beginning in 1978, the satellite passive microwave data record has been a mainstay of remote sensing of the cryosphere, providing twice-daily, near-global spatial coverage for monitoring changes in hydrologic and cryospheric parameters that include precipitation, soil moisture, surface water, vegetation, snow water equivalent, sea ice concentration and sea ice motion. Currently available global gridded passive microwave data sets serve a diverse community of hundreds of data users, but do not meet many requirements of modern Earth System Data Records (ESDRs) or Climate Data Records (CDRs), most notably in the areas of intersensor calibration, quality-control, provenance and consistent processing methods. The original gridding techniques were relatively primitive and were produced on 25 km grids using the original EASE-Grid definition that is not easily accommodated in modern software packages. Further, since the first Level 3 data sets were produced, the Level 2 passive microwave data on which they were based have been reprocessed as Fundamental CDRs (FCDRs) with improved calibration and documentation. We are funded by NASA MEaSUREs to reprocess the historical gridded data sets as EASE-Grid 2.0 ESDRs, using the most mature available Level 2 satellite passive microwave (SMMR, SSM/I-SSMIS, AMSR-E) records from 1978 to the present. We have produced prototype data from SSM/I and AMSR-E for the year 2003, for review and feedback from our Early Adopter user community. The prototype data set includes conventional, low-resolution ("drop-in-the-bucket" 25 km) grids and enhanced-resolution grids derived from the two candidate image reconstruction techniques we are evaluating: 1) Backus-Gilbert (BG) interpolation and 2) a radiometer version of Scatterometer Image Reconstruction (SIR). We summarize our temporal subsetting technique, algorithm tuning parameters and computational costs, and include sample SSM/I images at enhanced resolutions of up to 3 km. We are actively

An RFI Detection Algorithm for Microwave Radiometers Using Sparse Component Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed-Tano, Priscilla N.; Korde-Patel, Asmita; Gholian, Armen; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Schoenwald, Adam; Bradley, Damon

2017-01-01

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is a threat to passive microwave measurements and if undetected, can corrupt science retrievals. The sparse component analysis (SCA) for blind source separation has been investigated to detect RFI in microwave radiometer data. Various techniques using SCA have been simulated to determine detection performance with continuous wave (CW) RFI.

A 4 U laser heterodyne radiometer for methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements from an occultation-viewing CubeSat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, Emily L; Oman, Luke D; DiGregorio, A J; Garner, Richard M; Riot, Vincent J; Ammons, Mark S; Bruner, William W; Carter, Darrell; Mao, Jianping; Ramanathan, Anand; Strahan, Susan E; Hoffman, Christine

2017-01-01

We present a design for a 4 U (20 cm  ×  20 cm  ×  10 cm) occultation-viewing laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) that measures methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water vapor (H 2 O) in the limb that is designed for deployment on a 6 U CubeSat. The LHR design collects sunlight that has undergone absorption by the trace gas and mixes it with a distributive feedback (DFB) laser centered at 1640 nm that scans across CO 2 , CH 4 , and H 2 O absorption features. Upper troposphere/lower stratosphere measurements of these gases provide key inputs to stratospheric circulation models: measuring stratospheric circulation and its variability is essential for projecting how climate change will affect stratospheric ozone. (paper)

A 4 U laser heterodyne radiometer for methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements from an occultation-viewing CubeSat

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Emily L.; DiGregorio, A. J.; Riot, Vincent J.; Ammons, Mark S.; Bruner, William W.; Carter, Darrell; Mao, Jianping; Ramanathan, Anand; Strahan, Susan E.; Oman, Luke D.; Hoffman, Christine; Garner, Richard M.

2017-03-01

We present a design for a 4 U (20 cm  ×  20 cm  ×  10 cm) occultation-viewing laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) that measures methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) in the limb that is designed for deployment on a 6 U CubeSat. The LHR design collects sunlight that has undergone absorption by the trace gas and mixes it with a distributive feedback (DFB) laser centered at 1640 nm that scans across CO2, CH4, and H2O absorption features. Upper troposphere/lower stratosphere measurements of these gases provide key inputs to stratospheric circulation models: measuring stratospheric circulation and its variability is essential for projecting how climate change will affect stratospheric ozone.

Galileo PPR at Io: High Resolution Scans Taken in Conjunction with SSA and NIMS Data

Science.gov (United States)

Rathbun, J. A.; Spencer, J. R.; Tamppari, L. K.; Martin, T. Z.; Barnard, L.; Travis, L. D.

2003-01-01

The Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR), when used in the radiometry mode which is most often used at Io, is a long-wavelength infrared single-aperture photometer. It is sensitive to temperatures from about 60 to several hundred K, and is thus useful for studying the volcanoes and background temperatures on Io. PPR can take raster scan images when it is the primary instrument being used (these data were discussed last year, see Rathbun et al., 2002). It can also take data in ride-along mode in conjunction with another remote sensing instrument (either SSI or NIMS) producing one-dimensional temperature scans. The best data of this type were taken during the close approach flybys during orbits I24, I25, I27, I31, I32, and I33 and include measurements of the volcanoes Pele, Prometheus, Pillan, Zamama, Tvashtar, Daedalus, Amarani, Gish Bar, Isum, Emakong, Tupan, and Tohil.

Advances in real-time millimeter-wave imaging radiometers for avionic synthetic vision

Science.gov (United States)

Lovberg, John A.; Chou, Ri-Chee; Martin, Christopher A.; Galliano, Joseph A., Jr.

1995-06-01

Millimeter-wave imaging has advantages over conventional visible or infrared imaging for many applications because millimeter-wave signals can travel through fog, snow, dust, and clouds with much less attenuation than infrared or visible light waves. Additionally, passive imaging systems avoid many problems associated with active radar imaging systems, such as radar clutter, glint, and multi-path return. ThermoTrex Corporation previously reported on its development of a passive imaging radiometer that uses an array of frequency-scanned antennas coupled to a multichannel acousto-optic spectrum analyzer (Bragg-cell) to form visible images of a scene through the acquisition of thermal blackbody radiation in the millimeter-wave spectrum. The output from the Bragg cell is imaged by a standard video camera and passed to a computer for normalization and display at real-time frame rates. An application of this system is its incorporation as part of an enhanced vision system to provide pilots with a synthetic view of a runway in fog and during other adverse weather conditions. Ongoing improvements to a 94 GHz imaging system and examples of recent images taken with this system will be presented. Additionally, the development of dielectric antennas and an electro- optic-based processor for improved system performance, and the development of an `ultra- compact' 220 GHz imaging system will be discussed.

Water vapor retrieval from near-IR measurements of polarized scanning atmospheric corrector

Science.gov (United States)

Qie, Lili; Ning, Yuanming; Zhang, Yang; Chen, Xingfeng; Ma, Yan; Li, Zhengqiang; Cui, Wenyu

2018-02-01

Water vapor and aerosol are two key atmospheric factors effecting the remote sensing image quality. As water vapor is responsible for most of the solar radiation absorption occurring in the cloudless atmosphere, accurate measurement of water content is important to not only atmospheric correction of remote sensing images, but also many other applications such as the study of energy balance and global climate change, land surface temperature retrieval in thermal remote sensing. A multi-spectral, single-angular, polarized radiometer called Polarized Scanning Atmospheric Corrector (PSAC) were developed in China, which are designed to mount on the same satellite platform with the principle payload and provide essential parameters for principle payload image atmospheric correction. PSAC detect water vapor content via measuring atmosphere reflectance at water vapor absorbing channels (i.e. 0.91 μm) and nearby atmospheric window channel (i.e. 0.865μm). A near-IR channel ratio method was implemented to retrieve column water vapor (CWV) amount from PSAC measurements. Field experiments were performed at Yantai, in Shandong province of China, PSAC aircraft observations were acquired. The comparison between PSAC retrievals and ground-based Sun-sky radiometer measurements of CWV during the experimental flights illustrates that this method retrieves CWV with relative deviations ranging from 4% 13%. This method retrieve CWV more accurate over land than over ocean, as the water reflectance is low.

Vitamin D synthesis measured with a multiband filter radiometer in Río Gallegos, Argentina

Science.gov (United States)

Orte, Facundo; Wolfram, Elian; Salvador, Jacobo; D'Elia, Raúl; Bulnes, Daniela; Leme, N. Paes; Quel, Eduardo

2013-05-01

Vitamin D plays an important role in human health. Vitamin D production from the sun is affected by UVB solar radiation. This paper presents a simple method for retrieving vitamin D-weighted UV by using a multiband filter radiometer GUV-541 installed at the Atmospheric Observatory of Southern Patagonia (OAPA) (51 ° 33' S, 69° 19' W), Río Gallegos. The methodology used combines irradiance measurements from a multiband filter radiometer with spectral irradiance modeled by the SOS radiative transfer code (developed by Lille University of Science and Technology (USTL)). The spectrum modeled is weighted with vitamin D action spectra published by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), which describes the relative effectiveness of different wavelengths in the generation of this particular biological response. This method is validated using the vitamin D-weighted UV derived from a Brewer MKIII spectrophotometer (SN 124) belonging to the National Institute for Spatial Research (INPE), Brazil, which is able to measure solar spectra between 290 and 325nm. The method presents a good correlation between the two independent instruments. This procedure increases the instrumental capabilities of the multiband filter radiometer. Moreover, it evaluates the annual variation of vitamin D-weighted UV doses from exposure to ultraviolet radiation. These values are likely to be lower than suitable levels of vitamin D during winter and part of spring and autumn at these latitudes.

JPSS-1 VIIRS Pre-Launch Response Versus Scan Angle Testing and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Moyer, David; McIntire, Jeff; Oudrari, Hassan; McCarthy, James; Xiong, Xiaoxiong; De Luccia, Frank

2016-01-01

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments on-board both the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) and the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft, with launch dates of October 2011 and December 2016 respectively, are cross-track scanners with an angular swath of +/-56.06 deg. A four-mirror Rotating Telescope Assembly (RTA) is used for scanning combined with a Half Angle Mirror (HAM) that directs light exiting from the RTA into the aft-optics. It has 14 Reflective Solar Bands (RSBs), seven Thermal Emissive Bands (TEBs) and a panchromatic Day Night Band (DNB). There are three internal calibration targets, the Solar Diffuser, the BlackBody and the Space View, that have fixed scan angles within the internal cavity of VIIRS. VIIRS has calibration requirements of 2% on RSB reflectance and as tight as 0.4% on TEB radiance that requires the sensor's gain change across the scan or Response Versus Scan angle (RVS) to be well quantified. A flow down of the top level calibration requirements put constraints on the characterization of the RVS to 0.2%-0.3% but there are no specified limitations on the magnitude of response change across scan. The RVS change across scan angle can vary significantly between bands with the RSBs having smaller changes of approximately 2% and some TEBs having approximately 10% variation. Within aband, the RVS has both detector and HAM side dependencies that vary across scan. Errors in the RVS characterization will contribute to image banding and striping artifacts if their magnitudes are above the noise level of the detectors. The RVS was characterized pre-launch for both S-NPP and JPSS-1 VIIRS and a comparison of the RVS curves between these two sensors will be discussed.

Dual-Polarization, Multi-Frequency Antenna Array for use with Hurricane Imaging Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Little, John

2013-01-01

Advancements in common aperture antenna technology were employed to utilize its proprietary genetic algorithmbased modeling tools in an effort to develop, build, and test a dual-polarization array for Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) applications. Final program results demonstrate the ability to achieve a lightweight, thin, higher-gain aperture that covers the desired spectral band. NASA employs various passive microwave and millimeter-wave instruments, such as spectral radiometers, for a range of remote sensing applications, from measurements of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, to cosmic background emission. These instruments such as the HIRAD, SFMR (Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer), and LRR (Lightweight Rainfall Radiometer), provide unique data accumulation capabilities for observing sea surface wind, temperature, and rainfall, and significantly enhance the understanding and predictability of hurricane intensity. These microwave instruments require extremely efficient wideband or multiband antennas in order to conserve space on the airborne platform. In addition, the thickness and weight of the antenna arrays is of paramount importance in reducing platform drag, permitting greater time on station. Current sensors are often heavy, single- polarization, or limited in frequency coverage. The ideal wideband antenna will have reduced size, weight, and profile (a conformal construct) without sacrificing optimum performance. The technology applied to this new HIRAD array will allow NASA, NOAA, and other users to gather information related to hurricanes and other tropical storms more cost effectively without sacrificing sensor performance or the aircraft time on station. The results of the initial analysis and numerical design indicated strong potential for an antenna array that would satisfy all of the design requirements for a replacement HIRAD array. Multiple common aperture antenna methodologies were employed to achieve exceptional gain over the entire

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Sensor Data Record (SDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Sensor Data Records (SDRs), or Level 1b data, from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) are the calibrated and geolocated radiance and reflectance...

On-board digital RFI and polarimetry processor for future spaceborne radiometer systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup; Ruokokoski, T.

2012-01-01

Man-made Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is an increasingly threatening problem for passive microwave radiometry from space. The problem is presently very evident in L-band data from SMOS, but it is realized that it is already now a problem at other traditional radiometer bands at C, X, and Ku...

Validation of ocean color sensors using a profiling hyperspectral radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Ondrusek, M. E.; Stengel, E.; Rella, M. A.; Goode, W.; Ladner, S.; Feinholz, M.

2014-05-01

Validation measurements of satellite ocean color sensors require in situ measurements that are accurate, repeatable and traceable enough to distinguish variability between in situ measurements and variability in the signal being observed on orbit. The utility of using a Satlantic Profiler II equipped with HyperOCR radiometers (Hyperpro) for validating ocean color sensors is tested by assessing the stability of the calibration coefficients and by comparing Hyperpro in situ measurements to other instruments and between different Hyperpros in a variety of water types. Calibration and characterization of the NOAA Satlantic Hyperpro instrument is described and concurrent measurements of water-leaving radiances conducted during cruises are presented between this profiling instrument and other profiling, above-water and moored instruments. The moored optical instruments are the US operated Marine Optical BuoY (MOBY) and the French operated Boussole Buoy. In addition, Satlantic processing versions are described in terms of accuracy and consistency. A new multi-cast approach is compared to the most commonly used single cast method. Analysis comparisons are conducted in turbid and blue water conditions. Examples of validation matchups with VIIRS ocean color data are presented. With careful data collection and analysis, the Satlantic Hyperpro profiling radiometer has proven to be a reliable and consistent tool for satellite ocean color validation.

GPM AMSR-E on AQUA Common Calibrated Brightness Temperatures L1C 1.5 hours 10.5 km V05 (GPM_1CAQUAAMSRE) at GES DISC

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — All 1C products have a common L1C data structure, simple and generic. Each L1C swath includes scan time, latitude and longitude, scan status, quality, incidence...

Airborne L-band radiometer mapping of the dome-C area in Antarctica

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl

2015-01-01

A 350 km × 350 km area near the Concordia station on the high plateau of Dome-C in Antarctica has been mapped by an airborne L-band radiometer system. The area was expected to display a rather uniform brightness temperature (TB) close to the yearly mean temperature-well suited for calibration...

Microwave Radiometers for Fire Detection in Trains: Theory and Feasibility Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federico Alimenti

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces the theory of fire detection in moving vehicles by microwave radiometers. The system analysis is discussed and a feasibility study is illustrated on the basis of two implementation hypotheses. The basic idea is to have a fixed radiometer and to look inside the glass windows of the wagon when it passes in front of the instrument antenna. The proposed sensor uses a three-pixel multi-beam configuration that allows an image to be formed by the movement of the train itself. Each pixel is constituted by a direct amplification microwave receiver operating at 31.4 GHz. At this frequency, the antenna can be a 34 cm offset parabolic dish, whereas a 1 K brightness temperature resolution is achievable with an overall system noise figure of 6 dB, an observation bandwidth of 2 GHz and an integration time of 1 ms. The effect of the detector noise is also investigated and several implementation hypotheses are discussed. The presented study is important since it could be applied to the automatic fire alarm in trains and moving vehicles with dielectric wall/windows.

Modeling the frequency response of microwave radiometers with QUCS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zonca, A; Williams, B; Rubin, I; Meinhold, P; Lubin, P; Roucaries, B; D'Arcangelo, O; Franceschet, C; Mennella, A; Bersanelli, M; Jahn, S

2010-01-01

Characterization of the frequency response of coherent radiometric receivers is a key element in estimating the flux of astrophysical emissions, since the measured signal depends on the convolution of the source spectral emission with the instrument band shape. Laboratory Radio Frequency (RF) measurements of the instrument bandpass often require complex test setups and are subject to a number of systematic effects driven by thermal issues and impedance matching, particularly if cryogenic operation is involved. In this paper we present an approach to modeling radiometers bandpasses by integrating simulations and RF measurements of individual components. This method is based on QUCS (Quasi Universal Circuit Simulator), an open-source circuit simulator, which gives the flexibility of choosing among the available devices, implementing new analytical software models or using measured S-parameters. Therefore an independent estimate of the instrument bandpass is achieved using standard individual component measurements and validated analytical simulations. In order to automate the process of preparing input data, running simulations and exporting results we developed the Python package python-qucs and released it under GNU Public License. We discuss, as working cases, bandpass response modeling of the COFE and Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) radiometers and compare results obtained with QUCS and with a commercial circuit simulator software. The main purpose of bandpass modeling in COFE is to optimize component matching, while in LFI they represent the best estimation of frequency response, since end-to-end measurements were strongly affected by systematic effects.

Electron cyclotron measurements with the fast scanning heterdyne radiometer on the tokamak fusion test reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, G.; Efthimion, P.C.; McCarthy, M.P.; Fredd, E.A.; Cutler, R.C.

1986-01-01

Three fast scanning heterodyne receivers, swept between 75-110 GHz, 110-170 GHz, and 170-210 GHz, have measured electron cyclotron emission on the horizontal midplane of the tokamak fusion test reactor (TFTR) plasma. A second harmonic microwave mixer in the 170-210 GHz receiver allows the use of a 75-110 GHz backward wave oscillator as a swept local oscillator. Electron temperature profile evolution data with a time resolution of 2 msec and a profile acquisition rate of 250 Hz are presented for gas-fuelled and pellet-fuelled ohmic and neutral beam heated plasmas with toroidal fields up to 5.2 tesla. Recent results from a swept mode absolute calibration technique which can improve the accuracy and data collection efficiency during in-situ calibration are also presented

Thermal Stability of a 4 Meter Primary Reflector for the Scanning Microwave Limb Sounder

Science.gov (United States)

Cofield, Richard E.; Kasl, Eldon P.

2011-01-01

The Scanning Microwave Limb Sounder (SMLS) is a space-borne heterodyne radiometer which will measure pressure, temperature and atmospheric constituents from thermal emission in [180,680] GHz. SMLS, planned for the NRC Decadal Survey's Global Atmospheric Composition Mission, uses a novel toric Cassegrain antenna to perform both elevation and azimuth scanning. This provides better horizontal and temporal resolution and coverage than were possible with elevation-only scanning in the two previous MLS satellite instruments. SMLS is diffraction-limited in the vertical plane but highly astigmatic in the horizontal (beam aspect ratio approx. 1:20). Nadir symmetry ensures that beam shape is nearly invariant over plus or minus 65 deg azimuth. A low-noise receiver FOV is swept over the reflector system by a small azimuth-scanning mirror. We describe the fabrication and thermal-stability test of a composite demonstration primary reflector, having full 4m height and 1/3 the width planned for flight. Using finite-element models of reflectors and structure, we evaluate thermal deformations and optical performance for 4 orbital environments and isothermal soak. We compare deformations with photogrammetric measurements made during soak tests in a chamber. The test temperature range exceeds predicted orbital ranges by large factors, implying in-orbit thermal stability of 0.21 micron rms (root mean square)/C, which meets SMLS requirements.

A Compact L-band Radiometer for High Resolution sUAS-based Imaging of Soil Moisture and Surface Salinity Variations

Science.gov (United States)

Gasiewski, A. J.; Stachura, M.; Dai, E.; Elston, J.; McIntyre, E.; Leuski, V.

2014-12-01

Due to the long electrical wavelengths required along with practical aperture size limitations the scaling of passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture and salinity from spaceborne low-resolution (~10-100 km) applications to high resolution (~10-1000 m) applications requires use of low flying aerial vehicles. This presentation summarizes the status of a project to develop a commercial small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) hosting a microwave radiometer for mapping of soil moisture in precision agriculture and sea surface salinity studies. The project is based on the Tempest electric-powered UAS and a compact L-band (1400-1427 MHz) radiometer developed specifically for extremely small and lightweight aerial platforms or man-portable, tractor, or tower-based applications. Notable in this combination are a highly integrated sUAS/radiometer antenna design and use of both the upwelling emitted signal from the surface and downwelling cold space signal for precise calibration using a unique lobe-differencing correlating radiometer architecture. The system achieves a spatial resolution comparable to the altitude of the UAS above the surface while referencing upwelling measurements to the constant and well-known background temperature of cold space. The radiometer has been tested using analog correlation detection, although future builds will include infrared, near-infrared, and visible (red) sensors for surface temperature and vegetation biomass correction and digital sampling for radio frequency interference mitigation. This NASA-sponsored project is being developed for commercial application in cropland water management (for example, high-value shallow root-zone crops), landslide risk assessment, NASA SMAP satellite validation, and NASA Aquarius salinity stratification studies. The system will ultimately be capable of observing salinity events caused by coastal glacier and estuary fresh water outflow plumes and open ocean rainfall events.

Precision, accuracy and linearity of radiometer EML 105 whole blood metabolite biosensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Cobbaert, C; Morales, C; van Fessem, M; Kemperman, H

1999-11-01

The analytical performance of a new, whole blood glucose and lactate electrode system (EML 105 analyser. Radiometer Medical A/S. Copenhagen, Denmark) was evaluated. Between-day coefficients of variation were glucose and lactate, respectively. Recoveries of glucose were 100 +/- 10% using either aqueous or protein-based standards. Recoveries of lactate depended on the matrix, being underestimated in aqueous standards (approximately -10%) and 95-100% in standards containing 40 g/L albumin at lactate concentrations of 15 and 30 mmol/L. However, recoveries were high (up to 180%) at low lactate concentrations in protein-based standards. Carry-over, investigated according to National Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Standards EP10-T2, was negligible (alpha = 0.01). Glucose and lactate biosensors equipped with new membranes were linear up to 60 and 30 mmol/L, respectively. However, linearity fell upon daily use with increasing membrane lifetime. We conclude that the Radiometer metabolite biosensor results are reproducible and do not suffer from specimen-related carry-over. However, lactate recovery depends on the protein content and the lactate concentration.

Study of Shortwave Spectra in Fully 3D Environment: Synergy Between Scanning Radars and Spectral Radiation Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Wiscombe, Warren J.

2012-01-01

The main theme for our research is the understanding and closure of the surface spectral shortwave radiation problem in fully 3D cloud situations by combining the new ARM scanning radars, shortwave spectrometers, and microwave radiometers with the arsenal of radiative transfer tools developed by our group. In particular, we define first a large number of cloudy test cases spanning all 3D possibilities not just the customary uniform-overcast ones. Second, for each case, we define a "Best Estimate of Clouds That Affect Shortwave Radiation" using all relevant ARM instruments, notably the new scanning radars, and contribute this to the ARM Archive. Third, we test the ASR-signature radiative transfer model RRTMG_SW for those cases, focusing on the near-IR because of long-standing problems in this spectral region, and work with the developers to improve RRTMG_SW in order to increase its penetration into the modeling community.

The High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer on the GLOBAL HAWK: From Technology Development to Science Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Shannon; Denning, Richard; Lambrigtsen, Bjorn; Lim, Boon; Tanabe, Jordan; Tanner, Alan

2013-01-01

This paper presents results from the High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) during three recent field campaigns on the Global Hawk Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV), focusing on the enabling technology that led to unprecedented observations of significant weather phenomenon, such as thermodynamic evolution of the tropical cyclone core during rapid intensification and the high resolution three dimensional mapping of several atmospheric river events. HAMSR is a 25 channel cross-track scanning microwave sounder with channels near the 60 and 118 GHz oxygen lines and the 183 GHz water vapor line. HAMSR was originally designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a technology demonstrator in 1998. Subsequent to this, HAMSR participated in three NASA hurricane field campaigns, CAMEX-4, TCSP and NAMMA. Beginning in 2008, HAMSR was extensively upgraded to deploy on the NASA Global Hawk (GH) platform and serve as an asset to the NASA sub-orbital program. HAMSR has participated on the Global Hawk during the 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification (GRIP) campaign, the 2011 Winter Storms and Atmospheric Rivers (WISPAR) campaign and is currently participating in the NASA Ventures Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) campaign (2011-2015).

Towards an integrated soil moisture drought monitor for East Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. B. Anderson

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Drought in East Africa is a recurring phenomenon with significant humanitarian impacts. Given the steep climatic gradients, topographic contrasts, general data scarcity, and, in places, political instability that characterize the region, there is a need for spatially distributed, remotely derived monitoring systems to inform national and international drought response. At the same time, the very diversity and data scarcity that necessitate remote monitoring also make it difficult to evaluate the reliability of these systems. Here we apply a suite of remote monitoring techniques to characterize the temporal and spatial evolution of the 2010–2011 Horn of Africa drought. Diverse satellite observations allow for evaluation of meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological aspects of drought, each of which is of interest to different stakeholders. Focusing on soil moisture, we apply triple collocation analysis (TCA to three independent methods for estimating soil moisture anomalies to characterize relative error between products and to provide a basis for objective data merging. The three soil moisture methods evaluated include microwave remote sensing using the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System (AMSR-E sensor, thermal remote sensing using the Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI surface energy balance algorithm, and physically based land surface modeling using the Noah land surface model. It was found that the three soil moisture monitoring methods yield similar drought anomaly estimates in areas characterized by extremely low or by moderate vegetation cover, particularly during the below-average 2011 long rainy season. Systematic discrepancies were found, however, in regions of moderately low vegetation cover and high vegetation cover, especially during the failed 2010 short rains. The merged, TCA-weighted soil moisture composite product takes advantage of the relative strengths of each method, as judged by the

Drought assessment for cropland of Central America using course-resolution remote sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, C. F.; Nguyen, S. T.; Chen, C. R.; Chiang, S. H.; Chang, L. Y.; Khin, L. V.

2015-12-01

Drought is one of the most frequent and costliest natural disasters, which imposes enormous effects to human societies and ecosystems. Agricultural drought is referred to an interval of time, such as weeks or months, when the soil moisture supply of a region consistently falls below the appropriate moisture supply leading to negative impacts on agricultural production. Millions of households in Central America were dependent upon major food crops, including maize, beans, and sorghum, for their daily subsistence. In recent years, impacts of climate change through global warming in forms of higher temperature and widespread rainfall deficits have however triggered severe drought during the primera cropping season (April-August) in the study region, causing profound impacts on agriculture, crop production losses, increased market food prices, as well as food security issues. This study focuses on investigating agricultural droughts for cropland of Central America using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. We processed the data for a normal year 2013 and an abnormal year 2014 using a simple vegetation health index (VHI) that is developed based on the temperature condition index (TCI) and vegetation condition index (VCI). The VHI results were validated using the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) precipitation data and temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) that is developed based on the empirical analysis of TCI and VCI data. The correlation coefficients (r) obtained by comparisons between the VHI data and the AMSR2 precipitation and TVDI data were higher than 0.62 and -0.61, respectively. The severe drought was intensive during the dry season (January-April) and likely backed to normal conditions in May with the onset of rainy season. The larger area of serve drought was observed for the 2014 primera season, especially during April-July. When investigating the cultivated areas affected by severe drought in the primera

InP HEMT Integrated Circuits for Submillimeter Wave Radiometers in Earth Remote Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Deal, William R.; Chattopadhyay, Goutam

2012-01-01

The operating frequency of InP integrated circuits has pushed well into the Submillimeter Wave frequency band, with amplification reported as high as 670 GHz. This paper provides an overview of current performance and potential application of InP HEMT to Submillimeter Wave radiometers for earth remote sensing.

Field measurements of the global UV-B radiation: a comparison between a broad-band radiometer and a Brewer spectrophotometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anav, A.; Moriconi, M.L.; Di Menno, M.; Giannoccolo, S.

1996-01-01

The spectral responsivity shape plays an important role in the prospect of a wide use of broad-band meters in the UV-B monitoring. As most UV-B broad-band meters have a responsivity approximating an erythemal action spectrum, a measurement campaign was planned to verify if such an instrument could be successfully used to measure the unfiltered global irradiance. A Yankee radiometer mod. UV-B 1 and a Brewer spectrophotometer, considered as a reference meter, were compared for this purpose. A short theoretical treatment of the Yankee radiometer response and some results of the comparison are shown. Only clear-sky days data are selected so that the UV-B radiation reaching the ground could be modelled as the sum of the direct and isotropic diffuse components. The comparison results show a good agreement between the two instruments and confirm the capability of a broad-band UV-B radiometer of correctly measuring the global irradiance

Thermal, Thermophysical, and Compositional Properties of the Moon Revealed by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Greenhagen, B. T.; Paige, D. A.

2012-01-01

The Diviner Lunar Radiometer is the first multispectral thermal instrument to globally map the surface of the Moon. After over three years in operation, this unprecedented dataset has revealed the extreme nature of the Moon's thermal environment, thermophysical properties, and surface composition.

Drought Prediction for Socio-Cultural Stability Project

Science.gov (United States)

Peters-Lidard, Christa; Eylander, John B.; Koster, Randall; Narapusetty, Balachandrudu; Kumar, Sujay; Rodell, Matt; Bolten, John; Mocko, David; Walker, Gregory; Arsenault, Kristi;

Wide-band Millimeter and Sub-Millimeter Wave Radiometer Instrument to Measure Tropospheric Water and Cloud ICE

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose to develop, fabricate and test a new, multi-frequency millimeter and sub-millimeter-wave radiometer instrument to provide critically-needed measurements...

Intercomparison of stratospheric temperature profiles from a ground-based microwave radiometer with other techniques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Navas-Guzmán

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In this work the stratospheric performance of a relatively new microwave temperature radiometer (TEMPERA has been evaluated. With this goal in mind, almost 3 years of temperature measurements (January 2014–September 2016 from the TEMPERA radiometer were intercompared with simultaneous measurements from other techniques: radiosondes, MLS satellite and Rayleigh lidar. This intercomparison campaign was carried out at the aerological station of MeteoSwiss at Payerne (Switzerland. In addition, the temperature profiles from TEMPERA were used to validate the temperature outputs from the SD-WACCM model. The results showed in general a very good agreement between TEMPERA and the different instruments and the model, with a high correlation (higher than 0.9 in the temperature evolution at different altitudes between TEMPERA and the different data sets. An annual pattern was observed in the stratospheric temperature with generally higher temperatures in summer than in winter and with a higher variability during winter. A clear change in the tendency of the temperature deviations was detected in summer 2015, which was due to the repair of an attenuator in the TEMPERA spectrometer. The mean and the standard deviations of the temperature differences between TEMPERA and the different measurements were calculated for two periods (before and after the repair in order to quantify the accuracy and precision of this radiometer over the campaign period. The results showed absolute biases and standard deviations lower than 2 K for most of the altitudes. In addition, comparisons proved the good performance of TEMPERA in measuring the temperature in the stratosphere.

Application of microwave radiometers for wetlands and estuaries monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shutko, A.; Haldin, A.; Novichikhin, E.

1997-01-01

This paper presents the examples of experimental data obtained with airborne microwave radiometers used for monitoring of wetlands and estuaries located in coastal environments. The international team of researchers has successfully worked in Russia, Ukraine and USA. The data presented relate to a period of time between 1990 and 1995. They have been collected in Odessa Region, Black Sea coast, Ukraine, in Regions of Pittsville and Winfield, Maryland, USA, and in Region of St. Marks, Florida, USA. The parameters discussed are a soil moisture, depth to a shallow water table, vegetation index, salinity of water surface

Simulated and measured performance of a real-time processor for RFI detection and mitigation on-board spaceborne microwave radiometers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl

2017-01-01

An RFI processor breadboard has been designed and developed for future spaceborne microwave radiometer systems. RFI detection is based on the anomalous amplitude, kurtosis, and cross-frequency algorithms. These are implemented in VHDL code in an FPGA. Thus algorithm performance can be assessed...... by proper code simulation. The breadboard has been integrated with a Ku band radiometer subjected to RFI-like signals from a laboratory generator. Simulations show that the algorithms as implemented work according to theory when subjected to pulsed sinusoidal and QPSK signals. The laboratory measurements...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Aerosol Detection Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of suspended matter from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)...

High spatial resolution upgrade of the electron cyclotron emission radiometer for the DIII-D tokamak.

Science.gov (United States)

Truong, D D; Austin, M E

2014-11-01

The 40-channel DIII-D electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer provides measurements of Te(r,t) at the tokamak midplane from optically thick, second harmonic X-mode emission over a frequency range of 83-130 GHz. The frequency spacing of the radiometer's channels results in a spatial resolution of ∼1-3 cm, depending on local magnetic field and electron temperature. A new high resolution subsystem has been added to the DIII-D ECE radiometer to make sub-centimeter (0.6-0.8 cm) resolution Te measurements. The high resolution subsystem branches off from the regular channels' IF bands and consists of a microwave switch to toggle between IF bands, a switched filter bank for frequency selectivity, an adjustable local oscillator and mixer for further frequency down-conversion, and a set of eight microwave filters in the 2-4 GHz range. Higher spatial resolution is achieved through the use of a narrower (200 MHz) filter bandwidth and closer spacing between the filters' center frequencies (250 MHz). This configuration allows for full coverage of the 83-130 GHz frequency range in 2 GHz bands. Depending on the local magnetic field, this translates into a "zoomed-in" analysis of a ∼2-4 cm radial region. Expected uses of these channels include mapping the spatial dependence of Alfven eigenmodes, geodesic acoustic modes, and externally applied magnetic perturbations. Initial Te measurements, which demonstrate that the desired resolution is achieved, are presented.

Longterm and spatial variability of Aerosol optical properties measured by sky radiometer in Japan sites

Science.gov (United States)

Aoki, K.

2016-12-01

Aerosols and cloud play an important role in the climate change. We started the long-term monitoring of aerosol and cloud optical properties since 1990's by using sky radiometer (POM-01, 02; Prede Co. Ltd., Japan). We provide the information, in this presentation, on the aerosol optical properties with respect to their temporal and spatial variability in Japan site (ex. Sapporo, Toyama, Kasuga and etc). The global distributions of aerosols have been derived from earth observation satellite and have been simulated in numerical models, which assume optical parameters. However, these distributions are difficult to derive because of variability in time and space. Therefore, Aerosol optical properties were investigated using the measurements from ground-based and ship-borne sky radiometer. The sky radiometer is an automatic instrument that takes observations only in daytime under the clear sky conditions. Observation of diffuse solar intensity interval was made every ten or five minutes by once. The aerosol optical properties were computed using the SKYRAD.pack version 4.2. The obtained Aerosol optical properties (Aerosol optical thickness, Ångström exponent, Single scattering albedo, and etc.) and size distribution volume clearly showed spatial and temporal variability in Japan area. In this study, we present the temporal and spatial variability of Aerosol optical properties at several Japan sites, applied to validation of satellite and numerical models. This project is validation satellite of GCOM-C, JAXA. The GCOM-C satellite scheduled to be launched in early 2017.

Capabilities and Impact on Wind Analyses of the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD)

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Timothy L.; Amarin, Ruba; Atlas, Robert; Bailey, M. C.; Black, Peter; Buckley, Courtney; James, Mark; Johnson, James; Jones, Linwood; Ruf, Christopher;

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Snow Cover Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of snow cover from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Smoothed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Smoothed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from NDE is a weekly product derived from the VIIRS...

Design and characterization of the Large-aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Age (LEDA) radiometer systems

Science.gov (United States)

Price, D. C.; Greenhill, L. J.; Fialkov, A.; Bernardi, G.; Garsden, H.; Barsdell, B. R.; Kocz, J.; Anderson, M. M.; Bourke, S. A.; Craig, J.; Dexter, M. R.; Dowell, J.; Eastwood, M. W.; Eftekhari, T.; Ellingson, S. W.; Hallinan, G.; Hartman, J. M.; Kimberk, R.; Lazio, T. Joseph W.; Leiker, S.; MacMahon, D.; Monroe, R.; Schinzel, F.; Taylor, G. B.; Tong, E.; Werthimer, D.; Woody, D. P.

2018-05-01

The Large-Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Age (LEDA) was designed to detect the predicted O(100) mK sky-averaged absorption of the Cosmic Microwave Background by Hydrogen in the neutral pre- and intergalactic medium just after the cosmological Dark Age. The spectral signature would be associated with emergence of a diffuse Lyα background from starlight during `Cosmic Dawn'. Recently, Bowman et al. (2018) have reported detection of this predicted absorption feature, with an unexpectedly large amplitude of 530 mK, centered at 78 MHz. Verification of this result by an independent experiment, such as LEDA, is pressing. In this paper, we detail design and characterization of the LEDA radiometer systems, and a first-generation pipeline that instantiates a signal path model. Sited at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array, LEDA systems include the station correlator, five well-separated redundant dual polarization radiometers and backend electronics. The radiometers deliver a 30-85 MHz band (16 z < 34) and operate as part of the larger interferometric array, for purposes ultimately of in situ calibration. Here, we report on the LEDA system design, calibration approach, and progress in characterization as of January 2016. The LEDA systems are currently being modified to improve performance near 78 MHz in order to verify the purported absorption feature.

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Mask Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains a high quality Environmental Data Record (EDR) of cloud masks from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard...

Calibration of the degree of linear polarization measurements of the polarized Sun-sky radiometer based on the POLBOX system.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhengqiang; Li, Kaitao; Li, Li; Xu, Hua; Xie, Yisong; Ma, Yan; Li, Donghui; Goloub, Philippe; Yuan, Yinlin; Zheng, Xiaobing

2018-02-10

Polarization observation of sky radiation is the frontier approach to improve the remote sensing of atmospheric components, e.g., aerosol and clouds. The polarization calibration of the ground-based Sun-sky radiometer is the basis for obtaining accurate degree of linear polarization (DOLP) measurement. In this paper, a DOLP calibration method based on a laboratory polarized light source (POLBOX) is introduced in detail. Combined with the CE318-DP Sun-sky polarized radiometer, a calibration scheme for DOLP measurement is established for the spectral range of 440-1640 nm. Based on the calibration results of the Sun-sky radiometer observation network, the polarization calibration coefficient and the DOLP calibration residual are analyzed statistically. The results show that the DOLP residual of the calibration scheme is about 0.0012, and thus it can be estimated that the final DOLP calibration accuracy of this method is about 0.005. Finally, it is verified that the accuracy of the calibration results is in accordance with the expected results by comparing the simulated DOLP with the vector radiative transfer calculations.

Total column water vapor estimation over land using radiometer data from SAC-D/Aquarius

Science.gov (United States)

Epeloa, Javier; Meza, Amalia

2018-02-01

The aim of this study is retrieving atmospheric total column water vapor (CWV) over land surfaces using a microwave radiometer (MWR) onboard the Scientific Argentine Satellite (SAC-D/Aquarius). To research this goal, a statistical algorithm is used for the purpose of filtering the study region according to the climate type. A log-linear relationship between the brightness temperatures of the MWR and CWV obtained from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements was used. In this statistical algorithm, the retrieved CWV is derived from the Argentinian radiometer's brightness temperature which works at 23.8 GHz and 36.5 GHz, and taking into account CWVs observed from GNSS stations belonging to a region sharing the same climate type. We support this idea, having found a systematic effect when applying the algorithm; it was generated for one region using the previously mentioned criteria, however, it should be applied to additional regions, especially those with other climate types. The region we analyzed is in the Southeastern United States of America, where the climate type is Cfa (Köppen - Geiger classification); this climate type includes moist subtropical mid-latitude climates, with hot, muggy summers and frequent thunderstorms. However, MWR only contains measurements taken from over ocean surfaces; therefore the determination of water vapor over land is an important contribution to extend the use of the SAC-D/Aquarius radiometer measurements beyond the ocean surface. The CWVs computed by our algorithm are compared against radiosonde CWV observations and show a bias of about -0.6 mm, a root mean square (rms) of about 6 mm and a correlation of 0.89.

HURRICANE AND SEVERE STORM SENTINEL (HS3) GLOBAL HAWK HIGH ALTITUDE MMIC SOUNDING RADIOMETER (HAMSR) V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) datasets include measurements gathered by the HAMSR...

Comparison of stratospheric temperature profiles from a ground-based microwave radiometer with lidar, radiosonde and satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Navas-Guzmán, Francisco; Kämpfer, Niklaus; Haefele, Alexander; Keckhut, Philippe; Hauchecorne, Alain

2015-04-01

The importance of the knowledge of the temperature structure in the atmosphere has been widely recognized. Temperature is a key parameter for dynamical, chemical and radiative processes in the atmosphere. The cooling of the stratosphere is an indicator for climate change as it provides evidence of natural and anthropogenic climate forcing just like surface warming ( [1] and references therein). However, our understanding of the observed stratospheric temperature trend and our ability to test simulations of the stratospheric response to emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances remains limited. Stratospheric long-term datasets are sparse and obtained trends differ from one another [1]. Therefore it is important that in the future such datasets are generated. Different techniques allow to measure stratospheric temperature profiles as radiosonde, lidar or satellite. The main advantage of microwave radiometers against these other instruments is a high temporal resolution with a reasonable good spatial resolution. Moreover, the measurement at a fixed location allows to observe local atmospheric dynamics over a long time period, which is crucial for climate research. TEMPERA (TEMPERature RAdiometer) is a newly developed ground-based microwave radiometer designed, built and operated at the University of Bern. The instrument and the retrieval of temperature profiles has been described in detail in [2]. TEMPERA is measuring a pressure broadened oxygen line at 53.1 GHz in order to determine stratospheric temperature profiles. The retrieved profiles of TEMPERA cover an altitude range of approximately 20 to 45 km with a vertical resolution in the order of 15 km. The lower limit is given by the instrumental baseline and the bandwidth of the measured spectrum. The upper limit is given by the fact that above 50 km the oxygen lines are splitted by the Zeeman effect in the terrestrial magnetic field. In this study we present a comparison of stratospheric

Design and First Results of an UAV-Borne L-Band Radiometer for Multiple Monitoring Purposes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rene Acevo-Herrera

2010-06-01

Full Text Available UAV (unmanned Aerial Vehicle platforms represent a challenging opportunity for the deployment of a number of remote sensors. These vehicles are a cost-effective option in front of manned aerial vehicles (planes and helicopters, are easy to deploy due to the short runways needed, and they allow users to meet the critical requirements of the spatial and temporal resolutions imposed by the instruments. L-band radiometers are an interesting option for obtaining soil moisture maps over local areas with relatively high spatial resolution for precision agriculture, coastal monitoring, estimation of the risk of fires, flood prevention, etc. This paper presents the design of a light-weight, airborne L-band radiometer for deployment in a small UAV, including the hardware and specific software developed for calibration, geo-referencing, and soil moisture retrieval. First results and soil moisture retrievals from different field experiments are presented.

Using machine learning for real-time estimates of snow water equivalent in the watersheds of Afghanistan

Science.gov (United States)

Bair, Edward H.; Abreu Calfa, Andre; Rittger, Karl; Dozier, Jeff

2018-05-01

In the mountains, snowmelt often provides most of the runoff. Operational estimates use imagery from optical and passive microwave sensors, but each has its limitations. An accurate approach, which we validate in Afghanistan and the Sierra Nevada USA, reconstructs spatially distributed snow water equivalent (SWE) by calculating snowmelt backward from a remotely sensed date of disappearance. However, reconstructed SWE estimates are available only retrospectively; they do not provide a forecast. To estimate SWE throughout the snowmelt season, we consider physiographic and remotely sensed information as predictors and reconstructed SWE as the target. The period of analysis matches the AMSR-E radiometer's lifetime from 2003 to 2011, for the months of April through June. The spatial resolution of the predictions is 3.125 km, to match the resolution of a microwave brightness temperature product. Two machine learning techniques - bagged regression trees and feed-forward neural networks - produced similar mean results, with 0-14 % bias and 46-48 mm RMSE on average. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies averaged 0.68 for all years. Daily SWE climatology and fractional snow-covered area are the most important predictors. We conclude that these methods can accurately estimate SWE during the snow season in remote mountains, and thereby provide an independent estimate to forecast runoff and validate other methods to assess the snow resource.

High spatial resolution upgrade of the electron cyclotron emission radiometer for the DIII-D tokamak

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Truong, D. D., E-mail: dtruong@wisc.edu [Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States); Austin, M. E. [Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 78712 (United States)

2014-11-15

The 40-channel DIII-D electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer provides measurements of T{sub e}(r,t) at the tokamak midplane from optically thick, second harmonic X-mode emission over a frequency range of 83–130 GHz. The frequency spacing of the radiometer's channels results in a spatial resolution of ∼1–3 cm, depending on local magnetic field and electron temperature. A new high resolution subsystem has been added to the DIII-D ECE radiometer to make sub-centimeter (0.6–0.8 cm) resolution T{sub e} measurements. The high resolution subsystem branches off from the regular channels’ IF bands and consists of a microwave switch to toggle between IF bands, a switched filter bank for frequency selectivity, an adjustable local oscillator and mixer for further frequency down-conversion, and a set of eight microwave filters in the 2–4 GHz range. Higher spatial resolution is achieved through the use of a narrower (200 MHz) filter bandwidth and closer spacing between the filters’ center frequencies (250 MHz). This configuration allows for full coverage of the 83–130 GHz frequency range in 2 GHz bands. Depending on the local magnetic field, this translates into a “zoomed-in” analysis of a ∼2–4 cm radial region. Expected uses of these channels include mapping the spatial dependence of Alfven eigenmodes, geodesic acoustic modes, and externally applied magnetic perturbations. Initial T{sub e} measurements, which demonstrate that the desired resolution is achieved, are presented.

Intercomparison of characterization techniques of filter radiometers in the ultraviolet region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abu-Kassem, I.; Karha, P.; Harrison, N. J.; Nevas, S.; Hartree, W. S.

2008-01-01

Narrow-band filter radiometers at 248 nm, 313 nm, 330 nm and 368 nm wavelengths were used to compare calibration facilities of spectral (irradiance) responsivity at HUT, NPL and BNM-INM. The results are partly in agreement within the stated uncertainties. Use of demanding artefacts in the intercomparison revealed that the wavelength scales of the participating institutes deviate more than expected. Such effects cannot be seen in typical intercomparisons of spectral responsivity or spectral transmittance, where spectrally neutral samples are used.(author)

Mapping of the DOME-C area in Antarctica by an airborne L-band radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skou, Niels; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup; Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl

2014-01-01

A 350 × 350 km area near the Concordia station on the high plateau of Dome C in Antarctica has been mapped by an airborne L-band radiometer system. The area was expected to display a rather uniform brightness temperature close to the yearly mean temperature — well suited for calibration checks...

NPP Visible Infrared Imager-Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient for Downwelling Irradiance (KD) Global Mapped Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Visible and Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a multi-disciplinary instrument that is being flown on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of...

Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) Handbook

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hodges, GB; Michalsky, JJ

2011-02-07

The visible Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) is a passive instrument that measures global and diffuse components of solar irradiance at six narrowband channels and one open, or broadband, channel (Harrison et al. 1994). Direct irradiance is not a primary measurement, but is calculated using the diffuse and global measurements. To collect one data record, the MFRSR takes measurements at four different shadowband positions. The first measurement is taken with the shadowband in the nadir (home) position. The next three measurements are, in order, the first side-band, sun-blocked, and second side-band. The side-band measurements are used to correct for the portion of the sky obscured by the shadowband. The nominal wavelengths of the narrowband channels are 415, 500, 615, 673, 870, and 940 nm. From such measurements, one may infer the atmosphere's aerosol optical depth at each wavelength. In turn, these optical depths may be used to derive information about the column abundances of ozone and water vapor (Michalsky et al. 1995), as well as aerosol (Harrison and Michalsky 1994) and other atmospheric constituents.

A General Analysis of the Impact of Digitization in Microwave Correlation Radiometers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyuk Park

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This study provides a general framework to analyze the effects on correlation radiometers of a generic quantization scheme and sampling process. It reviews, unifies and expands several previous works that focused on these effects separately. In addition, it provides a general theoretical background that allows analyzing any digitization scheme including any number of quantization levels, irregular quantization steps, gain compression, clipping, jitter and skew effects of the sampling period.

The Effect of Atmospheric Scattering as Inferred from the Rocket-Borne UV Radiometer Measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jhoon Kim

1997-06-01

Full Text Available Radiometers in UV and visible wavelengths were onboard the Korean Sounding Rocket(KSR-1 and 2 which were launched on June 4th and September 1st, 1993. These radiometers were designed to capture the solar radiation during the ascending period of the rocket flight. The purpose of the instrument was to measure the vertical profiles of stratospheric ozone densities. Since the instrument measured the solar radiation from the ground to its apogee, it is possible to investigate the altitude variation of the measured intensity and to estimate the effect of atmospheric scattering by comparing the UV and visible intensity. The visible channel was a reference because the 450-nm wavelength is in the atmospheric window region, where the solar radiation is transmitted through the atmosphere without being absorbed by other atmospheric gases. The use of 450-nm channel intensity as a reference should be limited to the altitude ranges above the certain altitudes, say 20 to 25§° where the signals are not perturbed by atmospheric scattering effects.

The Microwave Radiative Properties of Falling Snow Derived from Nonspherical Ice Particle Models. Part II: Initial Testing Using Radar, Radiometer and In Situ Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Olson, William S.; Tian, Lin; Grecu, Mircea; Kuo, Kwo-Sen; Johnson, Benjamin; Heymsfield, Andrew J.; Bansemer, Aaron; Heymsfield, Gerald M.; Wang, James R.; Meneghini, Robert

2016-01-01

In this study, two different particle models describing the structure and electromagnetic properties of snow are developed and evaluated for potential use in satellite combined radar-radiometer precipitation estimation algorithms. In the first model, snow particles are assumed to be homogeneous ice-air spheres with single-scattering properties derived from Mie theory. In the second model, snow particles are created by simulating the self-collection of pristine ice crystals into aggregate particles of different sizes, using different numbers and habits of the collected component crystals. Single-scattering properties of the resulting nonspherical snow particles are determined using the discrete dipole approximation. The size-distribution-integrated scattering properties of the spherical and nonspherical snow particles are incorporated into a dual-wavelength radar profiling algorithm that is applied to 14- and 34-GHz observations of stratiform precipitation from the ER-2 aircraft-borne High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) radar. The retrieved ice precipitation profiles are then input to a forward radiative transfer calculation in an attempt to simulate coincident radiance observations from the Conical Scanning Millimeter-Wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR). Much greater consistency between the simulated and observed CoSMIR radiances is obtained using estimated profiles that are based upon the nonspherical crystal/aggregate snow particle model. Despite this greater consistency, there remain some discrepancies between the higher moments of the HIWRAP-retrieved precipitation size distributions and in situ distributions derived from microphysics probe observations obtained from Citation aircraft underflights of the ER-2. These discrepancies can only be eliminated if a subset of lower-density crystal/aggregate snow particles is assumed in the radar algorithm and in the interpretation of the in situ data.

Weight estimates and packaging techniques for the microwave radiometer spacecraft. [shuttle compatible design

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, J. K.; Wright, R. L.

1981-01-01

Estimates of total spacecraft weight and packaging options were made for three conceptual designs of a microwave radiometer spacecraft. Erectable structures were found to be slightly lighter than deployable structures but could be packaged in one-tenth the volume. The tension rim concept, an unconventional design approach, was found to be the lightest and transportable to orbit in the least number of shuttle flights.

The Effect of Three Different Data Fusion Approaches on the Quality of Soil Moisture Retrievals from Multiple Passive Microwave Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robin van der Schalie

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Long-term climate records of soil moisture are of increased importance to climate researchers. In this study, we aim to evaluate the quality of three different fusion approaches that combine soil moisture retrieval from multiple satellite sensors. The arrival of L-band missions has led to an increased focus on the integration of L-band-based soil moisture retrievals in climate records, emphasizing the need to improve our understanding based on its added value within a multi-sensor framework. The three evaluated approaches were developed on 10-year passive microwave data (2003–2013 from two different satellite sensors, i.e., SMOS (2010–2013 and AMSR-E (2003–2011, and are based on a neural network (NN, regressions (REG, and the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM. The ability of the different approaches to best match AMSR-E and SMOS in their overlapping period was tested using an inter-comparison exercise between the SMOS and AMSR-E datasets, while the skill of the individual soil moisture products, based on anomalies, was evaluated using two verification techniques; first, a data assimilation technique that links precipitation information to the quality of soil moisture (expressed as the Rvalue, and secondly the triple collocation analysis (TCA. ASCAT soil moisture was included in the skill evaluation, representing the active microwave-based counterpart of soil moisture retrievals. Besides a semi-global analysis, explicit focus was placed on two regions that have strong land–atmosphere coupling, the Sahel (SA and the central Great Plains (CGP of North America. The NN approach gives the highest correlation coefficient between SMOS and AMSR-E, closely followed by LPRM and REG, while the absolute error is approximately the same for all three approaches. The Rvalue and TCA show the strength of using different satellite sources and the impact of different merging approaches on the skill to correctly capture soil moisture anomalies. The

Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) Wind Speed Retrievals and Assessment Using Dropsondes

Science.gov (United States)

Cecil, Daniel J.; Biswas, Sayak K.

2018-01-01

The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is an experimental C-band passive microwave radiometer designed to map the horizontal structure of surface wind speed fields in hurricanes. New data processing and customized retrieval approaches were developed after the 2015 Tropical Cyclone Intensity (TCI) experiment, which featured flights over Hurricanes Patricia, Joaquin, Marty, and the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika. These new approaches produced maps of surface wind speed that looked more realistic than those from previous campaigns. Dropsondes from the High Definition Sounding System (HDSS) that was flown with HIRAD on a WB-57 high altitude aircraft in TCI were used to assess the quality of the HIRAD wind speed retrievals. The root mean square difference between HIRAD-retrieved surface wind speeds and dropsonde-estimated surface wind speeds was 6.0 meters per second. The largest differences between HIRAD and dropsonde winds were from data points where storm motion during dropsonde descent compromised the validity of the comparisons. Accounting for this and for uncertainty in the dropsonde measurements themselves, we estimate the root mean square error for the HIRAD retrievals as around 4.7 meters per second. Prior to the 2015 TCI experiment, HIRAD had previously flown on the WB-57 for missions across Hurricanes Gonzalo (2014), Earl (2010), and Karl (2010). Configuration of the instrument was not identical to the 2015 flights, but the methods devised after the 2015 flights may be applied to that previous data in an attempt to improve retrievals from those cases.

ARIS-Campaign: intercomparison of three ground based 22 GHz radiometers for middle atmospheric water vapor at the Zugspitze in winter 2009

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Straub

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the Alpine Radiometer Intercomparison at the Schneefernerhaus (ARIS, which took place in winter 2009 at the high altitude station at the Zugspitze, Germany (47.42° N, 10.98° E, 2650 m. This campaign was the first direct intercomparison between three new ground based 22 GHz water vapor radiometers for middle atmospheric profiling with the following instruments participating: MIRA 5 (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, cWASPAM3 (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau and MIAWARA-C (Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern. Even though the three radiometers all measure middle atmospheric water vapor using the same rotational transition line and similar fundamental set-ups, there are major differences between the front ends, the back ends, the calibration concepts and the profile retrieval. The spectrum comparison shows that all three radiometers measure spectra without severe baseline artifacts and that the measurements are in good general agreement. The measurement noise shows good agreement to the values theoretically expected from the radiometer noise formula. At the same time the comparison of the noise levels shows that there is room for instrumental and calibration improvement, emphasizing the importance of low elevation angles for the observation, a low receiver noise temperature and an efficient calibration scheme.

The comparisons of the retrieved profiles show that the agreement between the profiles of MIAWARA-C and cWASPAM3 with the ones of MLS is better than 0.3 ppmv (6% at all altitudes. MIRA 5 has a dry bias of approximately 0.5 ppm (8% below 0.1 hPa with respect to all other instruments. The profiles of cWASPAM3 and MIAWARA-C could not be directly compared because the vertical region of overlap was too small. The comparison of the time series at different altitude levels show a similar evolution of the H₂O volume mixing ratio (VMR for the ground based

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Ice Surface Temperature (IST) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Top Height (CTH) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

JPSS NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Top Pressure (CTP) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

SMAP/Sentinel-1 L2 Radiometer/Radar 30-Second Scene 3 km EASE-Grid Soil Moisture V001

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This Level-2 (L2) soil moisture product provides estimates of land surface conditions retrieved by both the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer during...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Sea Ice Characterization (SIC) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains an Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Sea Ice Characterization (SIC) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Base Height (CBH) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Cloud Base Heights (CBH) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Surface Temperature (LST) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Land Surface Temperature (LST) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Cover Layer (CCL) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Cloud Cover Layers (CCL) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Ocean Color/Chlorophyll (OCC) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Ocean Color/Chlorophyll (OCC) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Type and Phase Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of cloud type and phase from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Ice Thickness and Age Environmental Data Records (EDRs) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Ice Thickness and Age from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)...

Short Wave Part of Earth's Energy Budget at Top of Atmosphere During 2009-2017 from Radiometer IKOR-M Data

Science.gov (United States)

Cherviakov, M.; Spiryakhina, A.; Surkova, Y.; Kulkova, E.; Shishkina, E.

2017-12-01

This report describes Earth's energy budget IKOR-M satellite program which has been started in Russia. The first satellite "Meteor-M" No 1 of this project was put into orbit in 2009. The IKOR-M radiometer is a satellite instrument which can measure reflected shortwave radiation (0.3-4.0 µm). It was created in Saratov University and installed on Russian meteorological satellites "Meteor-M" No 1 and No 2. IKOR-M designed for satellite monitoring of the outgoing short-wave radiation at top-of-atmosphere (TOA), which is one of the components of Earth's energy budget. Such measurements can be used to derive albedo and absorbed solar radiation at TOA. The basic products of data processing are given in the form of global maps of distribution outgoing short-wave radiation, albedo and absorbed solar radiation (ASR). Such maps were made for each month during observation period. The IKOR-M product archive is available online at all times. A searchable catalogue of data products is continually updated and users may search and download data products via the Earth radiation balance components research laboratory website (www.sgu.ru/structure/geographic/metclim/balans) as soon as they become available. Two series of measurements from two different IKOR-M are available. The first radiometer had worked from October 2009 to August 2014 and second - from August 2014 to the present. Therefore, there is a period when both radiometers work at the same time. Top-of-atmosphere fluxes deduced from the "Meteor-M" No 1 measurements in August 2014 show very good agreement with the fluxes determined from "Meteor-M" No 2. It was shown that the albedo and ASR data received from the radiometer IKOR-M can be used to detect El Nino in the Pacific Ocean. During the radiometer operation, there were two significant El Nino events. Spatial-temporal distribution of the albedo in the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean was analyzed. Region with high albedo values of 35-40 % is formed in the region 180E

Accurate frequency measurements on gyrotrons using a ''gyro-radiometer''

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rebuffi, L.

1986-08-01

Using an heterodyne system, called ''Gyro-radiometer'', accurated frequency measurements have been carried out on VARIAN 60 GHz gyrotrons. Changing the principal tuning parameters of a gyrotron, we have detected frequency variations up to 100 MHz, ∼ 40 MHz frequency jumps and smaller jumps (∼ 10 MHz) when mismatches in the transmission line were present. FWHM bandwidth of 300 KHz, parasitic frequencies and frequency drift during 100 msec pulses have also been observed. An efficient method to find a stable-, high power-, long pulse-working point of a gyrotron loaded by a transmission line, has been derived. In general, for any power value it is possible to find stable working conditions tuning the principal parameters of the tube in correspondance of a maximum of the emitted frequency

Retrieving soil moisture for non-forested areas using PALS radiometer measurements in SMAPVEX12 field campaign

Science.gov (United States)

In this paper we investigate retrieval of soil moisture based on L-band brightness temperature under diverse conditions and land cover types. We apply the PALS (Passive Active L-band System) radiometer data collected in the SMAPVEX12 (Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012) field ex...

A Low-Cost Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer (Mini-LHR) for Near-ir Measurements of CO2 and CH4 in the Atmospheric Column

Science.gov (United States)

Steel, Emily Wilson

2016-01-01

The miniaturized laser heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR) is a ground-based passive variation of a laser heterodyne radiometer that uses sunlight to measure absorption of CO2 andCH4 in the infrared. Sunlight is collected using collimation optics mounted to an AERONET sun tracker, modulated with a fiber switch and mixed with infrared laser light in a fast photoreciever.The amplitude of the resultant RF (radio frequency) beat signal correlates with the concentration of the gas in the atmospheric column.

The Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer (PHyTIR): A High Speed, Multispectral, Thermal Instrument Development in Support of HyspIRI-TIR

Science.gov (United States)

Hook, Simon

2011-01-01

The Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer (PHyTIR) is being developed as part of the risk reduction activities associated with the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI). The HyspIRI mission was recommended by the National Research Council Decadal Survey and includes a visible shortwave infrared (SWIR) pushboom spectrometer and a multispectral whiskbroom thermal infrared (TIR) imager. Data from the HyspIRI mission will be used to address key science questions related to the Solid Earth and Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems focus areas of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. The HyspIRI TIR system will have 60m ground resolution, better than 200mK noise equivalent delta temperature (NEDT), 0.5C absolute temperature resolution with a 5-day repeat from LEO orbit. PHyTIR addresses the technology readiness level (TRL) of certain key subsystems of the TIR imager, primarily the detector assembly and scanning mechanism. PHyTIR will use Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) technology at the focal plane and operate in time delay integration mode. A custom read out integrated circuit (ROIC) will provide the high speed readout hence allowing the high data rates needed for the 5 day repeat. PHyTIR will also demonstrate a newly developed interferometeric metrology system. This system will provide an absolute measurement of the scanning mirror to an order of magnitude better than conventional optical encoders. This will minimize the reliance on ground control points hence minimizing post-processing (e.g. geo-rectification computations).

Hurricane Imaging Radiometer Wind Speed and Rain Rate Retrievals during the 2010 GRIP Flight Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Sahawneh, Saleem; Farrar, Spencer; Johnson, James; Jones, W. Linwood; Roberts, Jason; Biswas, Sayak; Cecil, Daniel

2014-01-01

Microwave remote sensing observations of hurricanes, from NOAA and USAF hurricane surveillance aircraft, provide vital data for hurricane research and operations, for forecasting the intensity and track of tropical storms. The current operational standard for hurricane wind speed and rain rate measurements is the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR), which is a nadir viewing passive microwave airborne remote sensor. The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer, HIRAD, will extend the nadir viewing SFMR capability to provide wide swath images of wind speed and rain rate, while flying on a high altitude aircraft. HIRAD was first flown in the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, GRIP, NASA hurricane field experiment in 2010. This paper reports on geophysical retrieval results and provides hurricane images from GRIP flights. An overview of the HIRAD instrument and the radiative transfer theory based, wind speed/rain rate retrieval algorithm is included. Results are presented for hurricane wind speed and rain rate for Earl and Karl, with comparison to collocated SFMR retrievals and WP3D Fuselage Radar images for validation purposes.

The Potential of Autonomous Ship-Borne Hyperspectral Radiometers for the Validation of Ocean Color Radiometry Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vittorio E. Brando

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Calibration and validation of satellite observations are essential and on-going tasks to ensure compliance with mission accuracy requirements. An automated above water hyperspectral radiometer significantly augmented Australia’s ability to contribute to global and regional ocean color validation and algorithm design activities. The hyperspectral data can be re-sampled for comparison with current and future sensor wavebands. The continuous spectral acquisition along the ship track enables spatial resampling to match satellite footprint. This study reports spectral comparisons of the radiometer data with Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-Aqua for contrasting water types in tropical waters off northern Australia based on the standard NIR atmospheric correction implemented in SeaDAS. Consistent match-ups are shown for transects of up to 50 km over a range of reflectance values. The MODIS and VIIRS satellite reflectance data consistently underestimated the in situ spectra in the blue with a bias relative to the “dynamic above water radiance and irradiance collector” (DALEC at 443 nm ranging from 9.8 × 10−4 to 3.1 × 10−3 sr−1. Automated acquisition has produced good quality data under standard operating and maintenance procedures. A sensitivity analysis explored the effects of some assumptions in the data reduction methods, indicating the need for a comprehensive investigation and quantification of each source of uncertainty in the estimate of the DALEC reflectances. Deployment on a Research Vessel provides the potential for the radiometric data to be combined with other sampling and observational activities to contribute to algorithm development in the wider bio-optical research community.

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Near Constant Contrast (NCC) Imagery Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Volcanic Ash Detection and Height Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of volcanic ash from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer (VIIRS) instrument...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Imagery (not Near Constant Contrast) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the...

Forest canopy height from Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) assessed with high resolution discrete return lidar

Science.gov (United States)

Mark Chopping; Anne Nolin; Gretchen G. Moisen; John V. Martonchik; Michael Bull

2009-01-01

In this study retrievals of forest canopy height were obtained through adjustment of a simple geometricoptical (GO) model against red band surface bidirectional reflectance estimates from NASA's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), mapped to a 250 m grid. The soil-understory background contribution was partly isolated prior to inversion using regression...

Optical radiation measurements II; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Mar. 27, 28, 1989

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, James M.

1989-09-01

The present conference discusses topics in the characterization of imaging radiometers, laboratory instrumentation, field and spacecraft instrumentation, and quantum and thermal standard detectors. Attention is given to UV radiometric imaging, dual-color radiometer imagery, a novel diode-array radiometer, a novel reference spectrophotometer, radiance calibration of spherical integrators, instrumentation for measurement of spectral goniometric reflectance, and a real-time IR background discrimination radiometer. Also discussed are a multichannel radiometer for atmosphere optical property measurements, the UV spectroradiometric output of a turbojet, characterizations of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment scanning radiometers, total-radiation thermometry, future directions in Si photodiode self-calibration, and radiometric quality Ge photodiodes.

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Effective Particle Size (CEPS) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Cloud Effective Particle Size (CEPS) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer...

Progress report of FY 1997 activities: The application of Kalman filtering to derive water vapor profiles from combined ground-based sensors: Raman lidar, microwave radiometers, GPS, and radiosondes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edgeworth R. Westwater; Yong Han

1997-01-01

Previously, the proposers have delivered to ARM a documented algorithm, that is now applied operationally, and which derives water vapor profiles from combined remote sensor measurements of water vapor radiometers, cloud-base ceilometers, and radio acoustic sounding systems (RASS). With the expanded deployment of a Raman lidar at the CART Central Facility, high quality, high vertical-resolution, water vapor profiles will be provided during nighttime clear conditions, and during clear daytime conditions, to somewhat lower altitudes. The object of this proposal was to use Kalman Filtering, previously applied to the combination of nighttime Raman lidar and microwave radiometer data, to derive high-quality water vapor profiles, during non-precipitating conditions, from data routinely available at the CART site. Input data to the algorithm would include: Raman lidar data, highly quality-controlled data of integrated moisture from microwave radiometers and GPS, RASS, and radiosondes. The algorithm will include recently-developed quality control procedures for radiometers. The focus of this years activities has been on the intercomparison of data obtained during an intensive operating period at the SGP CART site in central Oklahoma

Diagnostics of the SMOS radiometer antenna system at the DTU-ESA spherical near-field antenna test facility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cappellin, Cecilia; Frandsen, A.; Pivnenko, Sergey

2007-01-01

The recently developed Spherical Wave Expansion-to-Plane Wave Expansion (SWE-to-PWE) antenna diagnostics technique is employed in an investigation of the antenna system in the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) for ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission...

Assessing the relationship between microwave vegetation optical depth and gross primary production

Science.gov (United States)

Teubner, Irene E.; Forkel, Matthias; Jung, Martin; Liu, Yi Y.; Miralles, Diego G.; Parinussa, Robert; van der Schalie, Robin; Vreugdenhil, Mariette; Schwalm, Christopher R.; Tramontana, Gianluca; Camps-Valls, Gustau; Dorigo, Wouter A.

2018-03-01

At the global scale, the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by terrestrial ecosystems through photosynthesis is commonly estimated through vegetation indices or biophysical properties derived from optical remote sensing data. Microwave observations of vegetated areas are sensitive to different components of the vegetation layer than observations in the optical domain and may therefore provide complementary information on the vegetation state, which may be used in the estimation of Gross Primary Production (GPP). However, the relation between GPP and Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD), a biophysical quantity derived from microwave observations, is not yet known. This study aims to explore the relationship between VOD and GPP. VOD data were taken from different frequencies (L-, C-, and X-band) and from both active and passive microwave sensors, including the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observation System (AMSR-E) and a merged VOD data set from various passive microwave sensors. VOD data were compared against FLUXCOM GPP and Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2). FLUXCOM GPP estimates are based on the upscaling of flux tower GPP observations using optical satellite data, while SIF observations present a measure of photosynthetic activity and are often used as a proxy for GPP. For relating VOD to GPP, three variables were analyzed: original VOD time series, temporal changes in VOD (ΔVOD), and positive changes in VOD (ΔVOD≥0). Results show widespread positive correlations between VOD and GPP with some negative correlations mainly occurring in dry and wet regions for active and passive VOD, respectively. Correlations between VOD and GPP were similar or higher than between VOD and SIF. When comparing the three variables for relating VOD to GPP, correlations with GPP were higher for the original VOD time

Developing a Data Driven Process-Based Model for Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Production

Science.gov (United States)

Elmasri, B.; Rahman, A. F.

2010-12-01

Estimating ecosystem carbon fluxes at various spatial and temporal scales is essential for quantifying the global carbon cycle. Numerous models have been developed for this purpose using several environmental variables as well as vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data. Here we present a data driven modeling approach for gross primary production (GPP) that is based on a process based model BIOME-BGC. The proposed model was run using available remote sensing data and it does not depend on look-up tables. Furthermore, this approach combines the merits of both empirical and process models, and empirical models were used to estimate certain input variables such as light use efficiency (LUE). This was achieved by using remotely sensed data to the mathematical equations that represent biophysical photosynthesis processes in the BIOME-BGC model. Moreover, a new spectral index for estimating maximum photosynthetic activity, maximum photosynthetic rate index (MPRI), is also developed and presented here. This new index is based on the ratio between the near infrared and the green bands (ρ858.5/ρ555). The model was tested and validated against MODIS GPP product and flux measurements from two eddy covariance flux towers located at Morgan Monroe State Forest (MMSF) in Indiana and Harvard Forest in Massachusetts. Satellite data acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) and MODIS were used. The data driven model showed a strong correlation between the predicted and measured GPP at the two eddy covariance flux towers sites. This methodology produced better predictions of GPP than did the MODIS GPP product. Moreover, the proportion of error in the predicted GPP for MMSF and Harvard forest was dominated by unsystematic errors suggesting that the results are unbiased. The analysis indicated that maintenance respiration is one of the main factors that dominate the overall model outcome errors and improvement in maintenance respiration estimation

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Height (Top and Base) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of cloud height (top and base) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

Assimilation of global radar backscatter and radiometer brightness temperature observations to improve soil moisture and land evaporation estimates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lievens, H.; Martens, B.; Verhoest, N.E.C.; Hahn, S.; Reichle, R.H.; Gonzalez Miralles, D.

2016-01-01

Active radar backscatter (σ°) observations from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) and passive radiometer brightness temperature (TB) observations from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission are assimilated either individually or jointly into the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model

Measurement of radiosity coefficient by using an infrared radiometer and its application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okamoto, Yoshizo; Kaminaga, Fumito; Osakabe, Masahiro; Maekawa, Katsuhiro; Ishii, Toshimitsu; Ohoka, Norikazu; Eto, Motokuni.

1989-01-01

An infrared radiometer has been used for measuring and visualizing radiation temperature distribution of a surface in many fields as a remote sensing devices. Measured radiation flux is a summation of a emitted radiation and a reflection, which is called as a radiosity flux. The present paper shows characteristics of the radiosity of tested materials. And the infrared sensor is used to detect the small surface flaw and to measure the erosion rare of the graphite by ion beam injection and the temperature distribution of a cutter. (author)

Measurement of radiosity coefficient by using an infrared radiometer and its application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okamoto, Yoshizo; Kaminaga, Fumito; Osakabe, Masahiro; Maekawa, Katsuhiro; Ishii, Toshimitsu [Ibaraki Univ., Hitachi (Japan). Faculty of Engineering; Ohoka, Norikazu; Eto, Motokuni

1989-12-01

An infrared radiometer has been used for measuring and visualizing radiation temperature distribution of a surface in many fields as a remote sensing devices. Measured radiation flux is a summation of a emitted radiation and a reflection, which is called as a radiosity flux. The present paper shows characteristics of the radiosity of tested materials. And the infrared sensor is used to detect the small surface flaw and to measure the erosion rare of the graphite by ion beam injection and the temperature distribution of a cutter. (author).

Continuity of Climate Data Records derived from Microwave Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Mears, C. A.; Wentz, F. J.; Brewer, M.; Meissner, T.; Ricciardulli, L.

2017-12-01

Remote Sensing Systems (www.remss.com) has been producing and distributing microwave climate data products from microwave imagers (SSMI, TMI, AMSR, WindSat, GMI, Aquarius, SMAP) over the global oceans since the launch of the first SSMI in 1987. Interest in these data products has been significant as researchers around the world have downloaded the approximate equivalent of 1 million satellite years of processed data. Users, including NASA, NOAA, US National Laboratories, US Navy, UK Met, ECMWF, JAXA, JMA, CMC, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, as well as many hundreds of other agencies and universities routinely access these microwave data products. The quality of these data records has increased as more observations have become available and inter-calibration techniques have improved. The impending end of missions for WindSat, AMSR-2, and the remaining SSMIs will have significant impact on the quality and continuity of long term microwave climate data records. In addition to the problem of reduced numbers of observations, there is a real danger of losing overlapping observations. Simultaneous operation of satellites, especially when the observations are at similar local crossing times, provides a significant benefit in the effort to inter-calibrate satellites to yield accurate and stable long-term records. The end of WindSat and AMSR-2 will leave us without microwave SSTs in cold water, as there will be no microwave imagers with C-band channels. Microwave SSTs have a crucial advantage over IR SSTs, which is not able to measure SST in clouds or if aerosols are present. The gap in ocean wind vectors will be somewhat mitigated as the European ASCAT C-band scatterometer mission on MetOp is continuing. Nonetheless, the anticipated cease of several microwave satellite radiometers retrieving ocean winds in the coming years will lead to a significant gap in temporal coverage. Atmospheric water vapor, cloud liquid water, and rain rate are all important climate

Investigation of Seasonal Landscape Freeze/Thaw Cycles in Relation to Cloud Structure in the High Northern Latitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Cosmo

2011-01-01

The seasonal freezing and thawing of Earth's cryosphere (the portion of Earth's surface permanently or seasonally frozen) has an immense impact on Earth's climate as well as on its water, carbon and energy cycles. During the spring, snowmelt and the transition between frozen and non-frozen states lowers Earth's surface albedo. This change in albedo causes more solar radiation to be absorbed by the land surface, raising surface soil and air temperatures as much as 5 C within a few days. The transition of ice into liquid water not only raises the surface humidity, but also greatly affects the energy exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere as the phase change creates a latent energy dominated system. There is strong evidence to suggest that the thawing of the cryosphere during spring and refreezing during autumn is correlated to local atmospheric conditions such as cloud structure and frequency. Understanding the influence of land surface freeze/thaw cycles on atmospheric structure can help improve our understanding of links between seasonal land surface state and weather and climate, providing insight into associated changes in Earth's water, carbon, and energy cycles that are driven by climate change.Information on both the freeze/thaw states of Earth's land surface and cloud characteristics is derived from data sets collected by NOAA's Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on NASA's Earth Observing System(AMSR-E), NASA's CloudSat, and NASA's SeaWinds-on-QuickSCAT Earth remote sensing satellite instruments. These instruments take advantage of the microwave spectrum to collect an ensemble of atmospheric and land surface data. Our analysis uses data from radars (active instruments which transmit a microwave signal toward Earth and measure the resultant backscatter) and radiometers (passive devices which measure Earth's natural microwave emission) to accurately characterize salient details on Earth's surface

Characteristics of radiation temperature and radiosity coefficient by means of infrared radiometer. Sekigai hoshakei ni yoru zairyo hyomen no hosha tokusei ni tsuite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okamoto, Y; Kaminaga, F [Ibaraki University, Ibaraki (Japan). Faculty of Engineering; Ishii, T; Sato, K [Ibaraki University, Ibaraki (Japan); Kurokawa, T [NEC San-ei Instrumentsu Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1991-12-25

A radiation thermometer was applied to the measurement and analysis of radiation temperature of the material surface. In this paper, the characteristics of the radiation temperature and the radiosity coefficient of gray body materials are investigatied. An infrared radiometer was used, which detects radiation energy in the region between 8 and 13{mu}m of wavelength. This infared radiometer has a Hg-Cd-Te photon radiation sensor. The variation of emissivity was measured for the four kinds of non-metalic materials, i.e., graphite, carbon fiber composite, Si-SiC ceramic, and black paint spread on an aluminum plate. As a result, the relationship between material temperature and radiation energy was made clear. Furthermore, the space-dependent variation of the radiation temperature and the radiosity coefficient was derived from the two-dimensional CRT image of the infrared radiometer. Consequently, the emmisivity variation gave a maximum for the carbon fiber composite surface rich in irregularity, and decreased in the order of graphite, Si-SiC, and black paint. 7 refs., 15 figs.

Experimental verification of self-calibration radiometer based on spontaneous parametric downconversion

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Dongyang; Zheng, Xiaobing; Li, Jianjun; Hu, Youbo; Xia, Maopeng; Salam, Abdul; Zhang, Peng

2018-03-01

Based on spontaneous parametric downconversion process, we propose a novel self-calibration radiometer scheme which can self-calibrate the degradation of its own response and ultimately monitor the fluctuation of a target radiation. Monitor results were independent of its degradation and not linked to the primary standard detector scale. The principle and feasibility of the proposed scheme were verified by observing bromine-tungsten lamp. A relative standard deviation of 0.39 % was obtained for stable bromine-tungsten lamp. Results show that the proposed scheme is advanced of its principle. The proposed scheme could make a significant breakthrough in the self-calibration issue on the space platform.

Global silicate mineralogy of the Moon from the Diviner lunar radiometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenhagen, Benjamin T; Lucey, Paul G; Wyatt, Michael B; Glotch, Timothy D; Allen, Carlton C; Arnold, Jessica A; Bandfield, Joshua L; Bowles, Neil E; Donaldson Hanna, Kerri L; Hayne, Paul O; Song, Eugenie; Thomas, Ian R; Paige, David A

2010-09-17

We obtained direct global measurements of the lunar surface using multispectral thermal emission mapping with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment. Most lunar terrains have spectral signatures that are consistent with known lunar anorthosite and basalt compositions. However, the data have also revealed the presence of highly evolved, silica-rich lunar soils in kilometer-scale and larger exposures, expanded the compositional range of the anorthosites that dominate the lunar crust, and shown that pristine lunar mantle is not exposed at the lunar surface at the kilometer scale. Together, these observations provide compelling evidence that the Moon is a complex body that has experienced a diverse set of igneous processes.

Large area mapping of soil moisture using the ESTAR passive microwave radiometer in Washita'92

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jackson, T.J.; Le Vine, D.M.; Swift, C.T.; Schmugge, T.J.; Schiebe, F.R.

1995-01-01

Washita'92 was a large-scale study of remote sensing and hydrology conducted on the Little Washita watershed in southwest Oklahoma. Data collection during the experiment included passive microwave observations using an L-band electronically scanned thinned array radiometer (ESTAR) and surface soil moisture observations at sites distributed over the area. Data were collected on 8 days over a 9-day period in June 1992. The watershed was saturated with a great deal of standing water at the outset of the study. During the experiment there was no rainfall and surface soil moisture observations exhibited a drydown pattern over the period. Significant variations in the level and rate of change in surface soil moisture were noted over areas dominated by different soil textures. ESTAR data were processed to produce brightness temperature maps of a 740 sq. km. area on each of the 8 days. These data exhibited significant spatial and temporal patterns. Spatial patterns were clearly associated with soil textures and temporal patterns with drainage and evaporative processes. Relationships between the ground sampled soil moisture and the brightness temperatures were consistent with previous results. Spatial averaging of both variables was analyzed to study scaling of soil moisture over a mixed landscape. Results of these studies showed that a strong correlation is retained at these scales, suggesting that mapping surface moisture for large footprints may provide important information for regional studies. (author)

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Snow Cover/Depth (SCD) Snow Fraction Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Snow Cover/Depth Fraction (SCF) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer...

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Snow Cover/Depth (SCD) Binary Map Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Binary Snow Cover (BSC) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite...

A method to calculate Stokes parameters and angle of polarization of skylight from polarized CIMEL sun/sky radiometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, L.; Li, Z.; Li, K.; Blarel, L.; Wendisch, M.

2014-01-01

The polarized CIMEL sun/sky radiometers have been routinely operated within the Sun/sky-radiometer Observation NETwork (SONET) in China and some sites of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) around the world. However, the polarization measurements are not yet widely used due to in a certain degree the lack of Stokes parameters derived directly from these polarization measurements. Meanwhile, it have been shown that retrievals of several microphysical properties of aerosol particles can be significantly improved by using degree of linear polarization (DoLP) measurements of polarized CIMEL sun/sky radiometers (CE318-DP). The Stokes parameters Q and U, as well as angle of polarization (AoP) contain additional information about linear polarization and its orientation. A method to calculate Stokes parameters Q, U, and AoP from CE318-DP polarized skylight measurements is introduced in this study. A new polarized almucantar geometry based on CE318-DP is measured to illustrate abundant variation features of these parameters. The polarization parameters calculated in this study are consistent with previous results of DoLP and I, and also comparable to vector radiative transfer simulations. - Highlights: • The CE318-DP polarized measurements are not yet widely used except DoLP. • Compared with DoLP and I, difficulty in calculating Stokes Q and U is discussed. • A new polarized almucantar observation geometry based on CE318-DP is executed. • We derive Stokes Q, U, and AoP both in principal and almucantar plane geometries. • The results are comparable with previous DoLP and I, as well as model simulations

Production of Y-86 and other radiometals for research purposes using a solution target system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oehlke, Elisabeth; Hoehr, Cornelia; Hou, Xinchi; Hanemaayer, Victoire; Zeisler, Stefan; Adam, Michael J.; Ruth, Thomas J.; Celler, Anna; Buckley, Ken; Benard, Francois; Schaffer, Paul

2015-01-01

Introduction: Diagnostic radiometals are typically obtained from cyclotrons by irradiating solid targets or from radioisotope generators. These methods have the advantage of high production yields, but require additional solid target handling infrastructure that is not readily available to many cyclotron facilities. Herein, we provide an overview of our results regarding the production of various positron-emitting radiometals using a liquid target system installed on a 13 MeV cyclotron at TRIUMF. Details about the production, purification and quality control of 89 Zr, 68 Ga and for the first time 86 Y are discussed. Methods: Aqueous solutions containing 1.35–1.65 g/mL of natural-abundance zinc nitrate, yttrium nitrate, and strontium nitrate were irradiated on a 13 MeV cyclotron using a standard liquid target. Different target body and foil materials were investigated for corrosion. Production yields were calculated using theoretical cross-sections from the EMPIRE code and compared with experimental results. The radioisotopes were extracted from irradiated target material using solid phase extraction methods adapted from previously reported methods, and used for radiolabelling experiments. Results: We demonstrated production quantities that are sufficient for chemical and biological studies for three separate radiometals, 89 Zr (A sat = 360 MBq/μA and yield = 3.17 MBq/μA), 86 Y (A sat = 31 MBq/μA and yield = 1.44 MBq/μA), and 68 Ga (A sat = 141 MBq/μA and yield = 64 MBq/μA) from one hour long irradiations on a typical medical cyclotron. 68 Ga yields were sufficient for potential clinical applications. In order to avoid corrosion of the target body and target foil, nitrate solutions were chosen as well as niobium as target-body material. An automatic loading system enabled up to three production runs per day. The separation efficiency ranged from 82 to 99%. Subsequently, 68 Ga and 86 Y were successfully used to radiolabel DOTA-based chelators while

A linear model to predict with a multi-spectral radiometer the amount of nitrogen in winter wheat

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reyniers, M.; Walvoort, D.J.J.; Baardemaaker, De J.

2006-01-01

The objective was to develop an optimal vegetation index (VIopt) to predict with a multi-spectral radiometer nitrogen in wheat crop (kg[N] ha-1). Optimality means that nitrogen in the crop can be measured accurately in the field during the growing season. It also means that the measurements are

Evaluation of the Delta-T SPN1 radiometer for the measurement of solar irradiance components

Science.gov (United States)

Estelles, Victor; Serrano, David; Segura, Sara; Wood, John; Webb, Nick; Utrillas, Maria Pilar

2016-04-01

In this study we analyse the performance of an SPN1 radiometer built by Delta-T Devices Ltd. to retrieve global solar irradiance at ground and its components (diffuse, direct) in comparison with measurements from two Kipp&Zonen CMP21 radiometers and a Kipp&Zonen CHP1 pirheliometer, mounted on an active Solys-2 suntracker at the Burjassot site (Valencia, Spain) using data acquired every minute during years 2013 - 2015. The measurement site is close to sea level (60 m a.s.l.), near the Mediterranean coast (10 km) and within the metropolitan area of Valencia City (over 1.500.000 inhabitants). The SPN1 is an inexpensive and versatile instrument for the measurement of the three components of the solar radiation without any mobile part and without any need to azimuthally align the instrument to track the sun (http://www.delta-t.co.uk). The three components of the solar radiation are estimated from a combination of measurements performed by 7 different miniature thermopiles. The SPN1 pyranometer measures the irradiance between 400 and 2700 nm, and the nominal uncertainty for the individual readings is about 8% ± 10 W/m2 (5% for the daily averages). The pyranometer Kipp&Zonen CMP21 model is a secondary standard for the measurement of broadband solar global irradiance in horizontal planes. Two ventilated CMP21 are used for the measurement of the global and diffuse irradiances. The expected total daily uncertainty of the radiometer is estimated to be 2%. The pirheliometer Kipp&Zonen CHP1 is designed for the measurement of the direct irradiance. The principles are similar to the CMP21 pyranometer. The results of the comparison show that the global irradiance from the SPN1 compares very well with the CMP21, with absolute RMSD and MBD differences below the combined uncertainties (15 W/m2 and -5.4 W/m2, respectively; relative RMSD of 3.1%). Both datasets are very well correlated, with a correlation coefficient higher than 0.997 and a slope and intercept very close to 1 and 0

Usefulness of the infrared heterodyne radiometer in remote sensing of atmospheric pollutants.

Science.gov (United States)

Menzies, R. T.; Shumate, M. S.

1971-01-01

The application of narrow-band optical receivers to the problem of sensing atmospheric pollution is discussed. The emission/absorption lines of many major atmospheric pollutant molecules overlap the operating frequency bands of CO2 laser and CO laser heterodyne receivers. Several remote pollution sensing systems which are based upon utilization of these spectral overlaps are described, and an analysis of their potential is presented. The possibility of using other lasers (e.g.: the PbSnTe tunable diode laser) as local oscillators is also considered. Results of laboratory experiments with a CO2 laser heterodyne radiometer are presented.

The Planck-LFI Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Herreros, J. M.; Gómez, M. F.; Rebolo, R.; Chulani, H.; Rubiño-Martin, J. A.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Bersanelli, M.; Butler, R. C.; Miccolis, M.; Peña, A.; Pereira, M.; Torrero, F.; Franceschet, C.; López, M.; Alcalá, C.

2009-12-01

The Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly (REBA) is the control and data processing on board computer of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the Planck mission (ESA). The REBA was designed and built incorporating state of the art processors, communication interfaces and real time operating system software in order to meet the scientific performance of the LFI. We present a technical summary of the REBA, including a physical, functional, electrical, mechanical and thermal description. Aspects of the design and development, the assembly, the integration and the verification of the equipment are provided. A brief description of the LFI on board software is given including the Low-Level Software and the main functionalities and architecture of the Application Software. The compressor module, which has been developed as an independent product, later integrated in the application, is also described in this paper. Two identical engineering models EM and AVM, the engineering qualification model EQM, the flight model FM and flight spare have been manufactured and tested. Low-level and Application software have been developed. Verification activities demonstrated that the REBA hardware and software fulfil all the specifications and perform as required for flight operation.

The Planck-LFI Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herreros, J M; Gomez, M F; Rebolo, R; Chulani, H; Rubino-Martin, J A; Hildebrandt, S R; Bersanelli, M; Franceschet, C; Butler, R C; Miccolis, M; Pena, A; Pereira, M; Torrero, F; Lopez, M; Alcala, C

2009-01-01

The Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly (REBA) is the control and data processing on board computer of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the Planck mission (ESA). The REBA was designed and built incorporating state of the art processors, communication interfaces and real time operating system software in order to meet the scientific performance of the LFI. We present a technical summary of the REBA, including a physical, functional, electrical, mechanical and thermal description. Aspects of the design and development, the assembly, the integration and the verification of the equipment are provided. A brief description of the LFI on board software is given including the Low-Level Software and the main functionalities and architecture of the Application Software. The compressor module, which has been developed as an independent product, later integrated in the application, is also described in this paper. Two identical engineering models EM and AVM, the engineering qualification model EQM, the flight model FM and flight spare have been manufactured and tested. Low-level and Application software have been developed. Verification activities demonstrated that the REBA hardware and software fulfil all the specifications and perform as required for flight operation.

The Planck-LFI Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herreros, J M; Gomez, M F; Rebolo, R; Chulani, H; Rubino-Martin, J A; Hildebrandt, S R [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Bersanelli, M; Franceschet, C [Universita di Milano, Dipartamento di Fisica, Via G. Celoria 16, 20133 Milano (Italy); Butler, R C [INAF-IASF Bologna, Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna (Italy); Miccolis, M [Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A., IUEL - Scientific Instruments, S.S. Padana Superiore 290, 20090 Vimodrone (Italy); Pena, A; Pereira, M; Torrero, F; Lopez, M; Alcala, C, E-mail: rrl@iac.e [EADS Astrium CRISA, C/Torres Quevedo, 9, 28760 Tres Cantos (Spain)

2009-12-15

The Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly (REBA) is the control and data processing on board computer of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the Planck mission (ESA). The REBA was designed and built incorporating state of the art processors, communication interfaces and real time operating system software in order to meet the scientific performance of the LFI. We present a technical summary of the REBA, including a physical, functional, electrical, mechanical and thermal description. Aspects of the design and development, the assembly, the integration and the verification of the equipment are provided. A brief description of the LFI on board software is given including the Low-Level Software and the main functionalities and architecture of the Application Software. The compressor module, which has been developed as an independent product, later integrated in the application, is also described in this paper. Two identical engineering models EM and AVM, the engineering qualification model EQM, the flight model FM and flight spare have been manufactured and tested. Low-level and Application software have been developed. Verification activities demonstrated that the REBA hardware and software fulfil all the specifications and perform as required for flight operation.

Assessing the beginning to end-of-mission sensitivity change of the PREcision MOnitor Sensor total solar irradiance radiometer (PREMOS/PICARD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ball William T.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The switching of the total solar irradiance (TSI backup radiometer (PREMOS-B to a primary role for 2 weeks at the end of the PICARD mission provides a unique opportunity to test the fundamental hypothesis of radiometer experiments in space, which is that the sensitivity change of instruments due to the space environment is identical for the same instrument type as a function of solar-exposure time of the instruments. We verify this hypothesis for the PREMOS TSI radiometers within the PREMOS experiment on the PICARD mission. We confirm that the sensitivity change of the backup instrument, PREMOS-B, is similar to that of the identically-constructed primary radiometer, PREMOS-A. The extended exposure of the backup instrument at the end of the mission allows for the assessment, with an uncertainty estimate, of the sensitivity change of the primary radiometer from the beginning of the PICARD mission compared to the end, and of the degradation of the backup over the mission. We correct six sets of PREMOS-B observations connecting October 2011 with February 2014, using six ratios from simultaneous PREMOS-A and PREMOS-B exposures during the first days of PREMOS-A operation in 2010. These ratios are then used, without indirect estimates or assumptions, to evaluate the stability of SORCE/TIM and SOHO/VIRGO TSI measurements, which have both operated for more than a decade and now show different trends over the time span of the PICARD mission, namely from 2010 to 2014. We find that by February 2014 relative to October 2011 PREMOS-B supports the SORCE/TIM TSI time evolution, which in May 2014 relative to October 2011 is ~0.11 W m−2, or ~84 ppm, higher than SOHO/VIRGO. Such a divergence between SORCE/TIM and SOHO/VIRGO over this period is a significant fraction of the estimated decline of 0.2 W m−2 between the solar minima of 1996 and 2008, and questions the reliability of that estimated trend. Extrapolating the uncertainty indicated by the

Absolute intensity calibration of the 32-channel heterodyne radiometer on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, X.; Zhao, H. L.; Liu, Y., E-mail: liuyong@ipp.ac.cn; Li, E. Z.; Han, X.; Ti, A.; Hu, L. Q.; Zhang, X. D. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031 (China); Domier, C. W.; Luhmann, N. C. [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616 (United States)

2014-09-15

This paper presents the results of the in situ absolute intensity calibration for the 32-channel heterodyne radiometer on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak. The hot/cold load method is adopted, and the coherent averaging technique is employed to improve the signal to noise ratio. Measured spectra and electron temperature profiles are compared with those from an independent calibrated Michelson interferometer, and there is a relatively good agreement between the results from the two different systems.

Results from the Fourth WMO Filter Radiometer Comparison for aerosol optical depth measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Kazadzis, Stelios; Kouremeti, Natalia; Diémoz, Henri; Gröbner, Julian; Forgan, Bruce W.; Campanelli, Monica; Estellés, Victor; Lantz, Kathleen; Michalsky, Joseph; Carlund, Thomas; Cuevas, Emilio; Toledano, Carlos; Becker, Ralf; Nyeki, Stephan; Kosmopoulos, Panagiotis G.; Tatsiankou, Viktar; Vuilleumier, Laurent; Denn, Frederick M.; Ohkawara, Nozomu; Ijima, Osamu; Goloub, Philippe; Raptis, Panagiotis I.; Milner, Michael; Behrens, Klaus; Barreto, Africa; Martucci, Giovanni; Hall, Emiel; Wendell, James; Fabbri, Bryan E.; Wehrli, Christoph

2018-03-01

This study presents the results of the Fourth Filter Radiometer Comparison that was held in Davos, Switzerland, between 28 September and 16 October 2015. Thirty filter radiometers and spectroradiometers from 12 countries participated including reference instruments from global aerosol networks. The absolute differences of all instruments compared to the reference have been based on the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) criterion defined as follows: 95% of the measured data has to be within 0.005 ± 0.001/m (where m is the air mass). At least 24 out of 29 instruments achieved this goal at both 500 and 865 nm, while 12 out of 17 and 13 out of 21 achieved this at 368 and 412 nm, respectively. While searching for sources of differences among different instruments, it was found that all individual differences linked to Rayleigh, NO2, ozone, water vapor calculations and related optical depths and air mass calculations were smaller than 0.01 in aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 and 865 nm. Different cloud-detecting algorithms used have been compared. Ångström exponent calculations showed relatively large differences among different instruments, partly because of the high calculation uncertainty of this parameter in low AOD conditions. The overall low deviations of these AOD results and the high accuracy of reference aerosol network instruments demonstrated a promising framework to achieve homogeneity, compatibility and harmonization among the different spectral AOD networks in the near future.

Testing Snow Melt Algorithms in High Relief Topography Using Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Brightness Temperatures, Hunza River Basin, Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Ramage, J. M.; Brodzik, M. J.; Hardman, M.; Troy, T. J.

2017-12-01

Snow is a vital part of the terrestrial hydrological cycle, a crucial resource for people and ecosystems. In mountainous regions snow is extensive, variable, and challenging to document. Snow melt timing and duration are important factors affecting the transfer of snow mass to soil moisture and runoff. Passive microwave brightness temperature (Tb) changes at 36 and 18 GHz are a sensitive way to detect snow melt onset due to their sensitivity to the abrupt change in emissivity. They are widely used on large icefields and high latitude watersheds. The coarse resolution ( 25 km) of historically available data has precluded effective use in high relief, heterogeneous regions, and gaps between swaths also create temporal data gaps at lower latitudes. New enhanced resolution data products generated from a scatterometer image reconstruction for radiometer (rSIR) technique are available at the original frequencies. We use these Calibrated Enhanced-resolution Brightness (CETB) Temperatures Earth System Data Records (ESDR) to evaluate existing snow melt detection algorithms that have been used in other environments, including the cross polarized gradient ratio (XPGR) and the diurnal amplitude variations (DAV) approaches. We use the 36/37 GHz (3.125 km resolution) and 18/19 GHz (6.25 km resolution) vertically and horizontally polarized datasets from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and evaluate them for use in this high relief environment. The new data are used to assess glacier and snow melt records in the Hunza River Basin [area 13,000 sq. km, located at 36N, 74E], a tributary to the Upper Indus Basin, Pakistan. We compare the melt timing results visually and quantitatively to the corresponding EASE-Grid 2.0 25-km dataset, SRTM topography, and surface temperatures from station and reanalysis data. The new dataset is coarser than the topography, but is able to differentiate signals of melt/refreeze timing for

Assessment of stability of the response versus scan angle for the S-NPP VIIRS reflective solar bands using pseudo-invariant desert and Dome C sites

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Aisheng; Xiong, Xiaoxiong J.; Cao, Changyong

2017-09-01

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite has been in operation for over five years. VIIRS has 22 bands with a spectral range from 0.4 μm to 2.2 μm for the reflective solar bands (RSB). The Earth view swath covers a distance of 3000 km over scan angles of +/- 56.0° off nadir. The on-board calibration of the RSB relies on a solar diffuser (SD) located at a fixed scan angle and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). The response versus scan angle (RVS) was characterized prelaunch in ambient conditions and is currently used to determine the on-orbit response for all scan angles relative to the SD scan angle. Since the RVS is vitally important to the quality of calibrated level 1B products, it is important to monitor its on-orbit stability, particularly at the short wavelengths (blue) where the most degradation occurs. In this study, the RVS stability is examined based on reflectance trends collected at various scan angles over the selected pseudo-invariant desert sites in Northern Africa and the Dome C snow site in Antarctica. These trends are corrected by the site dependent BRDF (bi-directional reflectance function) model to reduce seasonally related fluctuations. The BRDF corrected trends are examined so any systematic drifts in the scan angle direction would indicate a potential change in RVS. The results of this study provide useful information on VIIRS RVS on-orbit stability performance.

Application of microwave radiometer and wind profiler data in the estimation of wind gust associated with intense convective weather

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, P W; Wong, K H

2008-01-01

Estimates of the wind gusts associated with intense convective weather could be obtained using empirical relationships such as GUSTEX based on radiosonde measurements. However, such data are only available a couple of times a day and may not reflect the rapidly changing atmospheric condition in spring and summer times. The feasibility of combining the thermodynamic profiles from a ground-based microwave radiometer and wind profiles given by radar wind profilers in the continuous estimation of wind gusts is studied in this paper. Based on the results of a 4-month trial of a microwave radiometer in Hong Kong in 2004, the estimated and the actual gusts are reasonably well correlated. It is also found that the wind gusts so estimated provide better indications of the strength of squalls compared with those based on radiosonde measurements and with a lead time of about one hour

Early snowmelt events: detection, distribution, and significance in a major sub-arctic watershed

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Semmens, Kathryn Alese; Ramage, Joan; Bartsch, Annett; Liston, Glen E

2013-01-01

High latitude drainage basins are experiencing higher average temperatures, earlier snowmelt onset in spring, and an increase in rain on snow (ROS) events in winter, trends that climate models project into the future. Snowmelt-dominated basins are most sensitive to winter temperature increases that influence the frequency of ROS events and the timing and duration of snowmelt, resulting in changes to spring runoff. Of specific interest in this study are early melt events that occur in late winter preceding melt onset in the spring. The study focuses on satellite determination and characterization of these early melt events using the Yukon River Basin (Canada/USA) as a test domain. The timing of these events was estimated using data from passive (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer—EOS (AMSR-E)) and active (SeaWinds on Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT)) microwave remote sensors, employing detection algorithms for brightness temperature (AMSR-E) and radar backscatter (QuikSCAT). The satellite detected events were validated with ground station meteorological and hydrological data, and the spatial and temporal variability of the events across the entire river basin was characterized. Possible causative factors for the detected events, including ROS, fog, and positive air temperatures, were determined by comparing the timing of the events to parameters from SnowModel and National Centers for Environmental Prediction North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) outputs, and weather station data. All melt events coincided with above freezing temperatures, while a limited number corresponded to ROS (determined from SnowModel and ground data) and a majority to fog occurrence (determined from NARR). The results underscore the significant influence that warm air intrusions have on melt in some areas and demonstrate the large temporal and spatial variability over years and regions. The study provides a method for melt detection and a baseline from which to assess future change

In-situ Microwave Brightness Temperature Variability from Ground-based Radiometer Measurements at Dome C in Antarctica Induced by Wind-formed Features

Science.gov (United States)

Royer, A.; Picard, G.; Arnaud, L.; Brucker, L.; Fily, M..

2014-01-01

Space-borne microwave radiometers are among the most useful tools to study snow and to collect information on the Antarctic climate. They have several advantages over other remote sensing techniques: high sensitivity to snow properties of interest (temperature, grain size, density), subdaily coverage in the polar regions, and their observations are independent of cloud conditions and solar illumination. Thus, microwave radiometers are widely used to retrieve information over snow-covered regions. For the Antarctic Plateau, many studies presenting retrieval algorithms or numerical simulations have assumed, explicitly or not, that the subpixel-scale heterogeneity is negligible and that the retrieved properties were representative of whole pixels. In this presentation, we investigate the spatial variations of brightness temperature over arange of a few kilometers in the Dome C area (Antarctic Plateau).

Total ozone retrieval from satellite multichannel filter radiometer measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lovill, J.E.; Sullivan, T.J.; Weichel, R.L.; Ellis, J.S.; Huebel, J.G.; Korver, J.; Weidhaas, P.P.; Phelps, F.A.

1978-01-01

A total ozone retrieval model has been developed to process radiance data gathered by a satellite-mounted multichannel filter radiometer (MFR). Extensive effort went into theoretical radiative transfer modeling, a retrieval scheme was developed, and the technique was applied to the MFR radiance measurements. The high quality of the total ozone retrieval results was determined through comparisons with Dobson measurements. Included in the report are global total ozone maps for 20 days between May 12 and July 5, 1977. A comparison of MFR results for 13 days in June 1977 with Dobson spectrophotometer measurements of ozone for the same period showed good agreement: there was a root-mean-square difference of 6.2% (equivalent to 20.2 m.atm.cm). The estimated global total ozone value for June 1977 (296 m.atm.cm) was in good agreement with satellite backscatter ultraviolet data for June 1970 (304 m.atm.cm) and June 1971

ERS-1 experimental payload package

Science.gov (United States)

Reynolds, M. L.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.

1982-09-01

Proposals were received in response to an Announcement of Opportunity in April 1981. The proposals received were evaluated by two independent panels: a science panel appointed by the Earth Observation Advisory Committee and an Agency-internal technical panel. The five proposals that met all the evaluation criteria were the imaging lightning flash detector, the along-track scanning radiometer (ATSR), the precise range and range rate equipment (PRARE), the tropospheric and stratospheric wind and composition investigation, and the conical scan radiometer. The scientific evaluation panel preferred two alternative combinations: the PRARE with, if possible, a redefined and down-graded mini-imaging microwave radiometer, and the PRARE with the ASTR and, if possible, a nadir looking microwave sounder to provide water vapor correction in all-weather conditions.

SMEX04 Aircraft Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR) Data, Arizona

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or...

CIRiS: Compact Infrared Radiometer in Space

Science.gov (United States)

Osterman, D. P.; Collins, S.; Ferguson, J.; Good, W.; Kampe, T.; Rohrschneider, R.; Warden, R.

2016-09-01

The Compact Infrared Radiometer in Space (CIRiS) is a thermal infrared radiometric imaging instrument under development by Ball Aerospace for a Low Earth Orbit mission on a CubeSat spacecraft. Funded by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office's In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technology (InVEST) program, the mission objective is technology demonstration for improved on-orbit radiometric calibration. The CIRiS calibration approach uses a scene select mirror to direct three calibration views to the focal plane array and to transfer the resulting calibrated response to earth images. The views to deep space and two blackbody sources, including one at a selectable temperature, provide multiple options for calibration optimization. Two new technologies, carbon nanotube blackbody sources and microbolometer focal plane arrays with reduced pixel sizes, enable improved radiometric performance within the constrained 6U CubeSat volume. The CIRiS instrument's modular design facilitates subsystem modifications as required by future mission requirements. CubeSat constellations of CIRiS and derivative instruments offer an affordable approach to achieving revisit times as short as one day for diverse applications including water resource and drought management, cloud, aerosol, and dust studies, and land use and vegetation monitoring. Launch is planned for 2018.

An Airborne Campaign Measuring Wind Signatures from the Sea Surface using an L-band Polarimetric Radiometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl; Skou, Niels

2003-01-01

A series of circle flights have been carried out over the sea surface, using the EMIRAD L-band polarimetric radiometer. Motion compensation is applied, and polarimetric azimuth signatures are generated. Single tracks show geophysical noise, typically about 2 K, but averaging decreases the noise, ......, but a comparison of the signature to the downwelling galactic background radiation indicates, that the signature may not origin from the wind driven sea surface pattern....

GHRSST Level 2P Gridded Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from WindSat polarimetric radiometer on the Coriolis satellite (GDS version 1)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains sea surface temperature derived from observations made by the WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)...

Progress report of FY 1999 activities: The application of Kalman filtering to derive water vapor profiles from combined ground-based sensors: Raman lidar, microwave radiometers, GPS, and radiosondes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edgeworth R. Westwater; Yong Han

1999-01-01

Previously, the proposers have delivered to ARM a documented algorithm, that is now applied operationally, and which derives water vapor profiles from combined remote sensor measurements of water vapor radiometers, cloud-base ceilometers, and radio acoustic sounding systems (RASS). With the expanded deployment of a Raman lidar at the CART Central Facility, high quality, high vertical-resolution, water vapor profiles will be provided during nighttime clear conditions, and during clear daytime conditions, to somewhat lower altitudes. The object of this effort is to use Kalman Filtering, previously applied to the combination of nighttime Raman lidar and microwave radiometer data, to derive high-quality water vapor profiles, during non-precipitating conditions, from data routinely available at the CART site. Input data to the algorithm would include: Raman lidar data, highly quality-controlled data of integrated moisture from microwave radiometers and GPS, RASS, and radiosondes. While analyzing data obtained during the Water Vapor Intensive Operating Period'97 at the SGP CART site in central Oklahoma, several questions arose about the calibration of the ARM microwave radiometers (MWR). A large portion of this years effort was a thorough analysis of the many factors that are important for the calibration of this instrument through the tip calibration method and the development of algorithms to correct this procedure. An open literature publication describing this analysis has been accepted

1D-Var temperature retrievals from microwave radiometer and convective scale model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pauline Martinet

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the potential of ground-based microwave radiometers (MWR for providing accurate temperature retrievals by combining convective scale numerical models and brightness temperatures (BTs. A one-dimensional variational (1D-Var retrieval technique has been tested to optimally combine MWR and 3-h forecasts from the French convective scale model AROME. A microwave profiler HATPRO (Humidity and Temperature PROfiler was operated during 6 months at the meteorological station of Bordeaux (Météo France. MWR BTs were monitored against simulations from the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator 2 radiative transfer model. An overall good agreement was found between observations and simulations for opaque V-band channels but large errors were observed for channels the most affected by liquid water and water vapour emissions (51.26 and 52.28 GHz. 1D-Var temperature retrievals are performed in clear-sky and cloudy conditions using a screening procedure based on cloud base height retrieval from ceilometer observations, infrared radiometer temperature and liquid water path derived from the MWR observations. The 1D-Var retrievals were found to improve the AROME forecasts up to 2 km with a maximum gain of approximately 50 % in root-mean-square-errors (RMSE below 500 m. They were also found to outperform neural network retrievals. A static bias correction was proposed to account for systematic instrumental errors. This correction was found to have a negligible impact on the 1D-Var retrievals. The use of low elevation angles improves the retrievals up to 12 % in RMSE in cloudy-sky in the first layers. The present implementation achieved a RMSE with respect to radiosondes within 1 K in clear-sky and 1.3 K in cloudy-sky conditions for temperature.

Development of electronics and data acquisition system for independent calibration of electron cyclotron emission radiometer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kumari, Praveena, E-mail: praveena@ipr.res.in; Raulji, Vismaysinh; Mandaliya, Hitesh; Patel, Jignesh; Siju, Varsha; Pathak, S.K.; Rajpal, Rachana; Jha, R.

2016-11-15

Highlights: • Indigenous development of an electronics and data acquisition system to digitize signals for a desired time and automatization of calibration process. • 16 bit DAQ board with form factor of 90 × 89 mm. • VHDL Codes written for generating control signals for PC104 Bus, ADC and RAM. • Averaging process is done in two ways single point averaging and additive averaging. - Abstract: Signal conditioning units (SCU) along with Multichannel Data acquisition system (DAS) are developed and installed for automatization and frequent requirement of absolute calibration of ECE radiometer system. The DAS is an indigenously developed economical system which is based on Single Board Computer (SBC). The onboard RAM memory of 64 K for each channel enables the DAS for simultaneous and continuous acquisition. A Labview based graphical user interface provides commands locally or remotely to acquire, process, plot and finally save the data in binary format. The microscopic signals received from radiometer are strengthened, filtered by SCU and acquired through DAS for the set time and at set sampling frequency. Stored data are processed and analyzed offline with Labview utility. The calibration process has been performed for two hours continuously at different sampling frequency (100 Hz to 1 KHz) at two set of temperature like hot body and the room temperature. The detailed hardware and software design and testing results are explained in the paper.

An Optimal Beamforming Algorithm for Phased-Array Antennas Used in Multi-Beam Spaceborne Radiometers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iupikov, O. A.; Ivashina, M. V.; Pontoppidan, K.

2015-01-01

Strict requirements for future spaceborne ocean missions using multi-beam radiometers call for new antenna technologies, such as digital beamforming phased arrays. In this paper, we present an optimal beamforming algorithm for phased-array antenna systems designed to operate as focal plane arrays...... to a FPA feeding a torus reflector antenna (designed under the contract with the European Space Agency) and tested for multiple beams. The results demonstrate an improved performance in terms of the optimized beam characteristics, yielding much higher spatial and radiometric resolution as well as much...

GHRSST Level 3U Global Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from the WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer on the Coriolis satellite (GDS version 2)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The WindSat Polarimetric Radiometer, launched on January 6, 2003 aboard the Department of Defense Coriolis satellite, was designed to measure the ocean surface wind...

Status of the Multi-Angle SpectroRadiometer Instrument for EOS- AM1 and Its Application to Remote Sensing of Aerosols

Science.gov (United States)

Diner, D. J.; Abdou, W. A.; Bruegge, C. J.; Conel, J. E.; Kahn, R. A.; Martonchik, J. V.; Paradise, S. R.; West, R. A.

1995-01-01

The Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) is being developed at JPL for the AM1 spacecraft in the Earth Observing System (EOS) series. This paper reports on the progress of instrument fabrication and testing, and it discusses the strategy to use the instrument for studying tropospheric aerosols.

Evaluation of the new ESR network software for the retrieval of direct sun products from CIMEL CE318 and PREDE POM01 sun-sky radiometers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Estellés

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The European Skynet Radiometers network (EuroSkyRad or ESR has been recently established as a research network of European PREDE sun-sky radiometers. Moreover, ESR is federated with SKYNET, an international network of PREDE sun-sky radiometers mostly present in East Asia. In contrast to SKYNET, the European network also integrates users of the CIMEL CE318 sky–sun photometer. Keeping instrumental duality in mind, a set of open source algorithms has been developed consisting of two modules for (1 the retrieval of direct sun products (aerosol optical depth, wavelength exponent and water vapor from the sun extinction measurements; and (2 the inversion of the sky radiance to derive other aerosol optical properties such as size distribution, single scattering albedo or refractive index. In this study we evaluate the ESR direct sun products in comparison with the AERosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET products. Specifically, we have applied the ESR algorithm to a CIMEL CE318 and PREDE POM simultaneously for a 4-yr database measured at the Burjassot site (Valencia, Spain, and compared the resultant products with the AERONET direct sun measurements obtained with the same CIMEL CE318 sky–sun photometer. The comparison shows that aerosol optical depth differences are mostly within the nominal uncertainty of 0.003 for a standard calibration instrument, and fall within the nominal AERONET uncertainty of 0.01–0.02 for a field instrument in the spectral range 340 to 1020 nm. In the cases of the Ångström exponent and the columnar water vapor, the differences are lower than 0.02 and 0.15 cm, respectively. Therefore, we present an open source code program that can be used with both CIMEL and PREDE sky radiometers and whose results are equivalent to AERONET and SKYNET retrievals.

4STAR Sky-Scanning Retrievals of Aerosol Intensive Optical Properties from Multiple Field Campaigns with Detailed Comparisons of SSA Reported During SEAC4RS

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, Connor; Dahlgren, R. P.; Dunagan, S.; Johnson, R.; Kacenelenbogen, M.; LeBlanc, S.; Livingston, J.; Redemann, J.; Schmid, B.; Segal Rozenhaimer, M.;

Global retrieval of soil moisture and vegetation properties using data-driven methods

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Fernandez, Nemesio; Richaume, Philippe; Kerr, Yann

2017-04-01

Data-driven methods such as neural networks (NNs) are a powerful tool to retrieve soil moisture from multi-wavelength remote sensing observations at global scale. In this presentation we will review a number of recent results regarding the retrieval of soil moisture with the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, either using SMOS brightness temperatures as input data for the retrieval or using SMOS soil moisture retrievals as reference dataset for the training. The presentation will discuss several possibilities for both the input datasets and the datasets to be used as reference for the supervised learning phase. Regarding the input datasets, it will be shown that NNs take advantage of the synergy of SMOS data and data from other sensors such as the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT, active microwaves) and MODIS (visible and infra red). NNs have also been successfully used to construct long time series of soil moisture from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and SMOS. A NN with input data from ASMR-E observations and SMOS soil moisture as reference for the training was used to construct a dataset sharing a similar climatology and without a significant bias with respect to SMOS soil moisture. Regarding the reference data to train the data-driven retrievals, we will show different possibilities depending on the application. Using actual in situ measurements is challenging at global scale due to the scarce distribution of sensors. In contrast, in situ measurements have been successfully used to retrieve SM at continental scale in North America, where the density of in situ measurement stations is high. Using global land surface models to train the NN constitute an interesting alternative to implement new remote sensing surface datasets. In addition, these datasets can be used to perform data assimilation into the model used as reference for the training. This approach has recently been tested at the European Centre

Soil moisture modelling of a SMOS pixel: interest of using the PERSIANN database over the Valencia Anchor Station

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Juglea

2010-08-01

Microwave Scanning Radiometer on Earth observing System (AMSR-E. We show that the PERSIANN database provides useful information at temporal and spatial scales in the context of soil moisture retrieval.



¹Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Cloud Classification System – http://chrs.web.uci.edu/persiann

Sua Pan surface bidirectional reflectance: a validation experiment of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) during SAFARI 2000

Science.gov (United States)

Abdou, Wedad A.; Pilorz, Stuart H.; Helmlinger, Mark C.; Diner, David J.; Conel, James E.; Martonchik, John V.; Gatebe, Charles K.; King, Michael D.; Hobbs, Peter V.

2004-01-01

The Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) dray deason campaign was carried out during August and September 2000 at the peak of biomass burning. The intensive ground-based and airborne measurements in this campaign provided a unique opportunity to validate space sensors, such as the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), onboard NASA's EOS Terra platform.

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and Aerosol Particle Size Parameter (APSP) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer...

Sentinel-3 MWR Microwave Radiometer – Our contribution to the success of the Copernicus programme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.A. Palacios

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The MWR builds, together with the SRAL altimeter, the S3 topography mission. The MWR, developed by EADS CASA Espacio as prime contractor, provides information for tropospheric path correction of SRAL measurements. MWR data can also be used for determining surface emissivity and soil moisture over land, surface energy budget investigations and ice characterization. The MWR instrument is a Noise Injection Radiometer (NIR, working at two frequencies (23.8/36.5 GHz, embarking a dual frequency horn antenna pointing to the cold sky for embedded autonomous calibration.

Construction of a radiometer for pyroelectric detector and presentation of a model for detector design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siqueira, C.A. de.

1987-01-01

An expression has been developed for the pyroelectric voltage as a function of electric and thermal parameters of the detector. It has also been developed expressions for determination of unknown parameters from the experimentally obtained pyroelectric voltage curve as function of time and some other known information. It has also been shown figures of merit for characterization of the detectors, a study showing the detector performance dependence on each electric and thermal parameter and some illustrative experimental results. The radiometer designed and built for this work, is described. (author) [pt

A New Ka-Band Scanning Radar Facility: Polarimetric and Doppler Spectra Measurements of Snow Events

Science.gov (United States)

Oue, M.; Kollias, P.; Luke, E. P.; Mead, J.

2017-12-01

Polarimetric radar analyses offer the capability of identification of ice hydrometeor species as well as their spatial distributions. In addition to polarimetric parameter observations, Doppler spectra measurements offer unique insights into ice particle properties according to particle fall velocities. In particular, millimeter-wavelength radar Doppler spectra can reveal supercooled liquid cloud droplets embedded in ice precipitation clouds. A Ka-band scanning polarimetric radar, named KASPR, was installed in an observation facility at Stony Brook University, located 22 km west of the KOKX NEXRAD radar at Upton, NY. The KASPR can measure Doppler spectra and full polarimetric variables, including radar reflectivity, differential reflectivity (ZDR), differential phase (φDP), specific differential phase (KDP), correlation coefficient (ρhv), and linear depolarization ratio (LDR). The facility also includes a micro-rain radar and a microwave radiometer capable of measuring reflectivity profiles and integrated liquid water path, respectively. The instruments collected initial datasets during two snowstorm events and two snow shower events in March 2017. The radar scan strategy was a combination of PPI scans at 4 elevation angles (10, 20, 45, and 60°) and RHI scans in polarimetry mode, and zenith pointing with Doppler spectra collection. During the snowstorm events the radar observed relatively larger ZDR (1-1.5 dB) and enhanced KDP (1-2 ° km-1) at heights corresponding to a plate/dendrite crystal growth regime. The Doppler spectra showed that slower-falling particles ( 1 m s-1). The weakly increased ZDR could be produced by large, faster falling particles such as quasi-spherical aggregates, while the enhanced KDP could be produced by highly-oriented oblate, slowly-falling particles. Below 2 km altitude, measurements of dual wavelength ratio (DWR) based on Ka and S-band reflectivities from the KASPR and NEXRAD radars were available. Larger DWR (>10 dB) suggested

NOAA-9 Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) scanner offsets determination

Science.gov (United States)

Avis, Lee M.; Paden, Jack; Lee, Robert B., III; Pandey, Dhirendra K.; Stassi, Joseph C.; Wilson, Robert S.; Tolson, Carol J.; Bolden, William C.

1994-01-01

The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) instruments are designed to measure the components of the radiative exchange between the Sun, Earth and space. ERBE is comprised of three spacecraft, each carrying a nearly identical set of radiometers: a three-channel narrow-field-of-view scanner, a two-channel wide-field-of-view (limb-to-limb) non-scanning radiometer, a two-channel medium field-of view (1000 km) non-scanning radiometer, and a solar monitor. Ground testing showed the scanners to be susceptible to self-generated and externally generated electromagnetic noise. This paper describes the pre-launch corrective measures taken and the post-launch corrections to the NOAA-9 scanner data. The NOAA-9 scanner has met the mission objectives in accuracy and precision, in part because of the pre-launch reductions of and post-launch data corrections for the electromagnetic noise.

Diviner lunar radiometer observations of cold traps in the moon's south polar region

Science.gov (United States)

Paige, D.A.; Siegler, M.A.; Zhang, J.A.; Hayne, P.O.; Foote, E.J.; Bennett, K.A.; Vasavada, A.R.; Greenhagen, B.T.; Schofield, J.T.; McCleese, D.J.; Foote, M.C.; DeJong, E.; Bills, B.G.; Hartford, W.; Murray, B.C.; Allen, C.C.; Snook, K.; Soderblom, L.A.; Calcutt, S.; Taylor, F.W.; Bowles, N.E.; Bandfield, J.L.; Elphic, R.; Ghent, R.; Glotch, T.D.; Wyatt, M.B.; Lucey, P.G.

2010-01-01

Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment surface-temperature maps reveal the existence of widespread surface and near-surface cryogenic regions that extend beyond the boundaries of persistent shadow. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) struck one of the coldest of these regions, where subsurface temperatures are estimated to be 38 kelvin. Large areas of the lunar polar regions are currently cold enough to cold-trap water ice as well as a range of both more volatile and less volatile species. The diverse mixture of water and high-volatility compounds detected in the LCROSS ejecta plume is strong evidence for the impact delivery and cold-trapping of volatiles derived from primitive outer solar system bodies.

Leveraging GeoTIFF Compatibility for Visualizing a New EASE-Grid 2.0 Global Satellite Passive Microwave Climate Record

Science.gov (United States)

Paget, A. C.; Brodzik, M. J.; Long, D. G.; Hardman, M.

2016-02-01

The historical record of satellite-derived passive microwave brightness temperatures comprises data from multiple imaging radiometers (SMMR, SSM/I-SSMIS, AMSR-E), spanning nearly 40 years of Earth observations from 1978 to the present. Passive microwave data are used to monitor time series of many climatological variables, including ocean wind speeds, cloud liquid water and sea ice concentrations and ice velocity. Gridded versions of passive microwave data have been produced using various map projections (polar stereographic, Lambert azimuthal equal-area, cylindrical equal-area, quarter-degree Platte-Carree) and data formats (flat binary, HDF). However, none of the currently available versions can be rendered in the common visualization standard, geoTIFF, without requiring cartographic reprojection. Furthermore, the reprojection details are complicated and often require expert knowledge of obscure software package options. We are producing a consistently calibrated, completely reprocessed data set of this valuable multi-sensor satellite record, using EASE-Grid 2.0, an improved equal-area projection definition that will require no reprojection for translation into geoTIFF. Our approach has been twofold: 1) define the projection ellipsoid to match the reference datum of the satellite data, and 2) include required file-level metadata for standard projection software to correctly render the data in the geoTIFF standard. The Calibrated, Enhanced Resolution Brightness Temperature (CETB) Earth System Data Record (ESDR), leverages image reconstruction techniques to enhance gridded spatial resolution to 3 km and uses newly available intersensor calibrations to improve the quality of derived geophysical products. We expect that our attention to easy geoTIFF compatibility will foster higher-quality analysis with the CETB product by enabling easy and correct intercomparison with other gridded and in situ data.

An interchangeable scanning Hall probe/scanning SQUID microscope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, Chiu-Chun; Lin, Hui-Ting; Wu, Sing-Lin; Chen, Tse-Jun; Wang, M. J.; Ling, D. C.; Chi, C. C.; Chen, Jeng-Chung

2014-01-01

We have constructed a scanning probe microscope for magnetic imaging, which can function as a scanning Hall probe microscope (SHPM) and as a scanning SQUID microscope (SSM). The scanning scheme, applicable to SHPM and SSM, consists of a mechanical positioning (sub) micron-XY stage and a flexible direct contact to the sample without a feedback control system for the Z-axis. With the interchangeable capability of operating two distinct scanning modes, our microscope can incorporate the advantageous functionalities of the SHPM and SSM with large scan range up to millimeter, high spatial resolution (⩽4 μm), and high field sensitivity in a wide range of temperature (4.2 K-300 K) and magnetic field (10 −7 T-1 T). To demonstrate the capabilities of the system, we present magnetic images scanned with SHPM and SSM, including a RbFeB magnet and a nickel grid pattern at room temperature, surface magnetic domain structures of a La 2/3 Ca 1/3 MnO 3 thin film at 77 K, and superconducting vortices in a striped niobium film at 4.2 K

Characterization of a Compact Water Vapor Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Ajay; Selina, Rob

2018-01-01

We report on laboratory test results of the Compact Water Vapor Radiometer (CWVR) prototype for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), a five-channel design centered around the 22 GHz water vapor line. Fluctuations in perceptible water vapor cause fluctuations in atmospheric brightness emission, which are assumed to be proportional to phase fluctuations of the astronomical signal seen by an antenna. The design is intended to support empirical radiometric phase corrections for each baseline in the array.The dynamic range, channel isolation, and gain stability of the device were characterized. The device has a useful dynamic range of order 18 dB after calibration, and the CWVR channel isolation requirement of test, the diode detectors were operated in the square-law region, and a K-band noise diode was used as the broadband input power source to the CWVR over a period of 64 hours. Results indicate that the fluctuations in output counts are negatively correlated to the CWVR enclosure ambient temperature, with a change of ~ 405 counts per 1° C change in temperature.A correction for the CWVR ambient temperature makes a considerable improvement in stability for τ > 102.6 sec. With temperature corrections, the single channel and channel difference gain stability per channel is test results indicate that the CWVR meets required specifications for dynamic range, channel isolation, and gain stability in order to proceed with testing on a pair of VLA antennas.

Greenhouse Gas Concentration Data Recovery Algorithm for a Low Cost, Laser Heterodyne Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, J. H.; Melroy, H.; Ott, L.; McLinden, M. L.; Holben, B. N.; Wilson, E. L.

2012-12-01

The goal of a coordinated effort between groups at GWU and NASA GSFC is the development of a low-cost, global, surface instrument network that continuously monitors three key carbon cycle gases in the atmospheric column: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), as well as oxygen (O2) for atmospheric pressure profiles. The network will implement a low-cost, miniaturized, laser heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR) that has recently been developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This mini-LHR is designed to operate in tandem with the passive aerosol sensor currently used in AERONET (a well established network of more than 450 ground aerosol monitoring instruments worldwide), and could be rapidly deployed into this established global network. Laser heterodyne radiometry is a well-established technique for detecting weak signals that was adapted from radio receiver technology. Here, a weak light signal, that has undergone absorption by atmospheric components, is mixed with light from a distributed feedback (DFB) telecommunications laser on a single-mode optical fiber. The RF component of the signal is detected on a fast photoreceiver. Scanning the laser through an absorption feature in the infrared, results in a scanned heterodyne signal in the RF. Deconvolution of this signal through the retrieval algorithm allows for the extraction of altitude contributions to the column signal. The retrieval algorithm is based on a spectral simulation program, SpecSyn, developed at GWU for high-resolution infrared spectroscopies. Variations in pressure, temperature, composition, and refractive index through the atmosphere; that are all functions of latitude, longitude, time of day, altitude, etc.; are modeled using algorithms developed in the MODTRAN program developed in part by the US Air Force Research Laboratory. In these calculations the atmosphere is modeled as a series of spherically symmetric shells with boundaries specified at defined altitudes. Temperature

Greenhouse Gas Concentration Data Recovery Algorithm for a Low Cost, Laser Heterodyne Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, J. Houston; Melroy, Hilary R.; Ott, Lesley E.; Mclinden, Matthew L.; Holben, Brent; Wilson, Emily L.

2012-01-01

The goal of a coordinated effort between groups at GWU and NASA GSFC is the development of a low-cost, global, surface instrument network that continuously monitors three key carbon cycle gases in the atmospheric column: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), as well as oxygen (O2) for atmospheric pressure profiles. The network will implement a low-cost, miniaturized, laser heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR) that has recently been developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This mini-LHR is designed to operate in tandem with the passive aerosol sensor currently used in AERONET (a well established network of more than 450 ground aerosol monitoring instruments worldwide), and could be rapidly deployed into this established global network. Laser heterodyne radiometry is a well-established technique for detecting weak signals that was adapted from radio receiver technology. Here, a weak light signal, that has undergone absorption by atmospheric components, is mixed with light from a distributed feedback (DFB) telecommunications laser on a single-mode optical fiber. The RF component of the signal is detected on a fast photoreceiver. Scanning the laser through an absorption feature in the infrared, results in a scanned heterodyne signal io the RF. Deconvolution of this signal through the retrieval algorithm allows for the extraction of altitude contributions to the column signal. The retrieval algorithm is based on a spectral simulation program, SpecSyn, developed at GWU for high-resolution infrared spectroscopies. Variations io pressure, temperature, composition, and refractive index through the atmosphere; that are all functions of latitude, longitude, time of day, altitude, etc.; are modeled using algorithms developed in the MODTRAN program developed in part by the US Air Force Research Laboratory. In these calculations the atmosphere is modeled as a series of spherically symmetric shells with boundaries specified at defined altitudes. Temperature

GHRSST Level 2P Global Sea Surface Temperature from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite (GDS version 2)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Visible and Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a multi-disciplinary instrument that is being flown on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of...

Multiangular L-band Datasets for Soil Moisture and Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval Measured by Airborne HUT-2D Synthetic Aperture Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Kainulainen, J.; Rautiainen, K.; Seppänen, J.; Hallikainen, M.

2009-04-01

SMOS is the European Space Agency's next Earth Explorer satellite due for launch in 2009. It aims for global monitoring of soil moisture and ocean salinity utilizing a new technology concept for remote sensing: two-dimensional aperture synthesis radiometry. The payload of SMOS is Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture Synthesis, or MIRAS. It is a passive instrument that uses 72 individual L-band receivers for measuring the brightness temperature of the Earth. From each acquisition, i.e. integration time or snapshot, MIRAS provides two-dimensional brightness temperature of the scene in the instrument's field of view. Thus, consecutive snapshots provide multiangular measurements of the target once the instrument passes over it. Depending on the position of the target in instrument's swath, the brightness temperature of the target at incidence angles from zero up to 50 degrees can be measured with one overpass. To support the development MIRAS instrument, its calibration, and soil moisture and sea surface salinity retrieval algorithm development, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) has designed, manufactured and tested a radiometer which operates at L-band and utilizes the same two-dimensional methodology of interferometery and aperture synthesis as MIRAS does. This airborne instrument, called HUT-2D, was designed to be used on board the University's research aircraft. It provides multiangular measurements of the target in its field of view, which spans up to 30 degrees off the boresight of the instrument, which is pointed to the nadir. The number of independent measurements of each target point depends on the flight speed and altitude. In addition to the Spanish Airborne MIRAS demonstrator (AMIRAS), HUT-2D is the only European airborne synthetic aperture radiometer. This paper presents the datasets and measurement campaigns, which have been carried out using the HUT-2D radiometer and are available for the scientific community. In April 2007 HUT-2D participated

An interchangeable scanning Hall probe/scanning SQUID microscope

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, Chiu-Chun; Lin, Hui-Ting; Wu, Sing-Lin [Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan (China); Chen, Tse-Jun; Wang, M. J. [Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China); Ling, D. C. [Department of Physics, Tamkang University, Tamsui Dist., New Taipei City 25137, Taiwan (China); Chi, C. C.; Chen, Jeng-Chung [Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan (China); Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan (China)

2014-08-15

We have constructed a scanning probe microscope for magnetic imaging, which can function as a scanning Hall probe microscope (SHPM) and as a scanning SQUID microscope (SSM). The scanning scheme, applicable to SHPM and SSM, consists of a mechanical positioning (sub) micron-XY stage and a flexible direct contact to the sample without a feedback control system for the Z-axis. With the interchangeable capability of operating two distinct scanning modes, our microscope can incorporate the advantageous functionalities of the SHPM and SSM with large scan range up to millimeter, high spatial resolution (⩽4 μm), and high field sensitivity in a wide range of temperature (4.2 K-300 K) and magnetic field (10{sup −7} T-1 T). To demonstrate the capabilities of the system, we present magnetic images scanned with SHPM and SSM, including a RbFeB magnet and a nickel grid pattern at room temperature, surface magnetic domain structures of a La{sub 2/3}Ca{sub 1/3}MnO{sub 3} thin film at 77 K, and superconducting vortices in a striped niobium film at 4.2 K.

The Sun-earth Imbalance radiometer for a direct measurement of the net heating of the earth

Science.gov (United States)

Dewitte, Steven; Karatekin, Özgür; Chevalier, Andre; Clerbaux, Nicolas; Meftah, Mustapha; Irbah, Abdanour; Delabie, Tjorven

2015-04-01

It is accepted that the climate on earth is changing due to a radiative energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, up to now this radiation imbalance has not been measured directly. The measurement is challenging both in terms of space-time sampling of the radiative energy that is leaving the earth and in terms of accuracy. The incoming solar radiation and the outgoing terrestrial radiation are of nearly equal magnitude - of the order of 340 W/m² - resulting in a much smaller difference or imbalance of the order of 1 W/m². The only way to measure the imbalance with sufficient accuracy is to measure both the incoming solar and the outgoing terrestrial radiation with the same instrument. Based on our 30 year experience of measuring the Total Solar Irradiance with the Differential Absolute RADiometer (DIARAD) type of instrument and on our 10 year experience of measuring the Earth Radiation Budget with the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument on Meteosat Second Generation, we propose an innovative constellation of Sun-earth IMBAlance (SIMBA) radiometer cubesats with the ultimate goal to measure the Sun-earth radiation imbalance. A first Simba In Orbit Demonstration satellite is scheduled for flight with QB50 in 2015. It is currently being developed as ESA's first cubesat through an ESA GSTP project. In this paper we will give an overview of the Simba science objectives and of the current satellite and payload development status.

NEW SCANNING DEVICE FOR SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE APPLICATIONS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

SAWATZKY, GA; Koops, Karl Richard

A small, single piezo XYZ translator has been developed. The device has been used as a scanner for a scanning tunneling microscope and has been tested successfully in air and in UHV. Its simple design results in a rigid and compact scanning unit which permits high scanning rates.

Nuclear Scans

Science.gov (United States)

Nuclear scans use radioactive substances to see structures and functions inside your body. They use a special ... images. Most scans take 20 to 45 minutes. Nuclear scans can help doctors diagnose many conditions, including ...

Vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties and the solar heating rate estimated by combining sky radiometer and lidar measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Kudo, Rei; Nishizawa, Tomoaki; Aoyagi, Toshinori

2016-07-01

The SKYLIDAR algorithm was developed to estimate vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties from sky radiometer (SKYNET) and lidar (AD-Net) measurements. The solar heating rate was also estimated from the SKYLIDAR retrievals. The algorithm consists of two retrieval steps: (1) columnar properties are retrieved from the sky radiometer measurements and the vertically mean depolarization ratio obtained from the lidar measurements and (2) vertical profiles are retrieved from the lidar measurements and the results of the first step. The derived parameters are the vertical profiles of the size distribution, refractive index (real and imaginary parts), extinction coefficient, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor. Sensitivity tests were conducted by applying the SKYLIDAR algorithm to the simulated sky radiometer and lidar data for vertical profiles of three different aerosols, continental average, transported dust, and pollution aerosols. The vertical profiles of the size distribution, extinction coefficient, and asymmetry factor were well estimated in all cases. The vertical profiles of the refractive index and single-scattering albedo of transported dust, but not those of transported pollution aerosol, were well estimated. To demonstrate the performance and validity of the SKYLIDAR algorithm, we applied the SKYLIDAR algorithm to the actual measurements at Tsukuba, Japan. The detailed vertical structures of the aerosol optical properties and solar heating rate of transported dust and smoke were investigated. Examination of the relationship between the solar heating rate and the aerosol optical properties showed that the vertical profile of the asymmetry factor played an important role in creating vertical variation in the solar heating rate. We then compared the columnar optical properties retrieved with the SKYLIDAR algorithm to those produced with the more established scheme SKYRAD.PACK, and the surface solar irradiance calculated from the SKYLIDAR

PC-SEAPAK - ANALYSIS OF COASTAL ZONE COLOR SCANNER AND ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER DATA

Science.gov (United States)

Mcclain, C. R.

1994-01-01

PC-SEAPAK is a user-interactive satellite data analysis software package specifically developed for oceanographic research. The program is used to process and interpret data obtained from the Nimbus-7/Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), and the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). PC-SEAPAK is a set of independent microcomputer-based image analysis programs that provide the user with a flexible, user-friendly, standardized interface, and facilitates relatively low-cost analysis of oceanographic satellite data. Version 4.0 includes 114 programs. PC-SEAPAK programs are organized into categories which include CZCS and AVHRR level-1 ingest, level-2 analyses, statistical analyses, data extraction, remapping to standard projections, graphics manipulation, image board memory manipulation, hardcopy output support and general utilities. Most programs allow user interaction through menu and command modes and also by the use of a mouse. Most programs also provide for ASCII file generation for further analysis in spreadsheets, graphics packages, etc. The CZCS scanning radiometer aboard the NIMBUS-7 satellite was designed to measure the concentration of photosynthetic pigments and their degradation products in the ocean. AVHRR data is used to compute sea surface temperatures and is supported for the NOAA 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 satellites. The CZCS operated from November 1978 to June 1986. CZCS data may be obtained free of charge from the CZCS archive at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. AVHRR data may be purchased through NOAA's Satellite Data Service Division. Ordering information is included in the PC-SEAPAK documentation. Although PC-SEAPAK was developed on a COMPAQ Deskpro 386/20, it can be run on most 386-compatible computers with an AT bus, EGA controller, Intel 80387 coprocessor, and MS-DOS 3.3 or higher. A Matrox MVP-AT image board with appropriate monitor and cables is also required. Note that the authors have received some reports of

Validation of multi-channel scanning microwave radiometer onboard OCEANSAT - 1

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Muraleedharan, P.M.; Pankajakshan, T.; Harikrishnan, M.

IRS-P4 (OCEASAT-1) was the first operational oceanographic satellite that India has launched. An extensive validation campaign was unleashed immediately after its launch in May 1999. Various platforms (Ship, Moored buoy, Drifting buoy, Autonomous...

GHRSST Level 3P North Atlantic Regional Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA-19 (GDS version 1)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A Group for HIgh Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the North Atlantic Region (NAR) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on...

GHRSST Level 3C North Atlantic Regional Subskin Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA-19 (GDS version 2)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) dataset for the North Atlantic Region (NAR) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on...

Regolith Formation Rates and Evolution from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Hayne, P. O.; Ghent, R. R.; Bandfield, J. L.; Vasavada, A. R.; Williams, J. P.; Siegler, M. A.; Lucey, P. G.; Greenhagen, B. T.; Elder, C. M.; Paige, D. A.

2015-12-01

Fragmentation and overturn of lunar surface materials produces a layer of regolith, which increases in thickness through time. Experiments on the lunar surface during the Apollo era, combined with remote sensing, found that the upper 10's of cm of regolith exhibit a rapid increase in density and thermal conductivity with depth. This is interpreted to be the signature of impact gardening, which operates most rapidly in the uppermost layers. Gravity data from the GRAIL mission showed that impacts have also extensively fractured the deeper crust. The breakdown and mixing of crustal materials is therefore a central process to lunar evolution and must be understood in order to interpret compositional information from remote sensing and sample analysis. Recently, thermal infrared data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner radiometer were used to provide the first remote observational constraints on the rate of ejecta breakdown around craters L., Campbell, B. A., Allen, C. C., Carter, L. M., & Paige, D. A. (2014). Constraints on the recent rate of lunar ejecta breakdown and implications for crater ages. Geology, 42(12), 1059-1062.

Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) Observations of Brightness Temperatures and Ocean Surface Wind Speed and Rain Rate During NASA's GRIP and HS3 Campaigns

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Timothy L.; James, M. W.; Roberts, J. B.; Jones, W. L.; Biswas, S.; Ruf, C. S.; Uhlhorn, E. W.; Atlas, R.; Black, P.; Albers, C.

2012-01-01

HIRAD flew on high-altitude aircraft over Earl and Karl during NASA s GRIP (Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes) campaign in August - September of 2010, and plans to fly over Atlantic tropical cyclones in September of 2012 as part of the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission. HIRAD is a new C-band radiometer using a synthetic thinned array radiometer (STAR) technology to obtain spatial resolution of approximately 2 km, out to roughly 30 km each side of nadir. By obtaining measurements of emissions at 4, 5, 6, and 6.6 GHz, observations of ocean surface wind speed and rain rate can be retrieved. The physical retrieval technique has been used for many years by precursor instruments, including the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR), which has been flying on the NOAA and USAF hurricane reconnaissance aircraft for several years to obtain observations within a single footprint at nadir angle. Results from the flights during the GRIP and HS3 campaigns will be shown, including images of brightness temperatures, wind speed, and rain rate. Comparisons will be made with observations from other instruments on the campaigns, for which HIRAD observations are either directly comparable or are complementary. Features such as storm eye and eye-wall, location of storm wind and rain maxima, and indications of dynamical features such as the merging of a weaker outer wind/rain maximum with the main vortex may be seen in the data. Potential impacts on operational ocean surface wind analyses and on numerical weather forecasts will also be discussed.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission: Overview and U.S. Status

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Arthur Y.; Azarbarzin, Ardeshir A.; Kakar, Ramesh K.; Neeck, Steven

2011-01-01

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission is an international satellite mission specifically designed to unify and advance precipitation measurements from a constellation of research and operational microwave sensors. The cornerstone of the GPM mission is the deployment of a Core Observatory in a 65 deg non-Sun-synchronous orbit to serve as a physics observatory and a transfer standard for inter-calibration of constellation radiometers. The GPM Core Observatory will carry a Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a conical-scanning multi-channel (10-183 GHz) GPM Microwave Radiometer (GMI). The first space-borne dual-frequency radar will provide not only measurements of 3-D precipitation structures but also quantitative information on microphysical properties of precipitating particles needed for improving precipitation retrievals from passive microwave sensors. The combined use of DPR and GMI measurements will place greater constraints on radiometer retrievals to improve the accuracy and consistency of precipitation estimates from all constellation radiometers. The GPM constellation is envisioned to comprise five or more conical-scanning microwave radiometers and four or more cross-track microwave sounders on operational satellites. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to launch the GPM Core in July 2013. NASA will provide a second radiometer to be flown on a partner-provided GPM Low-Inclination Observatory (L10) to improve near real-time monitoring of hurricanes and mid-latitude storms. NASA and the Brazilian Space Program (AEB/IPNE) are currently engaged in a one-year study on potential L10 partnership. JAXA will contribute to GPM data from the Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W) satellite. Additional partnerships are under development to include microwave radiometers on the French-Indian Megha-Tropiques satellite and U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, as well as cross

Influence of cracking clays on satellite estimated and model simulated soil moisture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Y. Liu

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Vertisols are clay soils that are common in the monsoonal and dry warm regions of the world. One of the characteristics of these soil types is to form deep cracks during periods of extended dry, resulting in significant variation of the soil and hydrologic properties. Understanding the influence of these varying soil properties on the hydrological behavior of the system is of considerable interest, particularly in the retrieval or simulation of soil moisture. In this study we compare surface soil moisture (θ in m³ m⁻³ retrievals from AMSR-E using the VUA-NASA (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with NASA algorithm with simulations from the Community Land Model (CLM over vertisol regions of mainland Australia. For the three-year period examined here (2003–2005, both products display reasonable agreement during wet periods. During dry periods however, AMSR-E retrieved near surface soil moisture falls below values for surrounding non-clay soils, while CLM simulations are higher. CLM θ are also higher than AMSR-E and their difference keeps increasing throughout these dry periods. To identify the possible causes for these discrepancies, the impacts of land use, topography, soil properties and surface temperature used in the AMSR-E algorithm, together with vegetation density and rainfall patterns, were investigated. However these do not explain the observed θ responses. Qualitative analysis of the retrieval model suggests that the most likely reason for the low AMSR-E θ is the increase in soil porosity and surface roughness resulting from cracking of the soil. To quantitatively identify the role of each factor, more in situ measurements of soil properties that can represent different stages of cracking need to be collected. CLM does not simulate the behavior of cracking soils, including the additional loss of moisture from the soil continuum during drying and the infiltration into cracks during rainfall events

Application of automatic gain control for radiometer diagnostic in SST-1 tokamak.

Science.gov (United States)

Makwana, Foram R; Siju, Varsha; Edappala, Praveenlal; Pathak, S K

2017-12-01

This paper describes the characterisation of a negative feedback type of automatic gain control (AGC) circuit that will be an integral part of the heterodyne radiometer system operating at a frequency range of 75-86 GHz at SST-1 tokamak. The developed AGC circuit is a combination of variable gain amplifier and log amplifier which provides both gain and attenuation typically up to 15 dB and 45 dB, respectively, at a fixed set point voltage and it has been explored for the first time in tokamak radiometry application. The other important characteristics are that it exhibits a very fast response time of 390 ns to understand the fast dynamics of electron cyclotron emission and can operate at very wide input RF power dynamic range of around 60 dB that ensures signal level within the dynamic range of the detection system.

Lidar-Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC) for the Retrieval of Vertical Aerosol Properties from Combined Lidar Radiometer Data: Development and Distribution in EARLINET

Science.gov (United States)

Chaikovsky, A.; Dubovik, O.; Holben, Brent N.; Bril, A.; Goloub, P.; Tanre, D.; Pappalardo, G.; Wandinger, U.; Chaikovskaya, L.; Denisov, S.;

Upgrades and Real Time Ntm Control Application of the Ece Radiometer on Asdex Upgrade

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, N. K.; Suttrop, W.; Behler, K.; Giannone, L.; Manini, A.; Maraschek, M.; Raupp, G.; Reich, M.; Sips, A. C. C.; Stober, J.; Treutterer, W.; ASDEX Upgrade Team; Cirant, S.

2009-04-01

The 60-channel electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer diagnostic on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak is presently being upgraded to include a 1 MHz sampling rate data acquisition system. This expanded capability allows electron temperature measurements up to 500 kHz (anti-aliasing filter cut-off) with spatial resolution ~1 cm, and will thus provide measurement of plasma phenomena on the MHD timescale, such as neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs). The upgraded and existing systems may be run in parallel for comparison, and some of the first plasma measurements using the two systems together are presented. A particular planned application of the upgraded radiometer is integration into a real-time NTM stabilization loop using targeted deposition of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). For this loop, it is necessary to determine the locations of the NTM and ECRH deposition using ECE measurements. As the magnetic island of the NTM repeatedly rotates through the ECE line of sight, electron temperature fluctuations at the NTM frequency are observed. The magnetic perturbation caused by the NTM is independently measured using Mirnov coils, and a correlation profile between these magnetic measurements and the ECE data is constructed. The phase difference between ECE oscillations on opposite sides of the island manifests as a zero-crossing of the correlation profile, which determines the NTM location in ECE channel space. To determine the location of ECRH power deposition, the power from a given gyrotron may be modulated at a particular frequency. Correlation analysis of this modulated signal and the ECE data identifies a particular ECE channel associated with the deposition of that gyrotron. Real time equilibrium reconstruction allows the ECE channels to be translated into flux surface and spatial coordinates for use in the feedback loop.

A Tissue Propagation Model for Validating Close-Proximity Biomedical Radiometer Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Bonds, Q.; Herzig, P.; Weller, T.

2016-01-01

The propagation of thermally-generated electromagnetic emissions through stratified human tissue is studied herein using a non-coherent mathematical model. The model is developed to complement subsurface body temperature measurements performed using a close proximity microwave radiometer. The model takes into account losses and reflections as thermal emissions propagate through the body, before being emitted at the skin surface. The derivation is presented in four stages and applied to the human core phantom, a physical representation of a stomach volume of skin, muscle, and blood-fatty tissue. A drop in core body temperature is simulated via the human core phantom and the response of the propagation model is correlated to the radiometric measurement. The results are comparable, with differences on the order of 1.5 - 3%. Hence the plausibility of core body temperature extraction via close proximity radiometry is demonstrated, given that the electromagnetic characteristics of the stratified tissue layers are known.