The development of a model to infer precipitation from microwave measurements

To permit the inference of precipitation amounts from radiometric measurements, a radiative interaction model was developed. This model uses a simple computational scheme to determine the effects of rain upon brightness temperatures and can be used with a statistical inversion procedure to invert for rain rate. Precipitating cloud models was also developed and used with the microwave model for frequencies of 19.35 and 37 GHz to determine the variability of the microwave-rain rate relationship on a global and seasonal basis

Sea surface emissivity observations at L-band: first results of the Wind and Salinity Experiment WISE 2000

Sea surface salinity can be measured by passive microwave remote sensing at L-band. In May 1999, the European Space Agency (ESA) selected the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission to provide global coverage of soil moisture and ocean salinity. To determine the effect of wind on the sea surface emissivity, ESA sponsored the Wind and Salinity Experiment (WISE 2000). This paper describes the field campaign, the measurements acquired with emphasis in the radiometric measurements at L-band, their comparison with numerical models, and the implications for the remote sensing of sea salinity.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Calibration, navigation, and registration of MAMS data for FIFE

The International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) was conducted to study the interaction of the atmosphere with the land surface and the research problems associated with the interpretation of satellite data over the Earth's land surface. The experimental objectives of the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) were the simultaneous acquisition of satellite, atmospheric, and surface data and to use these data to understand the processes controlling energy/mass exchange at the surface. The experiment site is a 15 x 15 km area southeast of Manhattan, Kansas, intersected by Interstate 70 and Kansas highway 177. The Konza Prairie portion is 5 x 5 km and is a controlled experiment site consisting primarily of native tall grass prairie vegetation. The remainder of the site is grazing and farm land with trees along creek beds that are scattered over the area. Airborne multispectral imagery from the Multispectral Atmospheric Mapping Sensor (MAMS) was collected over this region on two days during Intensive Field Campaign-1 (1FC-1) to study the time and space variability of remotely-sensed geophysical parameters. These datasets consist of multiple overflights covering about a 60-min period during late morning on June 4, 1987 and shortly after dark on the following day. Image data from each overpass were calibrated and Earth located with respect to each other using aircraft inertial navigation system parameters and ground control points. These were the first MAMS flights made with 10-bit thermal data