One-dimensional variational retrieval algorithm of temperature, water vapor, and cloud water profiles from advanced microwave sounding unit (AMSU)

The measurements from satellite microwave imaging and sounding channels are simultaneously utilized through a one-dimensional (1-D) variation method (1D-var) to retrieve the profiles of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and cloud water. Since the radiative transfer model in this 1D-var procedure includes scattering and emission from the earth's atmosphere, the retrieval can perform well under all weather conditions. The iterative procedure is optimized to minimize computational demands and to achieve better accuracy. At first, the profiles of temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water are derived using only the AMSU-A measurements at frequencies less than 60 GHz. The second step is to retrieve rain and ice water using the AMSU-B measurements at 89 and 150 GHz. Finally, all AMSU-A/B sounding channels at 50-60 and 183 GHz are utilized to further refine the profiles of temperature and water vapor while the profiles of cloud, rain, and ice water contents are constrained to those previously derived. It is shown that the radiative transfer model including multiple scattering from clouds and precipitation can significantly improve the accuracy for retrieving temperature, moisture and cloud water. In hurricane conditions, an emission-based radiative transfer model tends to produce unrealistic temperature anomalies throughout the atmosphere. With a scattering-based radiative transfer model, the derived temperature profiles agree well with those observed from aircraft dropsondes.     

Large-scale inverse Ku-band backscatter modeling of sea ice

Polar sea ice characteristics provide important inputs to models of several geophysical processes. Microwave scatterometers are ideal for monitoring these regions due to their sensitivity to ice properties and insensitivity to atmospheric distortions. Many forward electromagnetic scattering models have been proposed to predict the normalized radar cross section (/spl sigma//spl deg/) from sea ice characteristics. These models are based on very small scale ice features and generally assume that the region of interest is spatially homogeneous. Unfortunately, spaceborne scatterometer footprints are very large (5-50 km) and usually contain very heterogeneous mixtures of sea ice surface parameters. In this paper, we use scatterometer data in a large-scale inverse modeling experiment. Given the limited data resolution, we adopt a simple geometric optics forward-scattering model to analyze surface and volume scattering contributions to observed Ku-band signatures. A model inversion technique based on recursive optimization of an objective function is developed. The result is a least squares estimate of three surface parameters: the power reflection coefficient at nadir, the rms surface slope, and the volume scattering albedo. Simulations demonstrate the performance of the method in the presence of noise. The inverse model is implemented using Ku-band image reconstructed data collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration scatterometer. The results are used to analyze and interpret /spl sigma//spl deg/ phenomena occurring in the Antarctic and the Arctic.     

Influence of microphysical cloud parameterizations on microwavebrightness temperatures

The microphysical parameterization of clouds and rain cells plays a central role in atmospheric forward radiative transfer models used in calculating microwave brightness temperatures. The absorption and scattering properties of a hydrometeor-laden atmosphere are governed by particle phase, size distribution, aggregate density, shape, and dielectric constant. This study investigates the sensitivity of brightness temperatures with respect to the microphysical cloud parameterization. Calculated wideband (6-410 GHz) brightness temperatures were studied for four evolutionary stages of an oceanic convective storm using a rive-phase hydrometeor model in a planar-stratified scattering-based radiative transfer model. Five other microphysical cloud parameterizations were compared to the baseline calculations to evaluate brightness temperature sensitivity to gross changes in the hydrometeor size distributions and the ice-air-water ratios in the frozen or partly frozen phase. The comparison shows that enlarging the raindrop size or adding water to the partly frozen hydrometeor mix warms brightness temperatures by as much as 55 K at 6 GHz. The cooling signature caused by ice scattering intensifies with increasing ice concentrations and at higher frequencies. An additional comparison to measured Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3) brightness temperatures shows that in general all but two parameterizations produce calculated T_Bs that fall within the CAMEX-3 observed minima and maxima     

Coherent effects in microwave backscattering models for forestcanopies

In modeling forest canopies, several scattering mechanisms are taken into account, (1) volume scattering; (2) surface-volume interaction; (3) surface scattering from forest floor. Depending on the structural and dielectric characteristics of forest canopies, the relative contribution of each mechanism in the total backscatter signal of an imaging radar can vary. In this paper, two commonly used first-order discrete scattering models, distorted Born approximation (DBA) and radiative transfer (RT) are used to simulate the backscattered power received by polarimetric radars at P-, L-, and C-bands over coniferous and deciduous forests. The difference between the two models resides on the coherent effect in the surface-volume interaction terms. To demonstrate this point, the models are first compared based on their underlying theoretical assumptions and then according to simulation results over coniferous and deciduous forests. It is shown that by using the same scattering functions for various components of trees (i.e. leaf, branch, stem), the radiative transfer and distorted Born models are equivalent, except in low frequencies, where surface-volume interaction terms may become important, and the coherent contribution may be significant. In this case, the difference between the two models can reach up to 3 dB in both co-polarized and cross-polarized channels, which can influence the performance of retrieval algorithms     

Surface Emissivity of Arctic Sea Ice at AMSU Window Frequencies

A method to retrieve the surface emissivity of sea ice at the window channels of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) radiometers in the polar region is presented. The instruments are on the new-generation satellites of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA-15, NOAA-16, and NOAA-17). The method assumes hypothetical surfaces with emissivities zero and one and simulates brightness temperatures at the top of the atmosphere using profiles of atmospheric parameters, e.g., from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model runs, as input for a radiative transfer model. The retrieval of surface emissivity is done by combining simulated brightness temperatures with the satellite-measured brightness temperature. The AMSU window channels differ in surface penetration depths and, thus, in the surface microphysical parameters that they depend on. Lowest layer air temperatures from ECMWF are used to infer temperatures of emitting layers at different frequencies of sea ice. A complete yearly cycle of monthly average emissivities in two selected regions (first- and multiyear ice) is giving insight into the variation of emissivities in various development stages of sea ice.      

A scattering model for snow-covered sea ice

The special properties of a robust radiative transfer model for scattering from layers of inhomogeneous rough-boundary slabs are presented. The model is applied to backscattering from saline and desalinated ice. Comparisons are made at single and multiple frequencies with some of the most complete sets of measurement data available, using measured physical and electrical characteristics of the ice as inputs to the model where possible. The results show close agreement. For example, for the saline ice backscatter data set, which consisted of measurements at two like and two cross polarizations at 5 and 13.9 GHz, the agreement with model predictions is within 2 dB except at 13.9-GHz cross polarization. Backscattering from >15-cm-thick saline ice is generally dominated by scattering from the top surface while backscattering from <8-cm-thick saline ice can be strongly influenced by returns from the ice/water interface, particularly at frequencies less than about 5 GHz     

通用大气辐射传输软件(CART)大气散射辐射计算精度验证

为检验通用大气辐射传输软件（CART）计算大气分子、气溶胶散射辐射的计算精度,在大观测天顶角、太阳天顶角、观测与太阳方位角之差、散射相函数不对称因子变化范围内,就CART 软件模拟的单次散射辐射和多次散射辐射,分别与MODTRAN5.0 计算的单次散射辐射和离散坐标辐射传输软件（DISORT）计算的多次散射辐射进行比较分析。结果表明:CART 软件计算的单次散射辐射与MODTRAN5.0 的相对偏差一般小于10%,最大相对偏差为15%;CART 计算的多次散射辐射与精确的DISORT 算法的相对相差小于2.5%。CART 在包括多次散射在内的大气背景辐射计算方面具有较有高的计算精度和效率。     

Effects of precipitation and cloud ice on brightness temperaturesin AMSU moisture channels

Extinction by ice and rain at the AMSU frequencies used in water vapor profile retrievals is investigated with DMSP observations and brightness temperature simulations of a convective storm system. The simulations are based on mesoscale forecast model output of atmospheric, cloud, and rain profiles from which the absorption and scattering due to both liquid and frozen hydrometeors are calculated. Comparison with satellite observations indicates discrepancies of more than 90% (up to 60 K), of which only about 20% results from ignoring scattering by model-prescribed ice. The major source of error is the inability of the forecast model to produce the spatially localized high ice concentrations which cause the low microwave brightness temperatures. A criterion based on the difference between measured brightness temperatures at 183.31±3 and 183.31±1 GHz is suggested to screen out convective events before water vapor retrieval. Application to the case study examined improved agreement between simulated and observed brightness temperatures by up to a factor of two     

Global Millimeter-Wave Precipitation Retrievals Trained With a Cloud-Resolving Numerical Weather Prediction Model, Part I: Retrieval Design

This paper develops a global precipitation rate retrieval algorithm for the advanced microwave sounding unit (AMSU), which observes 23-191 GHz. The algorithm was trained using a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model (MM5) for 106 globally distributed storms that predicted brightness temperatures consistent with those observed simultaneously by AMSU. Neural networks were trained to retrieve hydrometeor water-paths, peak vertical wind, and 15-min average surface precipitation rates for rain and snow at 15-km resolution at all viewing angles. Different estimators were trained for land and sea, where surfaces classed as snow or ice were generally excluded from this paper. Surface-sensitive channels were incorporated by using linear combinations [principal components (PCs)] of their brightness temperatures that were observed to be relatively insensitive to the surface, as determined by visual examination of global images of each brightness temperature spectrum PC. This paper also demonstrates that multiple scattering in high microwave albedo clouds may help explain the observed consistency for a global set of 122 storms between AMSU-observed 50-191-GHz brightness temperature distributions and corresponding distributions predicted using a cloud-resolving mesoscale NWP model (MM5) and a two-stream radiative transfer model that models icy hydrometeors as spheres with frequency-dependent densities. The AMSU/MM5 retrieval algorithm developed in Part I of this paper is evaluated in Part II on a separate paper.     

大气气溶胶对用红外窗区通道遥感陆面温度的影响

分析了大气气溶胶对红外窗区通道辐射传输的影响,考察了在用红外窗区通道反演陆面温度中,大气温度和湿度廓线没有误差时,大气气溶胶的不确定性对反演精度的影响,以及大气温度、湿度和气溶胶同时有偏差对地面温度反演精度的影响。     

Numerical investigation of intense rainfall effects on coherent and incoherent slant-path propagation at K-band and above

A model investigation is carried out to analyze the impact of intense rainfall on slant-path microwave propagation, using a rainfall microphysical model. The effects are evaluated both for path attenuation, undergone by coherent radiation, and for multiple scattering phenomena, originating incoherent radiation along the path. Atmospheric spatial inhomogeneity is taken into account. The EM propagation model is formulated by means of the radiative transfer theory. The propagation model is applied both to simplified rain slabs and to vertically and horizontally inhomogeneous raining cloud structures in order to compare the impact of atmospheric models on coherent and incoherent propagation. Beacon frequencies between 20 and 50 GHz, elevation angles between 20/spl deg/ and 40/spl deg/ and surface rain rates from 1 to 100 mm/h are considered. Appropriate sensitivity analysis parameters are defined to present and discuss the numerical results. Our main conclusion is that the impact of the convective rainfall structure can be significant both in determining total attenuation and quantifying the contribution of multiple scattering to the received power. For intense rainfall, the use of a rain slab model can both overestimate coherent attenuation and underestimate incoherent intensity. The analysis of realistic raining clouds structures reveals the significance of modeling the volumetric albedo of precipitating ice, particularly at V-band. Total path attenuation can strongly depend on the pointing direction of the receiving antenna due to the intrinsic variability of the precipitating cloud composition along the slant path. Coupling cloud-resolving models with radiative transfer schemes may be foreseen as a new approach to develop statistical prediction methods at Ka-band and above in a way analogous to that pursued by using weather-radar volume data.     

Sensitivity of off-nadir zenith angles to correlation betweenvisible and near-infrared reflectance for use in remote sensing ofaerosol over land

Cloud absorption radiometer (CAR) multispectral and multiangular data, collected during the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation-Brazil (SCAR-B) Experiment, was used to examine the ratio technique, the official method for remote sensing of aerosols over land from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, for view angles from nadir to 650 off-nadir. The strategy used is to first select a pristine, low aerosol optical thickness flight, and then to compute ratios of reflectance at 0.47 and 0.68 μm to corresponding values at 2.20 μm, separately for backward and forward scattering directions. Similarly, the authors analyzed data from high turbidity flights for comparison purposes. For both flights, they removed the effects of atmospheric absorption and scattering using 6S, a radiative transfer code, and then recomputed the ratios again for different values of aerosol optical thickness. Finally, they analyzed bidirectional reflection function (BRF) data to examine the dependence of the ratio technique on the relative azimuth angle. Results of this analysis show that a relationship between visible reflectance and near infrared (IR) reflectance exists for view angles from nadir to 400 off-nadir, and that simple parametric relationships can be derived     

Millimeter-wave radiometric observations of the troposphere: acomparison of measurements and calculations based on radiosonde andRaman lidar

A comparison of clear-air brightness temperatures is performed between radiometric measurements and atmospheric radiative transfer calculations. The measurements were made using the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) in a series of airborne and ground-based atmospheric experiments at six millimeter-wave frequencies: 89; 150; 183.3±1, ±3, ±7; and 220 GHz. With the inclusion of the 220 GHz channel, these measurements are the first passive observations of the atmosphere made simultaneously at the six frequencies. The MIR was operated concurrently with supporting meteorological instruments (radiosonde and Raman lidar) to construct a paired set of both spatially and temporally coincident calibrated brightness temperatures and atmospheric profile parameters. Calculated brightness temperatures based on the measured atmospheric profile parameters were obtained using a numerical radiative transfer model. Incremental water-vapor weighting functions were used to study the impact of radiosonde hygrometer errors on the radiative transfer calculations. The aircraft-based brightness temperature comparisons are generally within 3 K for the channels sensitive to the lower atmospheric levels (89, 150, 183.3±7, and 220 GHz), but show discrepancies of up to 11 K for the opaque channels (183.3±1 and ±3 GHz) caused primarily by radiosonde bias. The ground-based calculations are similarly found to be sensitive to hygrometer errors in the lower atmosphere. Ground-based comparisons between MIR observations and lidar-based calculations are typically within ±6 K     

Considerations on Water Vapor and Surface Reflectance Retrievals for a Spaceborne Imaging Spectrometer

The retrievals of atmospheric water vapor column and surface reflectance from air- or spaceborne hyperspectral imagery require accurate spectroradiometric calibration and a radiative transfer (RT) code. Since RT codes are too time consuming to be run on a per-pixel basis, a common technique employs the offline compilation of an atmospheric database and its subsequent use for the atmospheric correction of the image cube. The challenge is to design the size of the database as small as possible for a requested retrieval accuracy. We present a methodology to compile the database for a specified retrieval accuracy in water vapor and surface reflectance for a given set of input surface reflectance spectra and a chosen RT algorithm. The method is applied as a case study conducted for the planned German imaging spectrometer EnMAP. Some tradeoff considerations are also discussed. For the specified range of columnar water vapor (0.5-4.5 cm), results demonstrate that five water vapor grid points in the database are sufficient to achieve the requested relative root-mean-square retrieval accuracies of 2% and 3% in water vapor and surface reflectance, respectively. It should be pointed out that this is not intended as a general claim of retrieval accuracy achievable under typical remote sensing conditions, but these figures apply only to the theoretical conditions of the calculation, i.e., assuming the same conditions for forward simulation and retrieval. Nevertheless, these figures are indispensable for the design of a database, which is an important step for the atmospheric correction of imaging spectrometer data and the sole topic of this paper.     

偏振光在冰水混合云中的传输特性

根据米氏理论,分别计算了由纯水、纯冰和冰-水同心球形粒子构成的平面平行、各向同性云层的单次散射特性(单次散射反照率、不对称因子以及单次散射相矩阵).根据辐射传输理论,利用累加法求解了矢量辐射传输方程,得到了3种不同构成云层的多次散射矩阵,对不同波长的太阳光的反射特性进行了比较.结果表明,反射光的偏振度比强度对云层的微观...     

近地面水平方向大气偏振辐射传输仿真与验证

近地面水平方向偏振成像是地基目标观测的有效手段之一。目标偏振信息在大气传输中受到大气气溶胶及分子等散射和吸收作用的影响,叠加了非目标偏振信息,干扰了目标本身偏振特性参数的提取。因此,对大气的偏振影响研究具有重要意义。针对近地面水平方向偏振观测,基于单次散射假设,仿真计算了不同气溶胶光学厚度条件下的大气偏振辐射传输特性,并开展了外场偏振特性传输实验验证。仿真结果表明,地表贡献可以忽略;随着气溶胶光学厚度的增大,大气对总偏振反射的贡献越大;针对外场实验,仿真计算了不同时序同等观测条件下的线偏振度值,与实测结果相对误差在0.1范围内,一致性很好。研究结果为近地面偏振特性传输研究提供了理论支持,并为近地面偏振观测中的大气校正奠定了基础。     

大连地区典型天气气溶胶光学厚度的计算分析

气溶胶光学厚度不仅是计算气溶胶含量、评价大气环境污染程度、研究大气辐射传输等领域中的一个关键因子,而且在大气辐射传输方程的求解过程中,是透射函数、反射函数等重要参数的基本参数。通过分析气溶胶光学厚度的影响因子,搜集整理典型天气气溶胶粒子复折射率资料和粒子谱分布观测数据,建立典型天气气溶胶粒子复折射率数据库,基于气溶胶粒子谱分布实验数据完善了大连地区典型天气气溶胶粒子谱分布模型,再结合大气能见度等大气参数,利用米散射理论计算了气溶胶消光光学厚度。     

Microwave radiometric technique to retrieve vapor, liquid and ice.I. Development of a neural network-based inversion method

With the advent of the microwave radiometer, passive remote sensing of clouds and precipitation has become an indispensable tool in a variety of meteorological and oceanographical applications. There is wide interest in the quantitative retrieval of water vapor, cloud liquid, and ice using brightness temperature observations in scientific studies such as Earth's radiation budget and microphysical processes of winter and summer clouds. Emission and scattering characteristics of hydrometeors depend on the frequency of observation. Thus, a multifrequency radiometer has the capability of profiling cloud microphysics. Sensitivities of vapor, liquid, and ice with respect to 20.6, 31.65 and 90 GHz brightness temperatures are studied. For the model studies, the atmosphere is characterized by vapor density and temperature profiles and layers of liquid and ice components. A parameterized radiative transfer model is used to quantify radiation emanating from the atmosphere. It is shown that downwelling scattering of radiation by an ice layer results in enhancement at 90 GHz brightness temperature. Once absorptive components such as vapor and liquid are estimated accurately, then it is shown that the ice water path can be retrieved using ground-based three-channel radiometer observations. In this paper the authors developed two- and three-channel neural network-based inversion models. Success of a neural network-based approach is demonstrated using a simulated time series of vapor, liquid, and ice. Performance of the standard explicit inversion model is compared with an iterative inversion model. In part II of this paper, actual radiometer, and radar field measurements are utilized to show practical applicability of the inverse models     

1.315 μm波长冰晶粒子辐射特性的模拟研究

利用逐线积分法(LBL)计算得到了大气分子红外吸收信息,结合不同形状冰晶粒子的单次散射特性,通过离散纵标法(DISORT),模拟计算了由实心六棱柱状冰晶粒子组成的卷云在波长为1.315μm时的散射特性和辐射特性,定性分析了激光在卷云中传输时的衰减和散射规律与入射光的位置、卷云光学厚度、冰晶粒子有效尺度等参数的关系。与晴天大气相比较,卷云的散射明显改变了光辐射的空间分布,被其他传感器探测到的可能性增大,其结果对于激光测距、激光探测等有关工程设计方面有非常重要的参考价值。     

An emissivity-based wind vector retrieval algorithm for the WindSat polarimetric radiometer

The Naval Research Laboratory WindSat polarimetric radiometer was launched on January 6, 2003 and is the first fully polarimetric radiometer to be flown in space. WindSat has three fully polarimetric channels at 10.7, 18.7, and 37.0 GHz and vertically and horizontally polarized channels at 6.8 and 23.8 GHz. A first-generation wind vector retrieval algorithm for the WindSat polarimetric radiometer is developed in this study. An atmospheric clearing algorithm is used to estimate the surface emissivity from the measured WindSat brightness temperature at each channel. A specular correction factor is introduced in the radiative transfer equation to account for excess reflected atmospheric brightness, compared to the specular assumption, as a function wind speed. An empirical geophysical model function relating the surface emissivity to the wind vector is derived using coincident QuikSCAT scatterometer wind vector measurements. The confidence in the derived harmonics for the polarimetric channels is high and should be considered suitable to validate analytical surface scattering models for polarized ocean surface emission. The performance of the retrieval algorithm is assessed with comparisons to Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) wind vector outputs. The root mean square (RMS) uncertainty of the closest wind direction ambiguity is less than 20/spl deg/ for wind speeds greater than 6 m/s and less than 15/spl deg/ at 10 m/s and greater. The retrieval skill, the percentage of retrievals in which the first-rank solution is the closest to the GDAS reference, is 75% at 7 m/s and 85% or higher above 10 m/s. The wind speed is retrieved with an RMS uncertainty of 1.5 m/s.