High-spatial-resolution passive microwave sounding systems

Abstract

During this period the emphasis was on the following: (1) further design, construction, and testing of the improved 54-GHz portion of the 54-118 GHz microwave temperature sounder (MTS) aircraft radiometer system in preparation for ER-2 observations in July 1991; and (2) final analysis and documentation of procedures for detecting and analyzing thermal waves in our 118-GHz MTS imagery. In addition, we have new unpublished measurements of dry-air attenuation at frequencies of 54 to 66 GHz and over a temperature range of 280K to 326K; these measurements should enable us to improve further our atmospheric transmittance models. It was further noted that the proposed SSMIS conical-scanning microwave spectrometer on the military DMSP Block 5D-3 spacecraft designed to measure stratospheric and mesospheric temperature profiles will be observing the Zeeman-split oxygen lines with sufficient spectral resolution that the changing Doppler shifts with view angle will substantially degrade the potential system performance unless remedied; this was briefly studied and documented.