Inter-calibrating SMMR brightness temperatures over continental surfaces

• Main Authors: S. Favrichon, C. Jimenez, C. Prigent
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2020-10-01
• Series: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
• Online Access: https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/13/5481/2020/amt-13-5481-2020.pdf

<p>Microwave remote sensing can be used to monitor the time evolution of some key parameters over land, such as land surface temperature or surface water extent. Observations are made with instruments, such as the Scanning Microwave Multichannel Radiometer (SMMR) before 1987, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and the subsequent Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) from 1987 and still operating, and the more recent Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GMI). As these instruments differ on some of their characteristics and use different calibration schemes, they need to be inter-calibrated before long-time-series products can be derived from the observations. Here an inter-calibration method is designed to remove major inconsistencies between the SMMR and other microwave radiometers for the 18 and 37&thinsp;<span class="inline-formula">GHz</span> channels over continental surfaces. Because of a small overlap in observations and a <span class="inline-formula">∼6</span>&thinsp;<span class="inline-formula">h</span> difference in overpassing times between SMMR and SSM/I, GMI was chosen as a reference despite the lack of a common observing period. The diurnal cycles from 3 years of GMI brightness temperatures are first calculated and then used to evaluate SMMR differences. Based on a statistical analysis of the differences, a simple linear correction is implemented to calibrate SMMR on GMI. This correction is shown to also reduce the biases between SMMR and SSM/I, and can then be applied to SMMR observations to make them more coherent with existing data records of microwave brightness temperatures over continental surfaces.</p>