Assessing Radiometric Stability of the 17-Plus-Year TRMM Microwave Imager 1B11 Version-8 (GPM05) Brightness Temperature Product

• Main Authors: Ruiyao Chen, Faisal Alquaied, W. Linwood Jones
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-12-01
• Series: Climate
• Subjects: TRMM; radiometric stability; TMI 1B11 V8 (GPM05); inter-satellite calibration
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/5/4/92

The NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) has produced a 17-plus-year time-series of calibrated microwave radiances that have remarkable value for investigating the effects of the Earth’s climate change over the tropics. Recently, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Inter-Satellite Radiometric Calibration (XCAL) Working Group have performed various calibration and corrections that yielded the legacy TMI 1B11 Version 8 (also called GPM05) brightness temperature product, which will be released in late 2017 by the NASA Precipitation Processing System. Since TMI served as the radiometric transfer standard for the TRMM constellation microwave radiometer sensors, it is important to document its accuracy. In this paper, the various improvements applied to TMI 1B11 V8 are summarized, and the radiometric calibration stability is evaluated by comparisons with a radiative transfer model and by XCAL evaluations with the Global Precipitation Measuring Microwave Imager during their 13-month overlap period. Evaluation methods will be described and results will be presented, which demonstrate that TMI has achieved a radiometric stability level of a few deciKelvin over almost two decades.