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At least 199 records · Page 11

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NASA NTRS1987

Determination of cloud ice water content and geometrical thickness using microwave and infrared radiometric measurements

Cloud ice water content and cloud geometrical thickness have been determined using a combination of near-infrared, thermal infrared and thermal microwave radiometric measurements. The radiometric measurements are from a Multispectral Cloud Radiometer, which has seven channels ranging from visible to thermal infrared, and an Advanced Microwave Moisture Sounder, which has four channels ranging from 90 to 183 GHz. Studies indicate that the microwave brightness temperatures depend not only on the amount of ice water content but also on the vertical distribution of ice water content. Studies also show that the low brightness temperature at 92 GHz for large ice water content is due to cloud reflection which reflects most of the irradiance incident at the cloud base downward. Therefore the 92 GHz channel detects a low brightness temperature at the cloud top.

Wu, Man-Li C.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Estimating surface soil moisture from satellite microwave measurements and a satellite derived vegetation index

Normalized 18-GHz microwave brightness temperatures, T(B), and a vegetation index determined from satellite radiometer data are combined with climatically modeled surface moisture estimates to constrain a simple physically based soil moisture model. It is found that the normalized T(B) values correlated well with soil moisture when the data were segregated by vegetation index range, but less so when all the data were combined. By using the vegetation index parameter, the model is shown to account for about 70 percent of the variability in modeled surface soil moisture.

Owe, Manfred↗

NASA NTRS1989

Venus surface properties deduced from radar and radiometry

The brightness of surface features on side looking radar images of Venus is determined by many factors: the angles of incidence and reflection, polarization, surface geometry and composition, and so forth. The contribution from surface properties themselves can only be deduced by combining several types of measurement. For instance, without additional information, it is impossible to distinguish the effects of changes in surface roughness from those in dielectric constant. In common with the Moon and Mars, the surface of Venus appears to scatter radar waves in two ways: small-scale surface inhomogeneities, i.e., those smaller than the incident wavelength, depolarize and scatter the energy over a wide range of angles. The Pioneer Venus radar mapper experiment made three overlapping sets of measurements of the equatorial region of Venus from 15 deg S latitude to 45 deg N; the backscatter cross section at a range of incidence angles, the shape and intensity of radar echoes from the nadir, and the microwave brightness temperature of the surface. These techniques developed during the analysis of Pioneer Venus data will be used during the Magellan mission to extract measurements of surface slopes and dielectric constants over all areas covered by the SAR and altimeter antennae, with a resolution of about 10 km. A knowledge of the mechanisms that govern surface scattering will also be useful in the analysis of higher resolution side looking radar images, particularly in distinguishing the effects of changing roughness from those caused by a long range surface tilt or changing dielectric constant.

Ford, P. G.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Satellite sensor estimates of Northern Hemisphere snow volume

In the Northern Hemisphere the mean monthly snow-covered area ranges from about 7 percent of the land area in summer to over 40 percent in winter, thus making snow one of the most rapidly varying natural surface features. The mean monthly snow volume ranges from about 1.5 x 10 to the 16th g in summer to about 3.0 x 10 to the 18th g in winter. Currently several algorithms utilizing passive microwave brightness temperatures are available to estimate snow cover and depth. The algorithm presented here uses the difference between the 37-GHz channel and the 18-GHz channel of the SMMR on the Nimbus-7 satellite to derive estimates of snow volume. Even though satellite sensor snow records are currently too short to reveal trends, continued monitoring over about the next 10 years should make it possible to establish whether incipient or current trends are significant in the context of global climate change.

Chang, A. T. C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Passive microwave retrievals of rainfall and rain system structure

Consideration is given to the development of algorithms for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission to retrieve rain and rain vertical structure from passive microwave radiometry. The self-consistency approach for surface rain rate retrieval of Kummerow et al. (1989) is applied to microwave brightness temperature data from the Cooperative Huntsville Meteorological Experiment (Dodge et al., 1986). Because the algorithm simultaneously retrieves rainfall rate and rain system structure, it is suggested that the algorithm can be used to overcome the problem of the dependence of brightness temperatures on the vertical profile of hydrometeors.

Kummerow, Christian↗

NASA NTRS1990

Multiparameter radar and microwave radiative transfer modeling of nonspherical atmospheric ice particles

Multiparameter radar and polarized microwave radiative transfer models for arbitrarily shaped particles are developed. The ice crystals modeled are horizontally oriented hexagonal plates, columns, and needles. The ice water content is fixed at 0.1 g/cu m, and a realistic size distribution is used. The radar modeling is done for S through K-band, and the passive microwave calculations are at 37, 85, and 157 GHz. The modeling results show that particle shape is important for both multiparameter radar and passive microwave radiometry. Radar reflectivity and upwelling microwave brightness temperatures depend strongly on the individual particle volume, which in turn depends on the ice crystal shape. Radar differential reflectivity is high for the plates and lower for needles and columns. Linear depolarization calculations indicate that oblate ice crystals such as plates can be distinguished from prolate crystals such as columns. At 85 and 157 GHz, significant polarization brightness temperature differences are calculated for plates and columns. The particle bulk density strongly affects the radar and radiometer observables. Recent measurements of ice crystals are discussed to show that the model results have practical applicability.

Evans, K. Franklin↗

NASA NTRS1991

Determination of precipitation profiles from airborne passive microwave radiometric measurements

This study presents the first quantitative retrievals of vertical profiles of precipitation derived from multispectral passive microwave radiometry. Measurements of microwave brightness temperature (Tb) obtained by a NASA high-altitude research aircraft are related to profiles of rainfall rate through a multichannel piecewise-linear statistical regression procedure. Statistics for Tb are obtained from a set of cloud radiative models representing a wide variety of convective, stratiform, and anvil structures. The retrieval scheme itself determines which cloud model best fits the observed meteorological conditions. Retrieved rainfall rate profiles are converted to equivalent radar reflectivity for comparison with observed reflectivities from a ground-based research radar. Results for two case studies, a stratiform rain situation and an intense convective thunderstorm, show that the radiometrically derived profiles capture the major features of the observed vertical structure of hydrometer density.

Kummerow, Christian↗

NASA NTRS1991

Topex/Poseidon - The ocean topography experiment

The technology and objectives of the satellite are delineated with emphasis given to the implications of sea-level measurements and the importance of large-scale oceanic circulation. The satellite altimeter system is described which comprises radar altimetry and orbit determination, and the utility of the system is discussed relative to the GEOS-3 and Seasat. A radiometer measures the sea-surface microwave-brightness temperature at three frequencies, and the laser-reflector array provides orbit determination. The three-year primary mission is expected to collect sea-level data to a precision of a few cm and interpret the in situ data to present a 4D global description of oceanic circulation. The data can be used to assess wind-forcing, heat-transport, and wave-interaction algorithms, as well as to assess large-scale meteorological parameters.

Fu, Lee-Lueng↗

NASA NTRS1990

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) project. VII - Techniques for radar data processing

The paper describes algorithms for rain-rate profiling with an airborne or space-borne radar. Some problems involved in the radar measurements from an airborne or space-borne platform are discussed. An outline of a dual-frequency algorithm is described and its performance is confirmed by a computer simulation and an airborne experiment. A single-frequency algorithm is developed by introducing a path-integrated rain rate estimated from an attenuation of surface echoes or from microwave brightness temperature. The computer simulation shows good performance for an airborne or space-borne radar.

Meneghini, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1992

Modulation of SSM/I microwave soil radiances by rainfall

The feasibility of using SSM/I satellite data for estimating the soil moisture content was investigated by correlating the rainfall and soil moisture data with values of the SSM/I microwave brightness temperature obtained for the lower Great Plains in the United States during 1987. It was found that the areas of lowest brightness temperatures coincided with regions of bare soil which had received significant rainfall. The time-history plots of the brightness temperature and the antecedent precipitation index during an extremely large rain event indicated a slow recovery period (about 15 days) back to the dry soil state. However, regions covered with vegetation showed smaller temperature drops and much weaker correlation with rain events, questioning the feasibility of using SSM/I measurements for estimations of soil moisture in regions containing vegetation-covered soil.

Heymsfield, Gerald M.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Rock fraction effects on the interpretation of microwave emission from soils

The effects of rock fraction on the relationship between microwave emission and surface soil moisture were investigated through a combination of laboratory dielectric measurements and field observation of emissivity. Field measurements were conducted which included soils with and without rocks. Microwave brightness temperature was measured at L and C band using a truck-mounted radiometer. Dielectric measurements were made at L band. Field observations of emissivity showed that the presence of rocks decreases the range of the measurements. At 21 cm this decrease was relatively small; however, at 6 cm almost all sensitivity to soil moisture was eliminated by the presence of 35 percent rocks. Comparisons between observed and predicted data showed that the effects of rock fraction are not significant in estimating the sample soil moisture for the tested conditions.

Jackson, Thomas J.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Bias correction for rainrate retrievals from satellite passive microwave sensors

Rainrates retrieved from past and present satellite-borne microwave sensors are affected by a fundamental remote sensing problem. Sensor fields-of-view are typically large enough to encompass substantial rainrate variability, whereas the retrieval algorithms, based on radiative transfer calculations, show a non-linear relationship between rainrate and microwave brightness temperature. Retrieved rainrates are systematically too low. A statistical model of the bias problem shows that bias correction factors depend on the probability distribution of instantaneous rainrate and on the average thickness of the rain layer.

Short, David A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Radiative transfer for a three-dimensional raining cloud

Satellite-sensor-based microwave brightness temperatures for a three-dimensional raining cloud over a reflecting surface are computed by using a radiative transfer model based on the discrete-ordinates solution procedure. The three-dimensional model applied to a plane layer is validated by comparison with results from a one-dimensional model that is available in the literature. Results examining the effects of cloud height, rainfall rate, surface reflectance, rainfall footprint area, and satellite viewing position on one- and three-dimensional brightness temperature calculations are reported. The numerical experiments indicate that, under certain conditions, three-dimensional effects are significant in the analysis of satellite-sensor-based rainfall retrieval algorithms. The results point to the need to consider carefully three-dimensional effects as well as surface reflectance effects when interpreting satellite-measured radiation data.

Haferman, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Inversion of parameters for semiarid regions by a neural network

Microwave brightness temperatures obtained from a passive radiative transfer model are inverted through use of a neural network. The model is applicable to semiarid regions and produces dual-polarized brightness temperatures for 6.6-, 10.7-, and 37-GHz frequencies. A range of temperatures is generated by varying three geophysical parameters over acceptable ranges: soil moisture, vegetation moisture, and soil temperature. A multilayered perceptron (MLP) neural network is trained with a subset of the generated temperatures, and the remaining temperatures are inverted using a backpropagation method. Several synthetic terrains are devised and inverted by the network under local constraints. All the inversions show good agreement with the original geophysical parameters, falling within 5 percent of the actual value of the parameter range.

Zurk, Lisa M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Remote sensing of global snowpack energy and mass balance: In-situ measurements on the snow of interior and Arctic Alaska

This project is continuing along the lines of the semiannual report dated January 1993. Four major tasks have been addressed: analysis of variability in the seasonal snow of interior and arctic Alaska, the interpretation of microwave brightness temperature across Alaska on transects from south to north, study of nonclimatic controls which affect glaciers, and the location of glacier facies boundaries.

Benson, Carl S.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Passive microwave structure of severe tornadic storms on 16 November 1987

Passive microwave observations using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) are presented for severe tornadic storms in the lower midwestern United States on 16 November 1987. These measurements are compared with Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite infrared (IR) measurements for the same case. The IR observations had a classic 'V' cold feature commonly associated with severe Midwest thunderstorms. The minimum microwave brightness temperatures at 86 GHz, which primarily respond to ice scattering by larger ice particles, were located in the convective region and the warm interior of the anvil top, between the arms of the IR V feature. The interior warm region was the only portion of the entire anvil region that had high 86-GHz polarization difference temperatures. Microphysical implications of these multispectral observations are discussed. The observations suggest that there are large variations of ice microphysical characteristics spatially and vertically in the anvil region. These observations are discussed in the context of previous dynamical and microphysical hypotheses on the IR V feature.

Heymsfield, Gerald M.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Model studies of the beam-filling error for rain-rate retrieval with microwave radiometers

Low-frequency (less than 20 GHz) single-channel microwave retrievals of rain rate encounter the problem of beam-filling error. This error stems from the fact that the relationship between microwave brightness temperature and rain rate is nonlinear, coupled with the fact that the field of view is large or comparable to important scales of variability of the rain field. This means that one may not simply insert the area average of the brightness temperature into the formula for rain rate without incurring both bias and random error. The statistical heterogeneity of the rain-rate field in the footprint of the instrument is key to determining the nature of these errors. This paper makes use of a series of random rain-rate fields to study the size of the bias and random error associated with beam filling. A number of examples are analyzed in detail: the binomially distributed field, the gamma, the Gaussian, the mixed gamma, the lognormal, and the mixed lognormal ('mixed' here means there is a finite probability of no rain rate at a point of space-time). Of particular interest are the applicability of a simple error formula due to Chiu and collaborators and a formula that might hold in the large field of view limit. It is found that the simple formula holds for Gaussian rain-rate fields but begins to fail for highly skewed fields such as the mixed lognormal. While not conclusively demonstrated here, it is suggested that the notionof climatologically adjusting the retrievals to remove the beam-filling bias is a reasonable proposition.

Ha, Eunho↗

NASA NTRS1996

Stochastic Filtering of Rain Profiles Using Radar, Surface-Referenced Radar, or Combined Radar-Radiometer Measurements

This paper describes a computationally efficient nearly optimal Bayesian algorithm to estimate rain (and drop size distribution) profiles, given a radar reflectivity profile at a single attenuating wavelength. In addition to estimating the averages of all the mutually ambiguous combinations of rain parameters that can produce the data observed, the approach also calculates the n-ns uncertainty in its estimates (this uncertainty thus quantifies "the amount of ambiguity" in the "solution"). The paper also describes a more general approach that can make estimates based on a radar reflectivity profile together with an approximate measurement of the path-integrated attenuation, or a radar reflectivity profile and a set of passive microwave brightness temperatures. This more general "combined" algorithm is currently being adapted for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Haddad, Ziad S.↗