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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4

Correlating rainfall with remotely sensed microwave radiation using physically based models

This simulation study evaluates the response of a 21-cm radiometer, measuring the radiation emitted by a bare soil, to varying accumulations of rain. It is shown that correlations between the decrease in emissivity after a rain storm and the total accumulation depend strongly on the physical characteristics of the soil which affect its capacity to hold water. These are primarily soil texture and pre-rain soil moisture. A method is also discussed which would use the numerical models with remotely sensed microwave brightness and surface physical temperatures, along with conventional weather data, to estimate the total accumulation.

Camillo, P. J.↗

Inversion of passive microwave remote sensing data from satellites

Global passive microwave observations from earth-orbiting satellites have mapped humidity and liquid water over ocean, temperature profiles, ice and snow, and other geophysical parameters. In most applications, the inversion problem is adequately approximated as linear with jointly Gaussian statistics, and, thus, a linear retrieval performs well. In some cases, the problem is typically factored into a decision process followed by appropriate linear or quasilinear processes. Certain problems, however, require more powerful nonlinear or nonstationary procedures, such as Kalman filtering.

Staelin, D. H.↗

Microwave remote sensing of a two-layer random medium

A two-variable expansion technique is used to solve for the mean Green's. function from the Dyson equation under the nonlinear approximation. The Bethe-Salpeter equation then gives rise to a set of modified radiative transfer (MRT) equations which accommodate coherent effects essential to bounded media. It is found that the nonlinear approximation, instead of the more popular bilocal approximation, should be used for the case of bounded media. The two approximations yield identical results for unbounded media. The MRT equations are then solved for a two-layer random medium. The MRT equations give rise to simple and useful solutions which are applicable to both active and passive microwave remote sensing.

Tsang, L.↗

Theory and experiment for passive microwave remote sensing of snowpacks

Both the theory and experiment for the passive remote sensing of snow with microwave radiometers have been studied. The volume scattering effects of snow are accounted for by incorporating Mie scattering theory into a radiative transfer model. The theory is applied to the interpretation of experimental data obtained from various snow measurements. The spectral and angular dependences of the brightness temperatures are illustrated and show good agreement between the theory and experiment. Brightness temperatures as a function of snow depths are also interpreted and discussed. It is observed that as the snow depth increases, the brightness temperature increases when the subsurface is an aluminum plate due to the fact that the plate is cold and snow absorption induces a brightening effect and the brightness temperature decreases when the subsurface is soil due to the fact that snow scattering induces darkening effects.

Kong, J. A.↗

Active microwave remote sensing of oceans, chapter 3

A rationale is developed for the use of active microwave sensing in future aerospace applications programs for the remote sensing of the world's oceans, lakes, and polar regions. Summaries pertaining to applications, local phenomena, and large-scale phenomena are given along with a discussion of orbital errors.

Source record↗

Microwave remote sensing of hydrologic parameters

A perspective on the implementation of microwave sensors in future airborne and spaceborne observations of hydrologic parameters is presented. The rationale is based on a review of the status and future trends of active (radar) and passive (radiometer) microwave research as applied to the remote sensing of soil moisture content, snowpack water equivalent, freeze/thaw boundaries, lake ice thickness, surface water area, and the specification of watershed runoff coefficients. Analyses and observations based on data acquired from ground based, airborne and spaceborne platforms, and an evaluation of advantages and limitations of microwave sensors are included.

Ulaby, F. T.↗

Passive microwave remote sensing for meteorology

The use of passive microwave techniques for the systematic geophysical monitoring of earth from aircraft and space is briefly reviewed. These techniques employ frequencies from approximately 1-300 GHz and have yielded information about atmospheric temperature, composition, and wind profiles. In particular, the application of passive microwave technology to temperature profile determination using the Nimbus 5 and 6 satellites, as well as the Tiros-N operational satellites and the Block 5D satellites, is presented.

Staelin, D. H.↗

Microwave remote sensing: Active and passive. Volume 3 - From theory to applications

Aspects of volume scattering and emission theory are discussed, taking into account a weakly scattering medium, the Born approximation, first-order renormalization, the radiative transfer method, and the matrix-doubling method. Other topics explored are related to scatterometers and probing systems, the passive microwave sensing of the atmosphere, the passive microwave sensing of the ocean, the passive microwave sensing of land, the active microwave sensing of land, and radar remote sensing applications. Attention is given to inversion techniques, atmospheric attenuation and emission, a temperature profile retrieval from ground-based observations, mapping rainfall rates, the apparent temperature of the sea, the emission behavior of bare soil surfaces, the emission behavior of vegetation canopies, the emission behavior of snow, wind-vector radar scatterometry, radar measurements of sea ice, and the back-scattering behavior of cultural vegetation canopies.

Ulaby, F. T.↗

Passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture

The theory and calculations of microwave emission from the medium with the depth-dependent physical properties are discussed; the possibility of determining the vertical profiles of temperature and humidity is considered. Laboratory and aircraft measurements of the soil moisture are described; the technique for determining the productive-moisture content in soil, and the results of aircraft measurements are given.

Kondratyev, K. Y.↗

Microwave remote sensing of snowpacks

The interaction mechanisms responsible for the microwave backscattering and emission behavior of snow were investigated, and models were developed relating the backscattering coefficient (sigma) and apparent temperature (T) to the physical parameters of the snowpack. The microwave responses to snow wetness, snow water equivalent, snow surface roughness, and to diurnal variations were investigated. Snow wetness was shown to have an increasing effect with increasing frequency and angle of incidence for both active and passive cases. Increasing snow wetness was observed to decrease the magnitude sigma and increase T. Snow water equivalent was also observed to exhibit a significant influence sigma and T. Snow surface configuration (roughness) was observed to be significant only for wet snow surface conditions. Diurnal variations were as large as 15 dB for sigma at 35 GHz and 120 K for T at 37 GHz. Simple models for sigma and T of a snowpack scene were developed in terms of the most significant ground-truth parameters. The coefficients for these models were then evaluated; the fits to the sigma and T measurements were generally good. Finally, areas of needed additional observations were outlined and experiments were specified to further the understanding of the microwave-snowpack interaction mechanisms.

Stiles, W. H.↗

Intercomparisons between passive and active microwave remote sensing, and hydrological modeling for soil moisture

Soil moisture estimations from a distributed hydrological model and two microwave sensors were compared with ground measurements collected during the MAC-HYDRO'90 experiment. The comparison was done with the purpose of evaluating the performance of the hydrological model and examining the limitations of remote sensing techniques used in soil moisture estimation. An image integration technique was used to integrate and analyze rainfall, soil properties, land cover, topography, and remote sensing imagery. Results indicate that the hydrological model and microwave sensors successfully picked up temporal variations of soil moisture and that the spatial soil moisture pattern may be remotely sensed with reasonable accuracy using existing algorithms.

Wood, E. F.↗

Theory for passive microwave remote sensing of near-surface soil moisture

The theory of microwave thermal emission from a nonscattering half-space medium is developed for application to regions with nonuniform subsurface soil-moisture and temperature variations. A coherent stratified model is presented which is valid for nonuniform temperature profiles and rapidly varying moisture profiles, under which conditions the commonly used emissivity and radiative-transfer approaches become inaccurate. For naturally occurring profiles the stratified model gives more accurate results than the other approaches at frequencies below about 4 GHz. Experimental results from ground-based radiometric observations of a controlled target area compare systematically with brightness temperatures predicted from the theoretical model to within approximately 10 K. Results of dielectric-constant measurements of the sand are given at seven frequencies in the microwave range and for moisture contents in the range from 0% to 30% by volume. By using this model, the thermal microwave emission spectrum is computed for a number of representative moisture and temperature profiles in the frequency range from 0.25 to 25 GHz.

Njoku, E. G.↗

Microwave Remote Sensing of Falling Snow

This study analyzes passive and active microwave measurements during the 2003 Wakasa Bay field experiment for understanding of the electromagnetic characteristics of frozen hydrometeors at millimeter-wave frequencies. Based on these understandings, parameterizations of the electromagnetic scattering properties of snow at millimeter-wave frequencies are developed and applied to the hydrometeor profiles obtained by airborne radar measurements. Calculated brightness temperatures and radar reflectivity are compared with the millimeter-wave measurements.

Kim, Min-Jeong↗

A Summary of Microwave Remote Sensing Investigations Planned for Boreas

The Boreal Ecosystem - Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) is a multidisciplinary field and remote sensing study that will be implemented jointly by the United States and Canada. The Goal of Boreas is to obtain an improved understanding of the interactions between the boreal forest biome and the atmosphere in order to clarify their roles in global change.

Microwave↗