INTEGRATED RETRIEVAL OF SURFACE AND ATMOSPHERIC PARAMETERS OVER THE ARCTIC FROM AMSR-E SATELLITE MICROWAVE RADIOMETER DATA USING INVERSE METHODS

We present a method for the retrieval of atmospheric and surface parameters (namely, surface wind speed, total water vapor, cloud liquid water, surface temperature, ice concen-tration, multiyear ice fraction) over the Arctic Ocean from brightness temperature measurements by the spaceborne mi-crowave...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: C. Melsheimer, G. Heygster, L. Toudal Pedersen
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
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Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.668.6486
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/iuppage/psa/documents/melsheimer08a.pdf
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Summary:We present a method for the retrieval of atmospheric and surface parameters (namely, surface wind speed, total water vapor, cloud liquid water, surface temperature, ice concen-tration, multiyear ice fraction) over the Arctic Ocean from brightness temperature measurements by the spaceborne mi-crowave radiometer AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scan-ning Radiometer for EOS) on the satellite Aqua. We use an inverse method, with a forward model based on a fast radiative transfer for AMSR-E over open ocean which we have extended by including the possibility of ice-covered or partly ice-covered sea, using new data on sea ice emissivity at AMSR-E frequencies. The method performs reasonably well and can even retrieve cloud liquid water over ice, and ice concentration in the marginal ice zone in cloudy and humid conditions. Index Terms — Microwave radiometry, polar regions, sea ice, cloud liquid water 1.