CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator
The calibration of the CloudSat spaceborne cloud radar has been thoroughly assessed using very accurate internal link budgets before launch, comparisons with predicted ocean surface backscatter at 94 GHz, direct comparisons with airborne cloud radars, and statistical comparisons with ground-based cl...
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American Meteorological Society
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ftunivreading:oai:centaur.reading.ac.uk:24182 2024-06-23T07:50:40+00:00 CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator Protat, A. Bouniol, D. O'Connor, E. J. Klein Baltink , H. Verlinde, H. Widener, K. 2011-03 https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/24182/ unknown American Meteorological Society Protat, A., Bouniol, D., O'Connor, E. J. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000855.html>, Klein Baltink , H., Verlinde, H. and Widener, K. (2011) CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 28 (3). pp. 445-452. ISSN 0739-0572 doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 <https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 > Article PeerReviewed 2011 ftunivreading https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 2024-06-11T14:55:12Z The calibration of the CloudSat spaceborne cloud radar has been thoroughly assessed using very accurate internal link budgets before launch, comparisons with predicted ocean surface backscatter at 94 GHz, direct comparisons with airborne cloud radars, and statistical comparisons with ground-based cloud radars at different locations of the world. It is believed that the calibration of CloudSat is accurate to within 0.5–1 dB. In the present paper it is shown that an approach similar to that used for the statistical comparisons with ground-based radars can now be adopted the other way around to calibrate other ground-based or airborne radars against CloudSat and/or to detect anomalies in long time series of ground-based radar measurements, provided that the calibration of CloudSat is followed up closely (which is the case). The power of using CloudSat as a global radar calibrator is demonstrated using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement cloud radar data taken at Barrow, Alaska, the cloud radar data from the Cabauw site, Netherlands, and airborne Doppler cloud radar measurements taken along the CloudSat track in the Arctic by the Radar System Airborne (RASTA) cloud radar installed in the French ATR-42 aircraft for the first time. It is found that the Barrow radar data in 2008 are calibrated too high by 9.8 dB, while the Cabauw radar data in 2008 are calibrated too low by 8.0 dB. The calibration of the RASTA airborne cloud radar using direct comparisons with CloudSat agrees well with the expected gains and losses resulting from the change in configuration that required verification of the RASTA calibration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Barrow Alaska CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading Arctic Rasta ENVELOPE(14.571,14.571,66.169,66.169) Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 28 3 445 452 |
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Open Polar |
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CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading |
op_collection_id |
ftunivreading |
language |
unknown |
description |
The calibration of the CloudSat spaceborne cloud radar has been thoroughly assessed using very accurate internal link budgets before launch, comparisons with predicted ocean surface backscatter at 94 GHz, direct comparisons with airborne cloud radars, and statistical comparisons with ground-based cloud radars at different locations of the world. It is believed that the calibration of CloudSat is accurate to within 0.5–1 dB. In the present paper it is shown that an approach similar to that used for the statistical comparisons with ground-based radars can now be adopted the other way around to calibrate other ground-based or airborne radars against CloudSat and/or to detect anomalies in long time series of ground-based radar measurements, provided that the calibration of CloudSat is followed up closely (which is the case). The power of using CloudSat as a global radar calibrator is demonstrated using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement cloud radar data taken at Barrow, Alaska, the cloud radar data from the Cabauw site, Netherlands, and airborne Doppler cloud radar measurements taken along the CloudSat track in the Arctic by the Radar System Airborne (RASTA) cloud radar installed in the French ATR-42 aircraft for the first time. It is found that the Barrow radar data in 2008 are calibrated too high by 9.8 dB, while the Cabauw radar data in 2008 are calibrated too low by 8.0 dB. The calibration of the RASTA airborne cloud radar using direct comparisons with CloudSat agrees well with the expected gains and losses resulting from the change in configuration that required verification of the RASTA calibration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Protat, A. Bouniol, D. O'Connor, E. J. Klein Baltink , H. Verlinde, H. Widener, K. |
spellingShingle |
Protat, A. Bouniol, D. O'Connor, E. J. Klein Baltink , H. Verlinde, H. Widener, K. CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
author_facet |
Protat, A. Bouniol, D. O'Connor, E. J. Klein Baltink , H. Verlinde, H. Widener, K. |
author_sort |
Protat, A. |
title |
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
title_short |
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
title_full |
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
title_fullStr |
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
title_full_unstemmed |
CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator |
title_sort |
cloudsat as a global radar calibrator |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/24182/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(14.571,14.571,66.169,66.169) |
geographic |
Arctic Rasta |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Rasta |
genre |
Arctic Barrow Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barrow Alaska |
op_relation |
Protat, A., Bouniol, D., O'Connor, E. J. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000855.html>, Klein Baltink , H., Verlinde, H. and Widener, K. (2011) CloudSat as a Global Radar Calibrator. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 28 (3). pp. 445-452. ISSN 0739-0572 doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 <https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 > |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHA1443.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology |
container_volume |
28 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
445 |
op_container_end_page |
452 |
_version_ |
1802641584799350784 |