Emissivity Model Sensitivity on Radiometric Inter-calibration between the GMI and Its Constellation Imager Radiometers

Abstract:

The inter-satellite radiometric calibration technique (also known as XCAL) has been applied with great success between the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) –calibration transfer standard- and its constellation imagers, namely, WindSat, AMSR2 and SSMIS. However, while the TRMM mission has now ended, it is now time to change the radiometric transfer standard from the previous TMI to the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI).

In this paper, we conduct the inter-calibration between GMI and other imager instruments in its constellation using two different radiative transfer models (RTM), namely XCAL RTM which has been used by XCAL group over the past 10 years, and RSS RTM developed by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS). The main difference between these two RTMs lies in calculating the ocean surface emissivity which is crucial for the measurement of spaceborne microwave radiometers. By comparing the simulated Tb’s from two RTMs applied on 9 microwave channels ranging from 10 to 90 GHz, we are able to evaluate the robustness of our XCAL RTM, especially the Elsaesser Ocean Surface Emissivity model that has been used within this model.

Besides discussing the reliability of these two RTMs, an XCAL approach known as Double Difference (DD) that has been developed and successfully validated by the Central Florida Remote Sensing Lab will be performed between GMI and its constellation imagers, from which the results will enable us to prescreen the consistency of GMI as the new radiometric transfer standard for imager radiometers as well as assessing the impact of the ocean surface emissivity on radiometric inter-calibration of radiometers at imager channels.

Index: Inter-satellite calibration, ocean surface emissivity, radiative transfer model, microwave radiometry