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Ruf et al. 1994
Ruf, C.S., Keihm, S.J., Subramanya, B. and Janssen, M.A. (1994). TOPEX/POSEIDON microwave radiometer performance and in-flight calibration. Journal of Geophysical Research 99: doi: 10.1029/94JC00717. issn: 0148-0227.

Results of the in-flight calibration and performance evaluation campaign for the TOPEX/POSEIDON microwave radiometer (TMR) are presented. Intercomparisons are made beween TMR and various sources of ground truth, including ground-based microwave water vapor radiometers, radiosondes, global climatological models, special sensor microwave imager data over the Amazon rain forest, and models of clear, calm, subpolar ocean regions. After correcting for preflight errors in the processing of thermal/vacuum data, relative channel offsets in the open ocean TMR brightness temperatures were noted at the ≈1 K level for the three TMR frequencies. Larger absolute offsets of 6--9 K over the rain forest indicated a ≈5% gain error in the three channel calibrations. This was corrected by adjusting the antenna pattern correction (APC) algorithm. A 10% scale error in the TMR path delay estimates, relative to coincident radiosondes, was corrected in part by the APC adjustment and in part by a 5% modification to the value assumed for the 22.235 GHz water vapor line strength in the path delay retrieval algorithm. After all in-flight corrections to the calibration, TMR global retrieval accuracy for the wet tropospheric range correction is estimated at 1.1 cm RMS with consistent performance under clear, cloudy, and windy conditions. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994

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Abstract

Keywords
Radio Science, Remote sensing, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Instruments and techniques, Oceanography, General, Remote sensing and electromagnetic processes, Radio Science, Radio wave propagation
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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