A Comparison of Near-Concurrent Measurements From the SSMIS and CoSMIR for Some Selected Channels Over the Frequency Range of 50–183 GHz

Ten underflights of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) with Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft were conducted over the coastal region of California between March 2004 and March 2005. The measured brightness temperature (Tb) values from both sensors are collocated and compared at frequencies of 50.3, 52.8, 53.6, 91.655, 150, 183.3 plusmn 1,183.3 plusmn 3, and 183.3 plusmn 6.6 GHz. The more transparent channels at 50.3, 91.655, and 150 GHz are strongly affected by the changes in surface emission and low-level liquid clouds. Thus, the average differences in T
_b
values (deltaT
_b
), measured by the two sensors, and their changes from flight to flight are difficult to assess. For the remaining opaque channels, using the CoSMIR measurements as reference, the lowest SSMIS T
_b
values occur when the SSMIS is completely under the Earth's shadow. As the satellite moves out of the Earth's shadow in the ascending passes, the SSMIS T
_b
values are found to gradually increase with more exposure to the sun. The magnitudes of these Tb changes are about 4-5 K for the three 183.3-GHz channels and about 2 K for the 52.8- and 53.6-GHz channels.