Numerical simulations of radar surface air pressure measurements at O/sub 2/ bands

An active microwave method is investigated for measuring surface air pressure by using radar reflections at frequencies around 53-55 GHz O/sub 2/ bands. The numerical simulation results for homogeneous backgrounds show that with an airborne radar working at these O/sub 2/ absorption bands, the rms errors of the radar surface pressure estimations with 15-dB signal-to-noise ratio can be as low as 4-7 mb. A radar system that covers these wavelengths will have great potentials for weather observations and other meteorological applications.