REMOTE-SENSING OF LAND-SURFACE ENERGY-BALANCE USING DATA FROM THE HIGH-RESOLUTION INTERFEROMETER SOUNDER (HIS) - A SIMULATION STUDY

The remote sensing of the land-surface energy balance and soil moistur e using satellite surface 'skin' temperature measurements has long bee n a topic of investigation in the research community. Despite consider able progress in understanding and techniques, there are still serious limitations in the results obtainable using satellite measurements fo r both the surface fluxes and soil moisture which need to be addressed via improved measurements and methods. We detail in this work a simul ation study investigating the remote sensing of the land-surface energ y balance using information from the High-resolution Interferometer So under (HIS), an instrument being considered for launch on a future ser ies of geostationary satellites. The study is accomplished using simul ated HIS data that are generated using atmospheric radiative transfer models specific to the HIS applied to the output of a forecast model o f the planetary boundary layer, which predicts temporal changes in ski n temperature and atmospheric structure based on the surface fluxes. I n this study, we find that the ability of the instrument to measure te mporal changes of radiances that arise from time changes in the struct ure of the planetary boundary layer, as well as skin temperature chang es, mitigates some Of the problems associated with using skin temperat ures alone to estimate the surface energy balance.