SEA-AIR AND BOUNDARY-LAYER TEMPERATURES MEASURED BY A SCANNING 5-MM-WAVELENGTH RADIOMETER - RECENT RESULTS

A scanning 5-mm-wavelength (60 GHz) radiometer was deployed during two recent experiments. The first was in September-October in 1995 when t he Environmental Technology Laboratory conducted the Coastal Ocean Pro bing Experiment off the Oregon coast. During this experiment the scann ing radiometer was deployed on the Floating Instrument Platform, a res earch vessel operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Grou nd truth for the radiometer was provided by two independent in situ an d infrared measurements of the ocean surface temperature; ground truth for air temperature was also provided by two in situ measurements at 0.5 and 12 m above the ocean surface. The second experiment was during September 10-30, 1996, at the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radi ation Measurement Program's Cloud and Radiation Testbed site near Lame nt, Oklahoma. Here ground truth for derived quantities consisted of 3- hourly radiosonde releases and measurements at 25 and 60 m from a mete orological tower. The results of the experiments indicate that the sca nning radiometer yields accuracies of the order of 0.4 degrees C rms f or sea-air temperature difference and accuracies in temperature of bet ter than 0.7 degrees C rms at altitudes below 60 m.