IMPROVED 20-GHZ TO 32-GHZ ATMOSPHERIC ABSORPTION-MODEL

An improved model for the absorption of the atmosphere near the 22-GHz water vapor line is presented. The Van Vleck-Weisskopf line shape is used with a simple parameterized version of the model from Liebe et al . [1993] for the water vapor absorption spectra and a scaling of the m odel from Rosenkranz [1993] for the 20- to 32-GHz oxygen absorption. R adiometric brightness temperature measurements from two sites of contr asting climatological properties, San Diego, California, and West Palm Beach, Florida, were used as ground truth for comparison with in situ radiosonde-derived brightness temperatures under clear-sky conditions . Estimation of the new model's four parameters, related to water vapo r line strength, line width and continuum absorption, and far-wing oxy gen absorption, was performed using the Newton-Raphson inversion metho d. Improvements to the water vapor line strength and line width parame ters are found to be statistically significant. The accuracy of the ne w absorption model is estimated to be 3% between 20 and 24 GHz, degrad ing to 8% near 32 GHz. In addition, the Hill line shape asymmetry rati o was evaluated on several currently used models to show the agreement of the data with Van Vleck-Weisskopf based models and to rule out wat er vapor absorption models near 22 GHz given by Waters [1976] and Ulab y et al. [1981], which are based on the Gross line shape.