AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF SATELLITE MICROWAVE SOUNDER INCIDENCE ANGLE AND SCAN GEOMETRY ON THE ACCURACY OF ATMOSPHERIC-TEMPERATURE PROFILE RETRIEVALS
Pw. Rosenkranz et al., AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF SATELLITE MICROWAVE SOUNDER INCIDENCE ANGLE AND SCAN GEOMETRY ON THE ACCURACY OF ATMOSPHERIC-TEMPERATURE PROFILE RETRIEVALS, Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology, 14(3), 1997, pp. 488-494
Cross-track and conical scan microwave sounder designs are compared wi
th respect to temperature profile retrieval accuracy in nonprecipitati
ng atmospheres and with respect to the beamfilling effect of precipita
tion. The conical design shows slightly better accuracy at pressure le
vels of 3 hPa or less, while the cross-track design performs slightly
better at pressure levels of 850 hPa or greater. Under the assumption
that precipitation-contaminated fields of view would be rejected, cons
ideration of beamfilling by rain cells indicates that retrieval yield
would be higher for the cross-track design.