Extended Abstract (24K)2.1
The Role of Passive Microwave Radiometers in Climate Monitoring (Invited Presentation)
Roy W. Spencer, Univ.of Alabama, Huntsville, AL
The satellite monitoring of global climate has been greatly advanced through passive microwave radiometry. After demonstration of the technology on NASA research satellites in the 1970's, multiple copies of several instrument designs have flown as part of routine NOAA and DoD weather monitoring efforts. Gradually, the external calibration design of most of these radiometers has been realized to be stable enough to allow useful estimates of not only climate variability on a regional scale, but also long term trends of globally averaged quantities. Critical to the integrity of a long term record is the precise intercalibration of multiple copies of the same instrument in the face of different, and sometimes changing, local observation times. In special circumstances, "space truthing" of ground-based measurement systems has been demonstrated. Deep-layer average temperatures, oceanic integrated water vapor and cloud water, near-surface wind speed, sea ice, and precipitation are among some of the parameters which now have ten to twenty (or more) years of observations. These datasets are being used in a wide variety of climate diagnostic and model validation efforts. As new and improved radiometer designs are flown, a major challenge remains the maintenance of the long-term stability of the satellite record sufficient to monitor thermodynamic and hydrologic climate changes associated with predicted average global warming of 0.2 deg. C per decade.
Session 2, Climatology and Long-Term Satellite Studies
Monday, 15 October 2001, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM