NESDIS Moisture Sounding Products from AMSU-B and SSM/T2

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) generates dedicated moisture sounding products from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-14, and NOAA-15 polar orbiting satellites. F-14 provides measurements from the Special Sensor Microwave Moisture (SSM/T2) radiometer, and NOAA-15 from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B (AMSU-B). These radiometers are spectrally identical, with the AMSU-B having about twice the horizontal resolution. SSM/T2 products have been available from NESDIS since 1993. The Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS) configuration, which includes AMSU-B, is the first in a series of next generation microwave sounders planned through 2010.

Soon after the launch of NOAA-15, a series of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) sources were identified to be contaminating the AMSU-B observations. NESDIS, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UKMO), closely monitored and successfully installed a number of corrective procedures to remove the RFI from the observations. Unfortunately, the nature of the RFI continues to vary over time.

The following report addresses the scientific algorithms and product performance for the radiometric and derived soundings produced from SSM/T2 and AMSU-B. The report includes the current status of the RFI on AMSU-B, the series of corrections developed and the overall impact on sounding products. Results include inter-comparisons between collocated SSM/T2, AMSU-B, radiosonde and numerical weather prediction forecast data.