Study on Microwave Remote Sensing of Atmosphere,Cloud and Rain

In this paper, recent research of microwave remote sensing of atmosphere, cloud and rain in China is presented. It includes the following aspects:(1) Progress in the development of multifrequency radiometer and its characteristics and parameters;(2) Application of microwave remote sensing in prediction of atmospheric boundary layer. The atmospheric temperature profiles are derived with 5 mm (54.5 GHz) radiometer angle-scanning observations. Due to the fact that microwave radiometer could monitor the atmospheric temperature profile continuously and make the initialization of numerical model any time, it is helpful for improving the accuracy in prediction of the evolution of atmospheric boundary layer;(3) Theory and application of microwave radiometers in monitoring atmospheric temperature, humidity and water content in cloud. The field experiment of International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) at Shionomisaki and Amami Oshima of Japan for studies of cloud and weather has been described;(4) Satellite remote sensing of atmosphere and colud. The TIROS-N TOYS satellite data are used to obtain atmospheric temperature profile. The results are compared with those of radiosonde, with rms deviation smaller than that of the current operational TOVS processing;(5) Microwave remote sensing and communication. The atmospheric attenuations are derived with microwave remote sensing methods such as solar radiation method etc., in order to obtain the local value instantaneously. The characteristics of Beijing's rainfall have been analysed and the probability of microwave attenuation of rain is predicted;(6) For improvement of the accuracy of rainfall measurement, a radiometer-radar system (λ= 3.2 cm) has been developed The variation of rainfall distribution and area-rainfall may be obtained by its measurements, which mav be helpful for hydrological prediction.The prospect of microwave remote sensing in meteorology is also discussed.

Recent Progresses in Atmospheric Remote Sensing Research in China——Chinese National Report on Atmospheric Remote Sensing Research in China during 1999-2003

Progresses of atmospheric remote sensing research in China during 1999-2003 are summarily introduced. This research includes: (1) microwave remote sensing of the atmosphere; (2) Lidar remote sensing; (3) remote sensing of aerosol optical properties; and (4) other research related to atmospheric remote sensing, including GPS remote sensing of precipitable water vapor and radiation modei development.

EFFECTS OF A CLOUD FILTERING METHOD FOR FENGYUN-3C MICROWAVE HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE SOUNDER MEASUREMENTS OVER OCEAN ON RETRIEVALS OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY

For Microwave Humidity and Temperature sounder(MWHTS) measurements over the ocean, a cloud filtering method is presented to filter out cloud-and precipitation-affected observations by analyzing the sensitivity of the simulated brightness temperatures of MWHTS to cloud liquid water, and using the root mean square error(RMSE)between observation and simulation in clear sky as a reference standard. The atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles are retrieved using MWHTS measurements with and without filtering by multiple linear regression(MLR),artificial neural networks(ANN) and one-dimensional variational(1DVAR) retrieval methods, respectively, and the effects of the filtering method on the retrieval accuracies are analyzed. The numerical results show that the filtering method can improve the retrieval accuracies of the MLR and the 1DVAR retrieval methods, but have little influence on that of the ANN. In addition, the dependencies of the retrieval methods upon the testing samples of brightness temperature are studied, and the results show that the 1DVAR retrieval method has great stability due to that the testing samples have great impact on the retrieval accuracies of the MLR and the ANN, but have little impact on that of the 1DVAR.

The China Multimode Microwave Remote Sensor (CMMRS) Onboard the SZ-4 Spaceship

In this report, the specifications and some results of the China multimode microwave remote sensor (CMMRS) onboard China's SZ-4 spaceship are described. Technical details and initial processing results of the CMMRS measurement data are reported.

Chaos Particle Swarm Optimization Combined with Circular Median Filtering for Geophysical Parameters Retrieval from WindSat

This paper established a geophysical retrieval algorithm for sea surface wind vector, sea surface temperature, columnar atmospheric water vapor, and columnar cloud liquid water from WindSat, using the measured brightness temperatures and a matchup database. To retrieve the wind vector, a chaotic particle swarm approach was used to determine a set of possible wind vector solutions which minimize the difference between the forward model and the WindSat observations. An adjusted circular median filtering function was adopted to remove wind direction ambiguity. The validation of the wind speed, wind direction, sea surface temperature, columnar atmospheric water vapor, and columnar liquid cloud water indicates that this algorithm is feasible and reasonable and can be used to retrieve these atmospheric and oceanic parameters. Compared with moored buoy data, the RMS errors for wind speed and sea surface temperature were 0.92 m s^(-1) and 0.88℃, respectively. The RMS errors for columnar atmospheric water vapor and columnar liquid cloud water were 0.62 mm and 0.01 mm, respectively, compared with F17 SSMIS results. In addition, monthly average results indicated that these parameters are in good agreement with AMSR-E results. Wind direction retrieval was studied under various wind speed conditions and validated by comparing to the Quik SCAT measurements, and the RMS error was 13.3?. This paper offers a new approach to the study of ocean wind vector retrieval using a polarimetric microwave radiometer.

Orbit Design for Twin-spacecraft Space VLBI

Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry(S-VLBI) is an aperture synthesis technique utilizing an array of radio telescopes including ground telescopes and space orbiting telescopes.It can achieve much higher spatial resolution than that from the ground-only VLBI.In this paper,a new concept of twin spacecraft S-VLBI has been proposed,which utilizes the space-space baselines formed by two satellites to obtain larger and uniform uv coverage without atmospheric influence and hence achieve high quality images with higher angular resolution.The orbit selections of the two satellites are investigated.The imaging performance and actual launch conditions are all taken into account in orbit designing of the twin spacecraft S-VLBI.Three schemes of orbit design using traditional elliptical orbits and circular orbits are presented.These design results can be used for different scientific goals.Furthermore,these designing ideas can provide useful references for the future Chinese millimeter-wave S-VLBI mission.

A COMPARISON OF THE RETRIEVAL OF ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE PROFILES USING OBSERVATIONS OF THE 60 GHZ AND 118.75 GHZ ABSORPTION LINES

The Microwave Temperature Sounder-Ⅱ(MWTS-Ⅱ) and Microwave Humidity and Temperature Sounder(MWHTS) onboard the Fengyun-3 C(FY-3 C) satellite can be used to detect atmospheric temperature profiles. The MWTS-II has 13 temperature sounding channels around the 60 GHz oxygen absorption band and the MWHTS has 8 temperature sounding channels around the 118.75 GHz oxygen absorption line. The data quality of the observed brightness temperatures can be evaluated using atmospheric temperature retrievals from the MWTS-Ⅱ and MWHTS observations. Here, the bias characteristics and corrections of the observed brightness temperatures are described. The information contents of observations are calculated, and the retrieved atmospheric temperature profiles are compared using a neural network(NN) retrieval algorithm and a one-dimensional variational inversion(1 D-var) retrieval algorithm. The retrieval results from the NN algorithm show that the accuracy of the MWTS-Ⅱ retrieval is higher than that of the MWHTS retrieval, which is consistent with the results of the radiometric information analysis. The retrieval results from the 1 D-var algorithm show that the accuracy of MWTS-Ⅱ retrieval is similar to that of the MWHTS retrieval at the levels from 850-1,000 h Pa, is lower than that of the MWHTS retrieval at the levels from 650-850 h Pa and 125-300 h Pa, and is higher than that of MWHTS at the other levels. A comparison of the retrieved atmospheric temperature using these satellite observations provides a reference value for assessing the accuracy of atmospheric temperature detection at the 60 GHz oxygen band and 118.75 GHz oxygen line. In addition, based on the comparison of the retrieval results, an optimized combination method is proposed using a branch and bound algorithm for the NN retrieval algorithm, which combines the observations from both the MWTS-Ⅱand MWHTS instruments to retrieve the atmospheric temperature profiles. The results show that the optimal combination can further improve the accuracy of MWTS-Ⅱ retrieval and enhance the detection accuracy of atmospheric temperatures near the surface.

Improvements in reverse breakdown characteristics of THz GaAs Schottky barrier varactor based on metal-brim structure

The excellent reverse breakdown characteristics of Schottky barrier varactor(SBV)are crucially required for the application of high power and high efficiency multipliers.The SBV with a novel Schottky structure named metal-brim is fabricated and systemically evaluated.Compared with normal structure,the reverse breakdown voltage of the new type SBV improves from-7.31 V to-8.75 V.The simulation of the Schottky metal-brim SBV is also proposed.Three factors,namely distribution of leakage current,the electric field,and the area of space charge region are mostly concerned to explain the physical mechanism.Schottky metal-brim structure is a promising approach to improve the reverse breakdown voltage and reduce leakage current by eliminating the accumulation of charge at Schottky electrode edge.

Preliminary marine gravity field from HY-2A/GM altimeter data

HY-2 A(Haiyang-2 A),launched in 2011,is the first ocean dynamic environment satellite of China and is equipped with a radar altimeter as one of the primary payloads.HY-2 A shifted the drift orbit in March 2016 and has been accumulating geodetic mission(GM)data for more than three years with 168-day cycle.In this paper,we present the preliminary gravity field inverted by the HY-2 A/GM data from March 2016 to December 2017 near Taiwan(21°–26°N,119°–123°E).The gravity anomaly is computed by Inverse Vening Meinesz(IVM)formula with a onedimensional FFT method during remove-restore procedure with the EGM2008 gravity model as the reference field.For comparison,CryoSat-2 altimeter data are used to inverse the gravity field near Taiwan Island by the same method.Comparing with the gravity field derived from CryoSat-2,a good agreement between the two data sets is found.The global ocean gravity models and National Geophysical Data Center(NGDC)shipboard gravity data also are used to assess the performance of HY-2 A/GM data.The evaluations show that HY-2 A and CryoSat-2 are at the same level in terms of gravity field recovery and the HY-2 A/GM altimeter-derived gravity field has an accuracy of 2.922 mGal.Therefore,we can believe that HY-2 A will be a new reliable data source for marine gravity field inversion and has the potentiality to improve the accuracy and resolution of the global marine gravity field.

Assessment of reprocessed sea surface height measurements derived from HY-2A radar altimeter and its application to the observation of 2015–2016 El Nino

Haiyang-2A（HY-2A） is China＇s first ocean dynamic environment satellite and the radar altimeter is one of its main payloads. One of the main purposes of the radar altimeter is to measure the sea surface height（SSH）. The SSH determined from the altimeter range measurements includes some range and geophysical corrections. These corrections largely affect the accuracy of the SSH measurements. The range and the geophysical corrections are reprocessed and the altimeter waveforms in HY-2A sensor interim geophysical data set records（S-IGDR） are retracked from June 1, 2014 to June 14, 2014, and the accuracy of the reprocessed SSH measurements is evaluated.The methods of the range and geophysical corrections used to reprocess HY-2A altimeter data are validated by using these methods to reprocess the Jason-2 range and geophysical corrections and comparing the results with the range and geophysical corrections in Jason-2 geophysical dataset records（GDR） product. A crossover analysis is used to evaluate the accuracy of the reprocessed HY-2A SSH measurements. The standard deviation（STD） of the crossover SSH differences for HY-2A is around 4.53 cm while the STD of the SSH differences between HY-2A and Jason-2 is around 5.22 cm. The performance of the reprocessed HY-2A SSH measurements is significantly improved with respect to the SSH measurements derived from HY-2A interim geophysical dataset records（IGDR）product. The 2015–2016 El Ni？o has been the strongest El Ni？o event since 1997–1998. The range and the geophysical corrections in HY-2A IGDR are reprocessed and sea level anomalies are used to monitor the2015–2016 El Ni？o. The results show that the HY-2A altimeter can well observe the 2015–2016 El Ni？o.

Optimal ship imaging for shore-based ISAR using DCF estimation

The optimal imaging time selection of ship targets for shore-based inverse synthetic aperture radar （ISAR） in high sea conditions is investigated. The optimal imaging time includes opti- mal imaging instants and optimal imaging duration. A novel method for optimal imaging instants selection based on the estimation of the Doppler centroid frequencies （DCFs） of a series of images obtained over continuous short durations is proposed. Combined with the optimal imaging duration selection scheme using the image contrast maximization criteria, this method can provide the ship images with the highest focus. Simulated and real data pro- cessing results verify the effectiveness of the proposed imaging method.

Interannual Variability of SST,SLA and Wind Waves in the Hawaii Area and Their Responses to ENSO

Time series of sea surface temperature (SST),wind speed and significant wave height (SWH) from meteorological buoys of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) are useful for studying the interannual variability and trend of these quantities at the buoy areas. The measurements from 4 buoys (B51001,B51002,B51003 and B51004) in the Hawaii area are used to study the responses of the quantities to EI Ni?o and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Long-term averages of these data reflect precise seasonal and climatological characteristics of SST,wind speed and SWH around the Hawaii area. Buoy observations from B51001 suggest a significant warming trend which is,however,not very clear from the other three buoys. Compared with the variability of SST and SWH,the wind speeds from the buoy observations show an increasing trend. The impacts of EI Nio on SST and wind waves are also shown. Sea level data observed by altimeter during October 1992 to September 2006 are analyzed to investigate the variability of sea level in the Hawaii area. The results also show an increasing trend in sea level anomaly (SLA). The low-passed SLA in the Hawaii area is consistent with the inverse phase of the low-passed SOI (Southern Oscillation Index). Compared with the low-passed SOI and PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation),the low-passed PNA (Pacific-North America Index) has a better correlation with the low-passed SLA in the Hawaii area.

Quantifying the contribution of natural variability to September Arctic sea ice decline

Arctic sea ice extent has been declining in recent decades. There is ongoing debate on the contribution of natural internal variability to recent and future Arctic sea ice changes. In this study, we contrast the trends in the forced and unforced simulations of carefully selected global climate models with the extended observed Arctic sea ice records. The results suggest that the natural variability explains no more than 42.3% of the observed September sea ice extent trend during 35 a（1979–2013） satellite observations, which is comparable to the results of the observed sea ice record extended back to 1953（61 a, less than 48.5% natural variability）. This reinforces the evidence that anthropogenic forcing plays a substantial role in the observed decline of September Arctic sea ice in recent decades. The magnitude of both positive and negative trends induced by the natural variability in the unforced simulations is slightly enlarged in the context of increasing greenhouse gases in the 21st century.However, the ratio between the realizations of positive and negative trends change has remained steady, which enforces the standpoint that external forcing will remain the principal determiner of the decreasing Arctic sea ice extent trend in the future.

Regional Profiles and Precipitation Retrievals and Analysis Using FY-3C MWHTS

The 89 and 150 GHz channels operated in window are sensitive to precipitation and humidity. The 183 GHz humidity-sensitive channels and 118 GHz temperature-sensitive channels of the Microwave Humidity and Temperature Sounder (MWHTS) on the Chinese Feng Yun 3C MWHTS (FY-3C MWHTS) polar-orbit meteorological satellite responds in part to precipitation. Combining 118 and 183 GHz channels, the paper develops a passive sub-millimeter atmospheric profile and precipitation retrievals algorithm for MWHTS onboard the FY-3C (Feng Yun-3C) satellite. The retrieval algorithm employs a number of back propagation neural network estimators trained and evaluated using the validated global reference physical model NCEP/WRF/ARTS and works for land and seawater with latitude between -40 to 40 degree. NCEP data per 6 hours were downloaded to run the Weather Research and Forecast model WRF, and to derive the typical precipitation data for the whole world. The Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator ARTS is feasible for performing simulations of atmospheric radiative transfer. The results show that the profile retrievals using BP-NN algorithm has the best correlation with those from radiosonde, which is less than 18% and 1 K of root mean square error, respectively. For precipitation rate retrievals, a much better agreement is reached with rain gauge and ECMWF datasets, the RMS is between 0.80 to 30.24 mm/h for sea surface and 0.789 to 33.11 mm/h for land surface according to the classification by precipitation type. Also, the analysis of retrievals located in Tibetan plateau is provided as an example to justify the robustness and performance of retrieving model.

Deployable Antenna with Compact Ortho-mode Transducer and Feeding Systems

The compact ortho-mode transducer (OMT) and compact conical corrugated horn(CCCH) are used as feeding system of the deployable dual polarizing antenna in this paper.A new stricture of double-septum in main wave guide OMT is proposed. The finite difference method in time domain (FDTD) in combination with genetic algorithms(GAs) is used to analysis and optimize this new OMT. The experiment results show that the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of this OMT and feeding system is less than 1.17 in bandwidth; the isolation between the ortho-mode ports is less than -40dB; the cross-polar level of the feed can reach -35dB and the length of the main waveguide can be reduced 50% at least.

A Novel Ship Wake Detection Algorithm Based on WTHT and Radon Transform

This paper proposes a novel ship wake detection algorithm based on the White Top-hat Transform(WTHT)and the Radon transform,which aims to improve the contrast between the ship wake and the background so as to improve the detection performance on Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)images.The proposed algorithm includes two major processes,and one is to improve the contrast and another one is to locate the ship wake.In high sea state conditions,the contrast of ship wake and background can be very low,which makes it difficult to detect.In the first step,the proposed contrast improvement algorithm is applied to improving the contrast which helps for improving the detection performance.An attribute filter based on edge detection result is adopted here.In the second step the contrast improved image is transformed into the Radon domain followed by peak extraction process to find the wake,the WTHT is used once more in this step.Finally,in the last step,the wake is overlapped on the original image.Experimental results on Tiangong-2 Interferometric Imaging Radar Altimeter(InIRA)images are presented and compared with that obtained by using the classical algorithm,and in this way,the better performance of our algorithm is demonstrated.

A method for correcting regional bias in SMOS global salinity products

Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity(SMOS) Level 3(L3) sea surface salinity(SSS) products are provided by the Barcelona Expert Centre(BEC). Strong biases were observed on the SMOS SSS products, thus the data from the Centre Aval de Traitement des Données SMOS(CATDS) were adjusted for biases using a large-scale correction derived from observed differences between the SMOS SSS and World Ocean Atlas(WOA) climatology data. However, this large-scale correction method is not suitable for correcting the large gradient of salinity biases. Here, we present a method for the correction of SSS regional bias of the monthly L3 products. Based on the stable characteristics of the large SSS biases from month to month in some regions, corrected SMOS SSS maps can be obtained from the monthly mean values after removing the regional biases. The accuracy of the SMOS SSS measurements is greatly improved, especially near the coastline, at high latitudes, and in some open ocean regions. The SMOS and ISAS SSS data are also compared with Aquarius SSS to verify the corrected SMOS SSS data. The correction method presented here only corrects annual mean biases. The measurement accuracy of the SSS may be improved by considering the influence of atmospheric and ocean circulation in different seasons and years.

Quantitative Estimation of Groundwater Leakage from Namco Lake by SAR Monitoring

Objective This study focused on the Namco, the largest lake on the Tibet plateau as well as the highest large lake in the world. A large imbalance between water input and output of this lake has attracted great attention in the field of hydrogeology during recent years. As there is no surface outflow from Namco, the large water imbalance can only be explained by water seepage. Synthetic aperture radar （SAR） image data were used for the first time in combination with hydrological data actually measured in the field and meteorological station data, to quantitatively acquire the information of surface fluctuation, water storage variation, and to estimate groundwater leakage from Namco Lake. The results provide theoretical support and data for further understanding the processes and extent of water resource response to global climate change, and also provide a scientific basis for rational development and utilization of water resource in the Tibetan Plateau.

Variations of the Magnetosphere Resonance Frequencies During Magnetic Storm of July 15-16,2000

ULF observations at two mid-latitude sites during the large geomagnetic storm of July 15-16,2000 were used to trace variations of resonance frequencies of the field line resonators. A brief description of the geomagnetic disturbance as it was observed on the ground, at the geostationary orbit, and before the Earth's bow shock is given. Then a detailed study of ULF dynamic spectra from Borok and Mondy is performed for8 succesive 6-hour intervals of July 15 and 16. In conclusion some tasks for the future work are listed.