Physical Validation of Microwave Properties of Winter Precipitation Over the Sea of Japan

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 45; no. 7; pp. 2247 - 2258
• Main Authors: Aonashi, K., Koike, T., Muramoto, K.-I., Imaoka, K., Takahashi, N., Guosheng Liu, Yoo-Jeong Noh
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.07.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E); Applied geophysics; Brightness temperature; Clouds; Computer simulation; Density; Earth Observing System; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Internal geophysics; Marine; Microwave imaging; microwave properties; Microwave radiometry; Microwaves; Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR); Ocean temperature; physical validation; Polarization; Precipitation; radiative transfer model (RTM); Resin transfer molding; Retrieval; Sea of Japan; Sea surface; Temperature; Temperature sensors; Wakasa Bay Experiment 2003 (WAKASA2003); Water; Winter; winter precipitation; West Pacific; Far East; Japan Sea; Japan; microwaves; physical properties; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E); Earth Observing System; simulation; microwave properties; clouds; depressions; physical validation; radiometry; water content; polarization; particles; models; radiative transfer model (RTM); density; atmospheric precipitation; liquid phase; Space remote sensing; brightness temperature; correlation; Asia; Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR); Pacific Ocean; winter precipitation; Wakasa Bay Experiment 2003 (WAKASA2003); monsoons
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2007.896740

In order to evaluate variations in the physical properties of winter precipitation over the Sea of Japan, we analyzed the Wakasa Bay Experiment 2003 datasets. The results show that synoptic scale differences in freezing-level height (FLH) were observed between extra-tropical low cases and winter monsoon and upper cold low cases, and that, frozen-particle density and cloud liquid water content (CLWC) observed at the surface showed great variation independent of the precipitation rate, although positive correlation may exist between these two properties. The radiative transfer model (RTM) simulation and the validation using the advanced microwave scanning radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E) and millimeter-wave imaging radiometer brightness temperatures (TBs) indicate that sensitivity to frozen precipitation rate (0-5 mm ldr h -1 ) was found in 89-GHz polarization-corrected temperature (PCT89), 89-GHz polarization difference (PD89), and 150-GHz TBs and that this sensitivity decreased with FLH due to emission from mixed- and liquid-phase particles. The RTM simulation, however, overestimated the AMSR-E PCT89 depressions for nonzero FLH cases. This indicates that microwave retrieval for winter precipitation requires a priori information about FLH and an efficient mixed-phase-particle model for RTM. The relationship between surface precipitation rate and TBs was also influenced by the observed variation of CLWC. The relationship between PCT89 and PD89 is greatly altered in terms of CLWC. Relationship between AMSR-E PCT89 precipitation sensitivity and CLWC estimated from PCT89 and PD89 was qualitatively consistent with those of the RTM simulations. This suggests that CLWC, another important retrieval parameter, can be estimated from PCT89 and PD89.