How Can Microwave Observations at 23.8 GHz Help in Acquiring Water Vapor in the Atmosphere over Land?
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NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research, College Park, MD 20740, USA
2
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, Cooperative Institute for Satellite and Earth System Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Domenico Cimini and Stefania Bonafoni
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(3), 489; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030489
Received: 25 November 2020
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Revised: 26 January 2021
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Accepted: 27 January 2021
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Published: 30 January 2021
(This article belongs to the Section Atmospheric Remote Sensing)
Due to concerns about radio frequency interference from emerging telecommunications technology, there have been intensive discussions on the changes to the international Radio Regulations around 24 GHz at the recent World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019. Although the sensitivity to total precipitable water (TPW) at 23.8 GHz over land is small, and in some cases close to zero, state-of-the-art retrieval systems with no dependence on real-time ancillary data (e.g., numerical weather prediction (NWP) model forecasts), such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operational Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MiRS), have been producing reliable TPW products over both ocean and land, which implies that the microwave channel at 23.8 GHz is providing valuable information on TPW over land as well as over ocean. The contradiction between the zero or near-zero sensitivity and practical performance over land raises questions for the remote sensing community and public users of such data. In this study, we examine the underlying physics and include mathematical explanations, which address and clarify the apparent contradiction. The channel at 23.8 GHz is a direct measurement and indispensable for its combined use with microwave temperature and moisture sounding channels.
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Keywords:
passive microwave sensors; 5G wireless business; radio frequency interference; total precipitable water
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MDPI and ACS Style
Liu, Q.; Cao, C.; Grassotti, C.; Lee, Y.-K. How Can Microwave Observations at 23.8 GHz Help in Acquiring Water Vapor in the Atmosphere over Land? Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030489
AMA Style
Liu Q, Cao C, Grassotti C, Lee Y-K. How Can Microwave Observations at 23.8 GHz Help in Acquiring Water Vapor in the Atmosphere over Land? Remote Sensing. 2021; 13(3):489. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030489
Chicago/Turabian StyleLiu, Quanhua, Changyong Cao, Christopher Grassotti, and Yong-Keun Lee. 2021. "How Can Microwave Observations at 23.8 GHz Help in Acquiring Water Vapor in the Atmosphere over Land?" Remote Sensing 13, no. 3: 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030489
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