Onboard Radio Frequency Interference as the Origin of Inter-Satellite Biases for Microwave Humidity Sounders
Understanding the causes of inter-satellite biases in climate data records from observations of the Earth is crucial for constructing a consistent time series of the essential climate variables. In this article, we analyse the strong scan- and time-dependent biases observed for the microwave humidit...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2019-04-01
|
| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/7/866 |
| Summary: | Understanding the causes of inter-satellite biases in climate data records from observations of the Earth is crucial for constructing a consistent time series of the essential climate variables. In this article, we analyse the strong scan- and time-dependent biases observed for the microwave humidity sounders on board the NOAA-16 and NOAA-19 satellites. We find compelling evidence that radio frequency interference (RFI) is the cause of the biases. We also devise a correction scheme for the raw count signals for the instruments to mitigate the effect of RFI. Our results show that the RFI-corrected, recalibrated data exhibit distinctly reduced biases and provide consistent time series. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2072-4292 |