An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations
The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Pathfinder CubeSat was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle during the June 30, 2021 Transporter-2 rideshare mission. The Pathfinder satel...
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IEEE
2025-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10812687/ |
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| author | Amelia Gagnon Samantha N. Hasler Juliana Chew William J. Blackwell R. Vincent Leslie Michael DiLiberto Kerri Cahoy |
| author_facet | Amelia Gagnon Samantha N. Hasler Juliana Chew William J. Blackwell R. Vincent Leslie Michael DiLiberto Kerri Cahoy |
| author_sort | Amelia Gagnon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Pathfinder CubeSat was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle during the June 30, 2021 Transporter-2 rideshare mission. The Pathfinder satellite carries a microwave radiometer with 12 channels (spanning 90–205 GHz) that are sensitive to the precipitation, humidity, and temperature structure of Earth's atmosphere. In this work, we compare the TROPICS Pathfinder calibrated brightness temperatures (radiances) to collocated European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast's Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) data and radiative transfer simulations of Earth's atmosphere using the community radiative transfer model (CRTM). To minimize errors due to radiative transfer uncertainties, we compare TROPICS Pathfinder L1B data from October 2021 with simulated brightness temperature values from the CRTM for observations that are filtered for points near-nadir, over-ocean, free of clouds, and within latitudes from 40<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> N to 40<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> S. We also step through each of the filtering steps individually, to reduce the modeling errors in our comparison. Our results indicate excellent agreement with the simulated brightness temperatures, attaining less than 1 K mean difference between Pathfinder observed radiances and the CRTM simulated radiances for all channels, which is within the 1 K mission requirement. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-43a0792d2061494a8d1ab63dab2e0aaf |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1939-1404 2151-1535 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj-art-43a0792d2061494a8d1ab63dab2e0aaf2025-01-04T00:00:27ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01182512252510.1109/JSTARS.2024.351854110812687An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer ObservationsAmelia Gagnon0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2326-3260Samantha N. Hasler1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4894-193XJuliana Chew2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4062-1341William J. Blackwell3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2884-7241R. Vincent Leslie4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-5609Michael DiLiberto5https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0743-1406Kerri Cahoy6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7791-5124Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Cambridge, USADepartment of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, USADepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Cambridge, USAApplied Space Systems, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, USAApplied Space Systems, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, USAApplied Space Systems, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, USADepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Cambridge, USAThe NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Pathfinder CubeSat was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle during the June 30, 2021 Transporter-2 rideshare mission. The Pathfinder satellite carries a microwave radiometer with 12 channels (spanning 90–205 GHz) that are sensitive to the precipitation, humidity, and temperature structure of Earth's atmosphere. In this work, we compare the TROPICS Pathfinder calibrated brightness temperatures (radiances) to collocated European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast's Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) data and radiative transfer simulations of Earth's atmosphere using the community radiative transfer model (CRTM). To minimize errors due to radiative transfer uncertainties, we compare TROPICS Pathfinder L1B data from October 2021 with simulated brightness temperature values from the CRTM for observations that are filtered for points near-nadir, over-ocean, free of clouds, and within latitudes from 40<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> N to 40<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> S. We also step through each of the filtering steps individually, to reduce the modeling errors in our comparison. Our results indicate excellent agreement with the simulated brightness temperatures, attaining less than 1 K mean difference between Pathfinder observed radiances and the CRTM simulated radiances for all channels, which is within the 1 K mission requirement.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10812687/Atmospheric measurementscalibrationearthmicrowave radiometryremote sensing |
| spellingShingle | Amelia Gagnon Samantha N. Hasler Juliana Chew William J. Blackwell R. Vincent Leslie Michael DiLiberto Kerri Cahoy An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing Atmospheric measurements calibration earth microwave radiometry remote sensing |
| title | An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations |
| title_full | An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations |
| title_fullStr | An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations |
| title_short | An Initial Validation of the NASA TROPICS Pathfinder Microwave Radiometer Observations |
| title_sort | initial validation of the nasa tropics pathfinder microwave radiometer observations |
| topic | Atmospheric measurements calibration earth microwave radiometry remote sensing |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10812687/ |
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