SMOS preliminary cal-val activities: Skylab Study

Comparison between ERA-40 based L-band brightness temperatures with Skylab Observations

The community microwave emission model (CMEM) has been used to compute global L-band brightness temperatures at the top of the atmophere.Modelled brightness temperatures have been compared against (historic) observations from the S-194 passive microwave radiometer onboard the Skylab space station. Different parameterizations for surface roughness and the vegetation optical depth have been used to calibrate the model (Drusch et al., Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol 10, DOI: 10.1175/2008JHM964.1 2009).

Figure: Spatial and temporal coverage of the Skylab S-194 observations with the corresponding observation dates and overpass time (UTC). Blue tracks have been used for the calibration. The validation has been based on the red tracks.