STAR Microwave Sounding Calibration and Trends
Introduction
The Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on board the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites have provided critical atmospheric temperature measurements during the past 30 years. The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) to be flown on the NPP/NPOESS program will carry the microwave sounding capability into the future. These observations offer a unique opportunity for monitoring global climate change of the atmosphere. However, calibration errors have been a major source of uncertainties in the climate trend determination. To obtain reliable climate trend, consistent and physics-based recalibration and reprocessing of the MSU and AMSU observations that aims at reducing the intersatellite differences and calibration errors are required. During the past several years, NESDIS/StAR has been recalibrating and reprocessing the MSU/AMSU observations for these purposes. This website introduces the research conducted by NESDIS/STAR with regard to the MSU and AMSU calibration methodology, climate datasets and downloading, and related climate trend results.
