STAR Joint Polar Satellite System Algorithms & Data Products website National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration website NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research website
MiRS Total Precipitable Water, 3/30/2016 - click to enlarge

MiRS Total Precipitable Water, 3/30/2016 - click to enlarge

MiRS System

Team Lead: Mark Liu, Christopher Grassotti

Product Description

Microwave Integrated Retrieval System (MiRS):

  • Enterprise Algorithm System applied to a number of microwave sensors:
    Operational: POES (N18/N19), Metop-A and Metop-B (AMSU/MHS), DMSP (F16/F17/F18/F19), Megha-Tropiques (SAPHIR), GPM (GMI), and SNPP/JPSS (ATMS)
    Experimental: TRMM (TMI), Aqua (AMSRE), and GCOM-W (AMSR2)
  • Same executable, forward operator, and covariance matrix for all sensors
  • Modular design makes it feasible to run on other MW sensors or in combination with collocated IR measurements

Product and Data Access

Products and data:

EDR Long Term-Monitoring

Documentation

Retrieval Output EDRs:

Atmospheric Temperature Profile, Atmospheric Water Vapor Profile, Total Precipitable Water, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Emissivity Spectrum, Sea-Ice Concentration, Snow Cover Extent, Snow-Water Equivalent, Integrated Cloud Liquid Water, Integrated Ice Water Path, Integrated Rain Water Path, Rainfall Rate
Added MiRS V11.1: Snowfall Rate, Sea Ice Age, Snow Grain Size

Users

Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA): Hurricane Intensity Analyses/Forecasts; Morphed Integrated Microwave Imagery at CIMSS (MIMIC): TPW Animations; Climate Prediction Center (CPC): Precipitation, Blended TPW; Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP): Direct Broadcast

Future Improvements

  • Snow (vegetation correction)
  • Rainy condition sounding (update a priori constraints)
  • Hydrometeors (improvements to CRTM i.e. scattering, precharacterization of precip type, particle size/shape distribution in CRTM, CLW over land for light rain detection)
  • Air mass-dependent bias corrections