SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND SALINITY MAPPING FROM REMOTE MICROWAVE RADIOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

摘要

A technique to measure remotely sea-surface temperature and salinity was demonstrated with a dual-frequency microwave radiometer system. Accuracies in temperature of 1° C and in salinity of 1 part per thousand (°/00) for salinity greater than 5 °/00 were attained after correcting for the influence of extraterrestrial background radiation, atmospheric radiation and attenuation, sea-surface roughness, and antenna beamwidth. The radiometers, operating at 1.43 and 2.65 GHz, comprise a third-generation system using null balancing and feedback noise injection. Flight measurements from an aircraft at an altitude of 1.4 km over the lower Chesapeake Bay and coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean resulted in contour maps of sea-surface temperature and salinity with a spatial resolution of 0.5 km.