This article presents the results of a study conducted to quantify the seasonal variation of coherence in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferograms in Kiruna, Northern Sweden. In SAR interferometry (InSAR), coherence is an important concept that provides a good indication of the phase stability of the scatterers. Therefore, in this study, the degree of coherence is used as a parameter to identify the seasonal variation interferograms. For this study, 34 Radarsat-2 ultra-fine beam mode (U6D) images of the Kiruna area (67°51ʹN, 20°14ʹE) and the improved digital elevation model (DEM) created by merging the Radarsat-2 DEM and ASTER DEM were used to produce 561 differential interferograms. The interferograms were arranged in three different ways for the analysis, with the first including common master interferograms (with the summer master image), the second including the sequential interferograms that have the shortest temporal baseline, and the third accounting for all possible combinations of the interferograms (full network of interferograms). Following this step, the variation of coherence for forest areas, urban areas, and flat waste rock areas was studied. This study shows that interferograms generated for the Kiruna region exhibit seasonal variations in coherence due to the ground snow layer in winter. Furthermore, when there is water on the ground due to the melting of the snow layer (in the spring) or due to rains in autumn, the coherence is reduced considerably. Another significant feature is that there is a significant change in summer-to-summer coherence for some regions even over the course of a few years. Based on this study, it is clear that the winter Radarsat-2 U6D beam mode images are not suitable for differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) deformation measurements in flat waste rock regions in Kiruna. It is expected that even with winter images, PSInSAR or CTM techniques will be able to provide better deformation measurements, but, in this study, those techniques were not assessed. The next step will be to study the seasonal variations in coherence in natural or man-made targets/persistent scatterers using persistent scatter InSAR (PSInSAR) or coherence target monitoring (CTM) techniques

This is a study of the usefulness of radio occultation (RO) data for intercomparing different microwave temperature (MWT) sounding instruments. The RO data used are from the Global Navigational Satellite System Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding on the Metop-A and B satellites. The MWT sounders investigated are the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A instruments on the satellites NOAA 15, 16, and 18 and Metop-A. We collocate RO and MWT data and then use these collocations to study various aspects of the MWT instruments. In addition, two different versions of the MWT data are compared: standard operational data (OPR) and the NOAA Integrated Microwave Intercalibration Approach data (IMICA). The time series of monthly mean differences shows that there are robust patterns for each satellite and data version, which mostly drift only slowly over time. The intersatellite spread, measured by the standard deviation of the yearly mean values by all satellites, is between 0.1 and 0.4 K, depending on channel, with no significant differences between OPR and IMICA data. The only notable exception is Channel 8 of NOAA 16, which appears to have a time-varying offset of 0.5–1 K relative to the other instruments. At this point it is not clear whether this deviation is real or a sampling artifact, so further study is needed. Due to the large number of collocations used, it is possible to also investigate the scene brightness and scan angle dependence of the MWT bias (relative to RO). First results of such an analysis are presented and discussed. Particularly, the investigation of the scan angle dependence is novel, since this bias pattern is difficult to assess without RO data. Further work is needed on these angular dependences, before conclusions are robust enough to include in data recalibration efforts, but our overall conclusion is that RO collocations are a powerful tool for intercomparing MWT sounders.

This article presents the practical theory that was used to implement the Zeeman effect using Stokes formalism in the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator ARTS. ARTS now treats the Zeeman effect in a general manner for several gas species for all polarizations and takes into account variations in both magnetic and atmospheric fields along a full 3D geometry. We present how Zeeman splitting affects polarization in radiative transfer simulations and find that the effect may be large in Earth settings for polarized receivers in limb observing geometry. We find that not taking a spatially varying magnetic field into account can result in absolute errors in the measurement vector of at least 10 K in Earth magnetic field settings. The article also presents qualitative tests for O2 lines against previous models (61.15 GHz line) and satellite data from Odin-SMR (487.25 GHz line), and the overall consistency between previous models, satellite data, and the new ARTS Zeeman module seems encouraging.

It is well known that terrestrial GPS/Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers are vulnerable and have suffered from intentional and unintentional interference sources. Unfortunately, space-based GPS/GNSS receivers are not exempt from radio frequency interference originating from the Earth. This paper explores data recorded by the GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS) instrument onboard MetOp-A in September 2007, which is assumed to be representative of the typical environment for GPS/GNSS instrumentation in LEO orbit. Within these data it is possible to detect both pulsed interference and variations in the background noise. One plausible source of the pulsed interference is identified. We also show that neither the pulsed interference nor the variations in the background noise degrades the performance of the higher level products from GRAS.

WIRA is a ground-based microwave Doppler spectro radiometer specifically designed for the measurement of profiles of horizontal wind in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere region where no other continuously running measurement technique exists. A proof of principle has been delivered in a previous publication. Since a technical upgrade which improved the signal to noise ratio by a factor of 2.4 the full horizontal wind field comprising zonal and meridional wind profiles is continuously measured. A completely new retrieval based on optimal estimation has been set up. Its characteristics are detailed in the present paper.Since the start of the routine operation of the first prototype in September 2010, WIRA has been measuring at four different locations at polar, mid and tropical latitudes for time periods between 5.5 and 11 months. A comparison between the data series from WIRA and ECMWF model data revealed agreement within 10% in the stratospheric zonal wind. The meridional wind profiles agree within their error bars over the entire sensitive altitude range of WIRA. However, significant differences in the mesospheric zonal wind speed of up to 40% have been found.

WIRA is a ground-based microwave Doppler spectroradiometer specifically designed for the measurement of profiles of horizontal wind in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere region where no other continuously running measurement technique exists. A proof of principle has been delivered in a previous publication. A technical upgrade including a new high-frequency amplifier and sideband filter has improved the signal to noise ratio by a factor of 2.4. Since this upgrade the full horizontal wind field comprising zonal and meridional wind profiles is continuously measured. A completely new retrieval based on optimal estimation has been set up. Its characteristics are detailed in the present paper. Since the start of the routine operation of the first prototype in September 2010, WIRA has been measuring at four different locations at polar, mid- and tropical latitudes (67°22′ N/26°38′ E, 46°57′ N/7°26′ E, 43°56′ N/5°43′ E and 21°04′ S/55°23′ E) for time periods between 5.5 and 11 months. The data presented in this paper are daily average wind profiles with typical uncertainties and resolutions of 10 to 20 m s−1 and 10 to 16 km, respectively. A comparison between the data series from WIRA and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model data revealed agreement within 10% in the stratospheric zonal wind. The meridional wind profiles agree within their error bars over the entire sensitive altitude range of WIRA. However, significant differences in the mesospheric zonal wind speed of up to 50% have been found.

Accurate modeling of wavelength-integrated radiative quantities, e.g. integrated over a spectral band or an instrument channel response function, requires computations for a large number of wavelengths if the radiation is affected by gas absorption which typically comprises a complex line structure. In order to increase computational speed of modeling radiation in the Earth׳s atmosphere, we parameterized wavelength-integrals as weighted means over representative wavelengths. We parameterized spectral bands of different widths (1 cm−1, 5 cm−1, and 15 cm−1) in the solar and thermal spectral range, as well as a number of instrument channels on the ADEOS, ALOS, EarthCARE, Envisat, ERS, Landsat, MSG, PARASOL, Proba, Sentinel, Seosat, and SPOT satellites. A root mean square relative deviation lower than 1% from a “training data set” was selected as the accuracy threshold for the parameterization of each band and channel. The training data set included high spectral resolution calculations of radiances at the top of atmosphere for a set of highly variable atmospheric states including clouds and aerosols. The gas absorption was calculated from the HITRAN 2004 spectroscopic data set and state-of-the-art continuum models using the ARTS radiative transfer model. Three representative wavelengths were required on average to fulfill the accuracy threshold. We implemented the parameterized spectral bands and satellite channels in the uvspec radiative transfer model which is part of the libRadtran software package. The parameterization data files, including the representative wavelengths and weights as well as lookup tables of absorption cross sections of various gases, are provided at the libRadtran webpage.In the paper we describe the parameterization approach and its application. We validate the approach by comparing modeling results of parameterized bands and channels with results from high spectral resolution calculations for atmospheric states that were not part of the training data set. Irradiances are not only compared at the top of atmosphere but also at the surface for which this parameterization approach was not optimized. It is found that the parameterized bands and channels provide a good compromise between computation time requirements and uncertainty for typical radiative transfer problems. In particular for satellite radiometer simulations the computation time requirement and the parameterization uncertainty is low. Band-integrated irradiances at any level as well as heating and cooling rates below 20 km can also be modeled with low uncertainty.

This article presents SPARE-ICE, the Synergistic Passive Atmospheric Retrieval Experiment-ICE. SPARE-ICE is the first Ice Water Path (IWP) product combining infrared and microwave radiances. By using only passive operational sensors, the SPARE-ICE retrieval can be used to process data from at least the NOAA 15 to 19 and MetOp satellites, obtaining time series from 1998 onward. The retrieval is developed using collocations between passive operational sensors (solar, terrestrial infrared, microwave), the CloudSat radar, and the CALIPSO lidar. The collocations form a retrieval database matching measurements from passive sensors against the existing active combined radar-lidar product 2C-ICE. With this retrieval database, we train a pair of artificial neural networks to detect clouds and retrieve IWP. When considering solar, terrestrial infrared, and microwave-based measurements, we show that any combination of two techniques performs better than either single-technique retrieval. We choose not to include solar reflectances in SPARE-ICE, because the improvement is small, and so that SPARE-ICE can be retrieved both daytime and nighttime. The median fractional error between SPARE-ICE and 2C-ICE is around a factor 2, a figure similar to the random error between 2C-ICE ice water content (IWC) and in situ measurements. A comparison of SPARE-ICE with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Pathfinder Atmospheric Extended (PATMOS-X), and Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products System (MSPPS) indicates that SPARE-ICE appears to perform well even in difficult conditions. SPARE-ICE is available for public use.

We present a method for characterizing the magnetic anomalies from the crustal fields in the lower atmosphere of Mars that requires two perpendicular linear polarization measurements of the Zeeman effect. The maximum effect of the magnetic field on the signal is found at the Doppler broadening width at low pressures rather than at the magnetically induced line frequency shift, and the effect strongly increases with increasing magnetic field strength. Based on simulations of the Zeeman-affected spectral cross section of the 119 GHz O2 line in a model Martian atmosphere at various magnetic field strengths, we conclude that it should be possible to probe the strength of the magnetic anomalies remotely with presently available technology. We discuss limitations of the method, how these results could be relevant to the interpretation of residuals in Herschel/HIFI observations of Mars, as well as the application to detection of exoplanetary magnetic fields.