An Assessment of Jason-1 Microwave Radiometer Measurements and Products

Abstract

In the context of the sea level survey at the mm level, it is necessary all along the lifetime of the altimeter mission to survey the quality of the products from the microwave radiometer. The calibration of the brightness temperatures has been validated using reference brightness temperatures over selected continental areas as well as simulations for a wide range of oceanic and atmospheric situations. The validation of the wet path delay is performed by comparison with radiosonde measurements and pointed out that both the JMR and the TMR estimate wet path delay around 5 mm higher than the one measured by radiosondes. Furthermore, it appeared that the correction of the TMR drift degrades the product with respect to radiosonde measurements. The monitoring of the brightness temperatures since launch shows a mean drift around +0.1 K/year for the 18.7 GHz, −0.6 K/year for the 23.8 GHz channel, and around −0.4 K/year for the 34 GHz channel.