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Issues in the Integration of Research and Operational Satellite Systems for Climate Research Part I. Science and Design (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Atmospheric Soundings
Pages 17-24

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
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From page 17...
... Although temperature and moisture profiles (soundings) are currently obtained from conventional meteorological observing networks operating over populated regions, the lack of global coverage, together with the steady demise of these networks, results in increasing reliance on satellite observations to fill critical gaps in observational data.
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From page 18...
... The absorption properties of cloud droplets and ice particles at infrared sounding wavelengths are so strong that even thin clouds contaminate the measurement of radiances. A number of techniques have been developed to
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From page 20...
... and the DMSP Microwave Water Vapor Profiler (SSM/T/ 2) with channels at 118 GHz and across the 183 GHz absorption line of water vapor, and the more recent Advanced Microwave Sounding Units A and B (AMSU-A and AMSU-B)
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From page 21...
... For characterizing climate and especially for monitoring change, it is thus critical to establish the extent to which any retrieved quantity relies on an initial estimate, which is usually derived from an unreliable climatological database. If the analysis of any properties is too dependent on such information, it will not provide proper measures of evolving climate change.
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From page 22...
... Although NWP systems have improved over the last decade, it has become increasingly difficult to demonstrate that temperature profiles retrieved from satellite sounding data have a consistent positive impact on Northern Hemisphere forecasts (e.g., Eyre et al., 1992; Smith, 1991~. This difficulty has led to the belated recognition that the information content of temperature data obtained from current sounders is low, relative to temperature "knowledge" already contained in NWP systems.
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From page 23...
... optimally contribute to retrieved soundings, which channels are redundant, and what is to be gained by combining a number of redundant channels (Rodgers, 1996~. Evolution to Assimilation of Radiance Data As an understanding of the true information content of sounding data emerged in the 1990s, alternate approaches were developed to account for it and for the error characteristics of the data.
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From page 24...
... 1997. Climate Measurement Requirements for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
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Key Terms

  • radiance data
  • spectral resolution
  • vertical resolution
  • sounding data
  • numerical weather

  • information content
  • weather prediction
  • infrared sounder
  • measurement requirements
  • climate measurement

  • microwave sounding
  • data products
  • operational environmental
  • temperature profiles
  • spectral measurements

  • vicarious calibration
  • climate data
  • increasing spectral
  • highly resolved
  • thin clouds

  • environmental satellite
  • climatological value
  • explicit retrievals
  • sounding measurements
  • profiling water

  • earth observing
  • sounding unit
  • positive impact
  • operational prediction
  • calibrated radiance


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