Comparison of SSMIS, AMSR-E and MWRI brightness temperature data

Passive microwave remote sensing observations have been widely used for long-term global monitoring of the Earth. Passive microwave data can be utilized to obtain important parameters (e.g. precipitation, snow cover, sea ice and soil moisture) of the Earth system with relatively high temporal resolution and regardless of lighting and cloud conditions. However, due to the limited lifetime of individual satellite sensors it is necessary to examine and cross-calibrate the brightness temperature data of different instruments when establishing long-term time series of observations. In this paper, brightness temperature data from SSMIS, AMSR-E and MWRI were compared over the Greenland ice sheet. In addition, the brightness temperature data from these instruments were also compared against tower-based brightness temperature observations over a test site in the boreal forest zone. A simple Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) retrieval algorithm was applied to the three satellite data sources to investigate the effect of observational biases to a typical satellite product on snow cover.