Retrieval of atmospheric moisture parameters from multi-channel microwave extinction along satellite-earth path

Atmospheric moisture parameters, such as total water vapor (WV), liquid water path (LWP), and ice water path (IWP), are important to the cloud physics and meteorology. However, because of the observational difficulties in high variability of atmospheric moisture, all measurement techniques cannot yield global datasets of these moisture parameters to meet the needs in numerical weather model and weather modification studies. In this paper we present a concept to determine these moisture parameters from directly measuring microwave attenuation along the satellite-earth surface path. An investigation has been conducted on the optimal choice of channels and errors estimate of the retrieval method. The results show that the proposed method in principle can more accurately retrieve LWP than the available passive satellite remote sensing. The method with dual- or triple-channel combination can simultaneously retrieve atmospheric WV, LWP, and IWP.