Land-surface microwave emissivity map of Indian region: Megha-Tropiques perspective

Satellite microwave radiometers used to measure the atmospheric parameters, liquid water and the microphysical properties of clouds, have serious limitations over the land owing its large and spatially heterogeneous emissivity. This calls for determination of the spatial maps of land-surface emissivity with accuracies better than ~2%. Realizing the above, characterization of microwave emissivity of different land surface classes over the Indian region has been initiated with the forthcoming Megha-Tropiques mission in focus, using the microwave radiometer data (SSM/I at 19, 22, 37 and 85 GHz).