Surface measurements and system noise characteristics of China spaceborne precipitation radar in flight experiments

A dual-frequency precipitation radar is planned to be launched with FengYun-3 precipitation measurement satellite in 2016 in China. In order to validate the design of the prototype radar, two field campaigns of two airborne versions of the radar were carried out from July to October in 2010 for the first time. As one of the three parts of each flight experiment, the surface including sea surface and land surface are measured during fine days. The obtained data are analyzed to evaluate the results from the external experiments and the characters of the system noise in this paper.