External Calibration of Mtvza-Gya Microwave Radiometer Measurements in Scanner Channels. Part 2. The Experiment

Abstract

The external calibration of measurements in eight MTVZA-GYa scanner channels on board the Meteor-M No. 2-2 satellite in the frequency range of 10.6-36.5 GHz is carried out. The calibration is based on collocated AMSR2 measurements with a time difference within 10 minutes in the Arctic from March to November in 2020 and the results of brightness temperature ( T b) model calculations. The results are summarized as coefficients for converting MTVZA-GYa antenna temperatures into T b in the linear approximation. The analysis of MTVZA-GYa and AMSR2 measurements for 10 months of 2020 over test sites above sea ice and seawater is performed. The results of the analysis indicate that the proposed calibration keeps unchanged the ratios of the MTVZA-GYa T b to the AMSR2 T b obtained from the model simulations. The results show no trends in the differences between the MTVZA-GYa T b and the AMSR2 T b for the considered 10 months, which confirms the stability of the onboard calibration of MTVZA-GYa.

Structure and variability of the Pechora plume in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea

“…Ice steadily expands northward from the continental coast and covers the majority of the sea by the end of December. Intense ice melting starts in May and the sea becomes completely free of ice in late Juneearly July, albeit during certain warm years it happens a month earlier (Zabolotskikh and Balashova, 2021). The longest presence of ice occurs in the eastern part of the sea near the Vaygach Island and the Yugorsky Strait.…”