Abstract
Microwave observations of the ocean surface are contaminated to a greater or lesser degree by the overlying atmosphere. The principal components of the atmosphere contributing to this contamination are molecular oxygen, water vapor, and water droplets. By means of measurements at several, well-chosen frequencies, these atmospheric parameters may be removed from ocean observations and themselves retrieved as a by-product. This is the basic concept of the Scanning Multifrequency Radiometer (SMMR). These corrections may be made by quasi-linear means to useful accuracies, even in the presence of moderate rain.
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Wilheit, T., Chang, A.T.C. & Milman, A.S. Atmospheric corrections to passive microwave observations of the ocean. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 18, 65–77 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117911
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117911