A schematic diagram shows the submillimeter remote sensing idea for the downward viewing geometry.
A heterodyne instrument was developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) by Paul Racette and Jim Wang. The Compact Scanning Submillimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSSIR) was designed to have 15 channels with receivers at 183, 220, 380, 487, and 640 GHz. CoSSIR flew on the ER-2 during the CRYSTAL-FACE cirrus experiment in Florida in July 2002. See below for a journal article about analysis of CoSSIR data from CRYSTAL-FACE. CoSSIR was upgraded to achieve better receiver performance and flown in January 2006 in the CR-AVE deployment. CoSSIR was deployed during the TC4 experiment in July/August 2008 with receivers at 183, 220, 380, 640 (H and V pol), and 874 GHz (see talk slides below). CoSSIR has now been modified to have receivers at 183, 325, 448, 640 (H and V pol), and 874 GHz.
David O'C Starr is the CoSSIR PI, Frank Evans is the CoSSIR science co-I, and Bryan Monosmith (GSFC) is the CoSSIR lead engineer.
In the past I have been involved with two other submillimeter-wave radiometers .
A talk (1.4 MB PDF) presented at the TC4Science Team Meeting (February 28, 2008) describes analysis of CoSSIR data from TC4, including comparisons with other remote sensing instruments (Note: the agreement with the Cloud Radar System has since improved with a change in the CRS data).
A talk (580 kB PDF) prepared
by myself and presented by Jim Wang at the CR-AVE Science Team Meeting
(November 15, 2006) describes analysis of CoSSIR data from CR-AVE,
including the 487 GHz polarization signature from oriented ice crystals
in tropical anvils.
A paper about a new ice cloud profile retrieval algorithm has been published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques . It uses in situ microphysical amd humidity measurements from TC4 along with CloudSat data for the a priori information, performs retrievals with CoSSIR data, and evaluates the retrievals with Cloud Radar System data from TC4.
A paper about retrievals of anvil ice cloud properties from CRYSTAL-FACE CoSSIR data and validation with the Cloud Radar System (CRS) has been published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology .
A paper describing the JPL SWCIR instrument, the Bayesian retrieval algorithm, and simulations of retrieval accuracy was published in JGR:
A paper using radiative transfer modeling to gain a detailed understanding of submillimeter cirrus remote sensing was published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology:
A paper exploring the potential of a submillimeter spectrometer for cirrus remote sensing was also published in JAM:
My work in this area started with a theoretical exploration of microwave radiative transfer in nonspherical cirrus ice crystals. Two papers were published from this portion of my PhD thesis: