| CRTM Surface Models |
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Microwave Emissivity |
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Over Land: NESDIS developed a microwave land emissivity model (Weng et al, 2001). This model capitalizes on scientific advances in various fields from atmospheric sciences to electrophysics and astrophysics. In particular, the volumetric scattering theory developed by the electrical engineering community is utilized to compute the optical parameters of snow, deserts and canopy leaves. In addition, the radiative transfer theory that is often applied in atmospheric science is enhanced to compute the bulk-emitted radiation from surface. The surface emission and scattering models also include the roughness effect that is approximated by the small perturbation theory. The radiation interaction between snow interfaces and volumetric scattering of particles is fully represented. In the case of vegetation, geometrical optics is used since the leaf size is typically larger than the wavelength. Critical issues remain in simulating the emissivity spectra over extreme surface conditions and at infrared wavelengths. Evidence of these model deficiencies comes from comparisons of the simulated global emissivity distribution with satellite retrievals from the AMSU and SSM/I (Weng et al., 2001). In cold climate regimes (e.g., Greenland), snow structure is very complex with stratification and metamorphosis For oceans, a model was developed to simulate the emissivity vector using a two-scale roughness approximation (Yueh, 1997). The emission from large-scale waves is normally polarimetric and is modeled by the geometrical optics (GO) (Stogryn, 1967). In the GO model, the large-scale waves are modeled by tilting surface facets, and the scattering coefficients are proportional to the number of surface facets with a sloping angle satisfying the specular reflection condition. The slope distribution of the large-scale roughness is computed from an ocean surface spectrum (Cox and Munk, 1954; Durden and Vesecky, 1985). However, the GO scattering theory underestimates the directional signals in the first three components of the microwave emissivity vector and predicts no signals in the fourth component (Gasiewski and Kunkee, 1994). Bragg scattering from the small-scale waves was found to be useful in explaining the dependence of the emissivity on ocean wind direction and the existence of the fourth component in the emissivity vector (Yueh, 1997). The cutoff wavenumber for separating between the large and small-scale waves depends on frequency and can be optimally derived (Liu et al., 1998). With a two-scale model, the emissivity and brightness temperature vectors can be simulated and are found to be consistent with those obtained from a airborne microwave radiometer (St. Germain and Poe, 1998). A similar model theory is also applicable for infrared wavelength (Wu and Smith, 2000) and integrated into CRTM.
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Infrared Emissivity |
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From visible to infrared wavelengths, the emissivity over land is derived from a look-up table, according to surface type and wavelength. In the table, the emissivity spectra are specified as function of surface types including water, old snow, fresh snow, compacted soil, tilled soil, sand, rock, irrigated low vegetation, meadow grass, scrub, broadleaf forest, pine forest, tundra, grass soil, broadleaf pine forest, grass scrub, oil grass, urban concrete, pine brush, broadleaf brush, wet soil, scrub soil, broadleaf 70-pine 30, and new ice. Currently, the JCSDA is also developing infrared emissivity estimates through use of high spectral resolution clear radiances and statistical or minimum emissivity techniques. These methods are being evaluated and are viewed as a prelude to using emissivity as part of a variational minimization in analysis. |
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Visible Relectivity Model |
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Under developments |
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Others |
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