Sensitivity of 89–190-GHz microwave observations to ice particle scattering

Abstract

The sensitivity of microwave brightness temperatures (TBs) to hydrometeors at frequencies between 89 and 190 GHz is investigated by comparing Fengyun-3C (FY-3C) Microwave Humidity Sounder-2 (MWHS-2) measurements with radar reflectivity profiles and retrieved products from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission’s Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). Scattering-induced TB depressions (ΔTBs), calculated by subtracting simulated cloud-free TBs from bias-corrected observed TBs for each channel, are compared with DPR-retrieved hydrometeor water path (HWP) and vertically integrated radar reflectivity ZINT. We also account for the number of hydrometeors actually visible in each MWHS-2 channel by weighting HWP with the channel’s cloud-free gas transmission profile and the observation slant path. We denote these transmission-weighted, slant-path-integrated quantities with a superscript asterisk (e.g., HWP*). The so-derived linear sensitivity of ΔTB with respect to HWP* increases with frequency roughly to the power of 1.78. A retrieved HWP* of 1 kg m22 at 89 GHz on average corresponds to a decrease in observed TB, relative to a cloud-free background, of 11 K. At 183 GHz, the decrease is about 34–53 K. We perform a similar analysis using the vertically integrated, transmission-weighted slant-path radar reflectivity Z*INT and find that ΔTB also decreases approximately linearly with (Z*INT)0.58. The exponent of 0.58 corresponds to the one we find in the purely DPR-retrieval-based ZINT –HWP relation. The observed sensitivities of DTB with respect to Z*INT and HWP* allow for the validation of hydrometeor scattering models.