Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) Microwave Radiometer Level-1B Algorithm and Calibration

Dr. Jinzheng Peng

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Monday March 11, 2019, 12:00-1:00 PM

ESSIC Conference Room 4102, 5825 University Research Ct, College Park, MD 20740

Abstract:

The SMAP microwave radiometer is a fully polarimetric and conical scanning instrument flown on the SMAP satellite which was launched into a 6 AM / 6 PM sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 685-km on January 31, 2015. The latest SMAP level 1B data product (version 4) was released in June 2018 for global mapping of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state, sea surface salinity, and etc.  In the radiometer level 1B data product, the antenna temperature (TA) is obtained by converting raw digital counts with characterized receiver channels including the internal calibration sources. The Earth’s surface brightness temperature is then derived from TA with removing the contribution from unwanted sources (the Sun, the Moon, the galaxy, and Earth’s surface in the antenna’s sidelobe) and correcting the impact of the ionosphere and the atmosphere. Various pre- and post-launch calibration activities have been performed to characterize the receiver channels and the reflector loss of the SMAP radiometer. This talk will focus on the SMAP radiometer level 1B algorithm, the instrument calibration activities, and the performance of the L1B data product.

Bio-sketch:

Dr. Peng is a scientist with the Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR/USRA) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He works in the Microwave Instruments and Technology Branch to develop techniques for microwave remote sensing of the Earth’s environment. He is a member of the Algorithm Development Team and Calibration/Validation Team for the Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) Radiometer. He has received three NASA group Achievement Awards and two NASA Robert H Goddard Exceptional Achievement awards. His current research interests include system-level concept design, analysis, calibration/validation, and algorithm development for microwave remote sensing instruments. He received his PhD from University of Michigan.

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