Microwave Radiometer (MWR)
Instrument Categories: Radiometric, Cloud Properties, Atmospheric Profiling
General Overview
The Microwave Radiometer (MWR) provides time-series measurements of column-integrated amounts of water vapor and liquid water. The instrument itself is essentially a sensitive microwave receiver. That is, it is tuned to measure the microwave emissions of the vapor and liquid water molecules in the atmosphere at specific frequencies.
Primary Measurements Taken
The following measurements are those considered scientifically relevant. Refer to the netCDF File Header Descriptions (Data Object Design Files) for the list of all available measurements, including those recorded for diagnostic or quality assurance purposes.
- Microwave narrowband brightness temperature
- Cloud liquid water
- Liquid water path
- Precipitable water
- Microwave radiation
Available Value-Added Products
This instrument is an input to the following value-added products, which provide improved measurements or derived quantities.
- 1mwravg - Microwave Radiometer (MWR): brightness temps and water amounts, 1-minute avg
- 5mwravg - Microwave Radiometer (MWR): 5-minute average integrated vapor and liquid water
- qmemwrcol - QME: derived, column water, MWR vs. instrument model
- qmemwrlbl - QME: derived, LBLRTM vs MWR brightness temps. at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz
- qmemwrlblss - QME, derived, LBLRTM, MWR bright. temps (23.8 & 31.4 GHz), scaled lblsonde
Available Datastreams
- mwrlos - Microwave Water Radiometer (MWR): water liq. & vapor along line of sight (LOS) path
- mwrtip - Microwave Water Radiometer (MWR): airmasses, brightness temperatures (TIP mode)
Sites / Facilities
Note: Click the "
" to expand/collapse the list.
- North Slope Alaska (NSA)
- Central Facility, Atqasuk AK (C2)
- Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1)
- Southern Great Plains (SGP)
- Central Facility, Lamont, OK (C1)
- Hillsboro, KS (Boundary) (B1)
- Lamont, OK (Extended, secondary) (E14)
- Morris, OK (Boundary) (B5)
- Purcell, OK (B6)
- Supplemental 2, Lamont, OK (S02)
- Vici, OK (Boundary) (B4)
- SHEBA (Surface HEat Budget of the Arctic) (SHB)
- Ice Station SHEBA (C1)
- Tropical Western Pacific (TWP)
- Central Facility, Darwin, North Australia (C3)
- Central Facility, Manus I., PNG (C1)
- Central Facility, Nauru Island (C2)
- ARM Mobile Facility (FKB)
- Black Forest, Germany (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (NIM)
- Niamey, Niger (M1)
- ARM Mobile Facility (PYE)
- Point Reyes, CA (M1)
Mentor(s)
Maria Cadeddu
(630) 252-7408
mcadeddu@anl.gov
