Verification of Fengyun-3D MWTS and MWHS Calibration Accuracy Using GPS Radio Occultation Data

The newly launched Fengyun-3D (FY-3D) satellite carries microwave temperature sounder (MWTS) and microwave humidity sounder (MWHS), providing the global atmospheric temperature and humidity measurements. It is important to assess the in orbit performance of MWTS and MWHS and understand their calibration accuracy before using them in numerical weather prediction and many other applications such as hurricane monitoring. This study aims at quantifying the biases of MWTS and MWHS observations relative to the simulations from the collocated Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data. Using the collocated FY-3C Global Navigation Satellite System Occultation Sounder (GNOS) RO data under clear-sky conditions as inputs to Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM), brightness temperatures and viewing angles are simulated for the upper level sounding channels of MWTS and MWHS. In order to obtain O – B statistics under clear sky conditions, a cloud detection algorithm is developed by using the two MWTS channels with frequencies at 50.3 and 51.76 GHz and the two MWHS channels with frequencies centered at 89 and 150 GHz. The analysis shows that for the upper air sounding channels, the mean biases of the MWTS observations relative to the GPS RO simulations are negative for channels 5–9, with absolute values < 1 K, and positive for channels 4 and 10, with values < 0.5 K. For the MWHS observations, the mean biases in brightness temperature are negative for channels 2–6, with absolute values < 2.6 K and relatively small standard deviations. The mean biases are also negative for channels 11–13, with absolute values < 1.3 K, but with relatively large standard deviations. The biases of both MWTS and MWHS show scan-angle dependence and are asymmetrical across the scan line. The biases for the upper air MWTS and MWHS sounding channels are larger than those previously derived for the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder.