Detection and Correction of AMSR-E Radio-Frequency Interference

Radio-frequency interference (RFI) affects greatly the quality of the data and retrieval products from space-borne microwave radiometry. Analysis of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) Aqua satellite observations reveals very strong and widespread RFI contam- inations on the C- and X-band data. Fortunately, the strong and moderate RFI signals can be easily identified using an index on observed brightness temperature spectrum. It is the weak RFI that is diffi- cult to be separated from the nature surface emission. In this study, a new algorithm is proposed for RFI detection and correction. The simulated brightness temperature is used as a background signal (B) and a departure of the observation from the background (O-B) is utilized for detection of RFI. It is found that the O-B departure can result from either a natural event (e.g., precipitation or flooding) or an RFI signal. A separation between the nature event and RFI is further realized based on the scattering index (SI). A positive SI index and low brightness temperatures at high frequencies indicate precipitation. In the RFI correction, a relationship between AMSR-E measurements at 10.65 GHz and those at 18.7 or 6.925 GHz is first developed using the AMSR-E training data sets under RFI-free conditions. Contamination of AMSR-E measurements at 10.65 GHz is then predicted from the RFI-free measurements at 18.7 or 6.925 GHz using this relationship. It is shown that AMSR-E measurements with the RFI-correction algorithm have better agreement with simulations in a variety of surface conditions.