Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc.

139: 954–963, April 2013 B

Algorithms for retrieving geophysical parameters from the

MADRAS and SAPHIR sensors of the Megha-Tropiques
satellite: Indian scenario
B. S. Gohil,* R. M. Gairola, A. K. Mathur, A. K. Varma, C. Mahesh, R. K. Gangwar
and P. K. Pal
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Group, Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, India
*Correspondence to: Dr Aloke Mathur, ISRO, SAC/ISRO, Ahmedabad 380015, India. E-mail: aloke.mathur@gmail.com

The major scientific objective of the Megha-Tropiques (MT) satellite, an Indian

Space Research Organisation (ISRO)–Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
collaborative project, is to understand the energy and water cycles in the global
tropical region. With its 20◦ inclined orbit, it will frequently measure radiation
emitted by the Earth-Atmosphere System in the visible, infrared and microwave
spectrum through its four sensors on board. Various geophysical parameters,
namely water vapour, cloud liquid water and surface winds over oceanic regions,
and the rainfall, humidity profile and top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes over land
as well as over oceanic regions will be derived from the measurements made by
these instruments. This article deals with the efforts made by ISRO to develop
algorithms for deriving these geophysical parameters from the microwave imager
and sounder, mentioning the pre-launch specifications with prelude examples from
existing space-borne sensors of similar types. The sensor-specific algorithms are
presented in different sections. Copyright 
c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society

Key Words: water vapour; cloud liquid water; surface wind; rainfall; humidity profile; radiative flux

Received 7 September 2011; Revised 21 June 2012; Accepted 19 August 2012; Published online in Wiley Online
Library 11 October 2012

Citation: Gohil BS, Gairola RM, Mathur AK, Varma AK, Mahesh C, Gangwar RK, Pal PK. 2013. Algorithms
for retrieving geophysical parameters from the MADRAS and SAPHIR sensors of the Megha-Tropiques
satellite: Indian scenario. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963. DOI:10.1002/qj.2041

1. Introduction Sondeur Atmosphérique du Profil d’Humidité Intertropical

The energy and moisture budgets of the tropical atmosphere,
which control the amount of precipitation in the Tropics, are
influenced by surface evaporation, net radiation at the top
of the atmosphere, integrated water vapour and the vertical
profiles of temperature and humidity. The simultaneous
measurement of these geophysical variables is essential to
understand the energy and moisture budget of tropical
convective systems. During the past many years, the majority
of these parameters have been measured by satellites but
not simultaneously. The Megha-Tropiques (MT) satellite
will provide such measurements simultaneously from its
four sensors on board, namely Microwave Analysis and
Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Structures (MADRAS),
par Radiométrie (SAPHIR), Scanner for Radiation Budget
(ScaRaB) and Radio Occultation Sensor for Atmosphere
(ROSA). Specifications of the MT satellite are provided in
Table 1, while Tables 2 and 3 provide details of MADRAS
and SAPHIR sensors, respectively. The details of retrieval
algorithms for specific sensors and associated geophysical
variables are given in separate sections.
The MADRAS system is a five-channel, self-calibrating,
microwave radiometer system with azimuth scanning of
±65◦ , yielding a data swath of 1700 km at a local incidence
angle of 53.5◦ at the Earth’s surface; the specifications are
given in Table 2.
The SAPHIR sensor is a six-channel microwave sounder
with cross-track scanning of ±43◦ , yielding a data swath of

Copyright 
c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
 Algorithms for Retrieving Geophysical Parameters from Megha-Tropiques 955

Table 1. Megha-Tropiques satellite specifications. measures emitted radiation at frequencies of 19.35, 37.0 and
85.5 GHz with dual polarization and at 22.235 GHz with
Parameter Specification single polarization. Since the MADRAS channels are very
Altitude 867 km similar to those of SSM/I, a prelude algorithm for retrieving
Orbit inclination 20 deg the rainfall rate from MADRAS has been developed based on
Repeat cycle 7 days (Approx) collocated data of SSM/I and TRMM-PR. The TRMM-PR
No of orbits per day 14 orbits (Approx) 2A25 data are available from Goddard Earth Science Data
and Information Services Center (GESDISC).
A regional scattering index (SI) has been developed for
Table 2. Specifications of MADRAS microwave radiometer. the Indian land and oceanic areas, followed by a nonlinear
relationship between rain rate and SI. This algorithm
Channel Frequency Polarization NE
T Spatial has been tested with global SSM/I measurements, mainly
No. (GHz) (K) resolution (km) over the tropical region, and inter-compared with other
M1 18.7 H+V 0.7 40
independent rain estimates.
M2 23.8 V 0.7 40
M3 36.5 H+V 0.7 40 2.1. Algorithm description
M4 89 H+V 1.0 10
M5 157 H+V 2.6 6 An empirical approach attempted for the retrieval of rain
rates utilizing the SI as proposed by Grody (1991), using 19,
22s and 85 GHz brightness temperatures (TB) over land and
Table 3. Specifications of SAPHIR microwave sounder. oceans, is described below.
The rain rate (RR) in (mm h−1 ) is estimated from SI using
Channel Centre Max.
T (K) Absolute Pol. the equation
Frequency Passband Sensitivity valibration (K)
No. (GHz) (MHz) at 300 K Over 180–300 K RR = g(SI)h . (1)
S1 183.31 ± 0.2 200 1/2 ±1 H
S2 183.31 ± 1.1 350 0.7/1.5 ±1 H The SI is defined as
S3 183.31 ± 2.8 500 0.7/1.5 ±1 H
S4 183.31 ± 4.2 700 0.6/1.3 ±1 H SI = TBE85v − TB85v , (2)
S5 183.31 ± 6.8 1200 0.6/1.3 ±1 H
S6 183.31 ± 11.0 2000 0.5/1.0 ±1 H where TBE85V is the estimated vertically polarized 85 GHz
brightness temperature for a non-raining background and
is given by the following expression:
1705 km with variable local incidence angle at the Earth’s
surface. The specifications of SAPHIR are given in Table 3. TBE85v = a + bTB19v + cTB21v + dTB221v , (3)
The following sections describe the retrieval algorithms
developed for deriving various geophysical parameters from where the coefficients a, b, c, d, g and h for land and oceans
the MADRAS and SAPHIR sensors. (Mishra et al., 2009) are provided in Table 4.
Over land, rain retrievals are far more complex due to
2. Algorithm for rain retrieval from MADRAS highly variable emissivity of the land surface. In such cases,
the brightness temperature depression due to scattering
Precipitation is associated with various atmospheric in the upper portion of clouds is more indicative of
processes and its proper estimation helps in improving precipitation that can be converted to an expected rain rate.
weather forecasting as well as better understanding of Thus the scattering-based technique is best suited for land-
global climate variability. The precipitation measurement based precipitation systems because the ice layer is thicker
capability of microwave radiometers is well documented by over land. However, many large-scale oceanic systems have
Spencer et al. (1989), Grody (1991), Wilheit et al. (1991), ice, so that the scattering-based technique also works well in
Gairola and Krishnamurti (1992), Ferraro et al. (1996), oceanic regions (Hakkarinen and Adler, 1988; Ferraro and
Kummerow et al. (1998), Liu and Curry (1998), and others. Marks, 1995).
The simultaneous measurements of precipitation from The proposition here for an operational algorithm for
space made by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission the estimation of rain over land and oceans is that the
(TRMM) satellite (Simpson et al., 1996) using the Precip- radiometric data from MADRAS will be collocated with
independent in situ precipitation data over the global
itation Radar (PR) and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI)
region. This database will be used to develop a robust
microwave radiometer on board provide an excellent dataset
set of relationships for different climatic zones. Presently,
for studying such processes. The TRMM-PR operates at
it is demonstrated here with the SSM/I data with the
13.8 GHz frequency (Iguchi et al., 2000), having a swath of
collocated data of rain rate from TRMM-PR for the
215 km with horizontal resolution of 5 km. It has 80 vertical
range bins extending up to 20 km above the Earth ellipsoid
with a vertical resolution of 250 m. Table 4. Coefficients for rain rate and scattering index.
The Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) on board
the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Surface a b c D g h
satellite was first launched in June 1987 on board the DMSP Land 448.6809 −1.5456 −0.6020 0.0055 0.0268 1.5978
F-8 satellite and continued on subsequent DMSP satellites. Ocean −362.4467 1.1379 3.5247 −0.0078 0.0118 1.4985
The SSM/I sensor, described by Hollinger et al. (1990),

Copyright 
c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
956
southwest monsoon period during the years 2005–2008
over Indian land and oceanic regions. There can be biases in
the algorithm due to lag in spatial and temporal collocation
and the TRMM-PR underestimating rain rate with respect
to the ground measurements, as reported by Wolff and
Fisher (2008). This has to be corrected by a detailed
comparison with space-borne and ground measurements
for the final operational algorithm to be developed for
MADRAS.
The rationale behind the algorithm is first to develop a
relationship to predict the 85 GHz brightness temperature
under non-raining conditions over the ocean and land
regions. Then, by estimating the depression in the actual
85 GHz measurements, a measure of the scattering by
precipitation ice/rain drops could be determined.
From the SSM/I data, the estimated vertically polarized
85 GHz brightness temperature TBE85V for a non-raining
background is obtained from the vertical polarization
brightness temperatures TB19V and TB21V at 19 and 21 GHz,
respectively.
The coefficients a, b, c and d are derived by assembling
a global data set of SSM/I observations under rain-free
conditions. Through an exhaustive evaluation, it was found
that the SI value above a particular threshold could be a good
global indicator of rain. A lower threshold does detect more
rain; however, it also causes the detection of false alarms to
increase.
It has been established (Mishra et al., 2009) that TBE85v
can represent the measured value of TB85v well under
rain-free situations. The coefficients g and h are derived
using collocated SSM/I and TRMM-PR data. Establishing
a separate relation for land and ocean seems to work
better. The coastal regions are not addressed in the present
algorithm. This will be addressed separately in the next
update of the algorithm.
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. SSM/I derived rain rate (mm h−1 ) using (a) NOAA and (b) the present algorithm.
Copyright 
c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
B. S. Gohil et al.
2.2. Results and discussion
The rain rates estimated using these coefficients have
been compared with global products from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), based
on the algorithm by Ferraro and Marks (1995) and Ferraro
et al. (1996). The present regional scattering index has been
applied for global rain retrieval on an experimental basis. The
global rain rate using the present and Ferraro et al. (1996)
based algorithms for 23 July 2008 for all ascending and
descending passes of SSM/I is shown in Figure 1.
All the global rain features, such as the Intertropical
Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and South Pacific Convergence
Zone (SPCZ), African wave, etc., are picked up well in
the present algorithm. For the initial validation of the
aforementioned method used for rain retrieval over Indian
land and oceanic regions, the rain rates estimated by the
SI-based approach from NOAA and the present algorithm
have been validated against independent TRMM-PR data.
The scatter plots have been shown in Figure 2 for land and
ocean separately and their corresponding error statistics are
given in Table 5. Over the land region, the Ferraro SI based
method gives a correlation of 0.59 with a standard error of
1.08. The present SI based method gives a slightly better
correlation of 0.63 with a standard error estimate of 1.04.
Over oceanic regions also, the regional algorithm gives better
correlation with TRMM-PR data. The slopes and respective
errors of both algorithms are provided in the scatter plots.
The results show that the present algorithm performs better
over Indian land and oceanic regions (within 40E◦ – 100◦ E,
20◦ S–40◦ N). The slopes in all cases are lower than unity,
which could possibly be due to downscaling of the TRMM-
PR rain rate at SSM/I resolutions as well as the difference
in characteristics of rain measurements using passive and
active microwave instruments.
Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
 Algorithms for Retrieving Geophysical Parameters from Megha-Tropiques 957

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 2. Comparison of SSM/I derived rain rates using the present algorithm (panels (a) and (b)) and the NOAA algorithm (panels (c) and (d)) with
those from TRMM-PR over land as well as ocean.

Table 5. Comparison statistics of SSM/I derived and TRMM-PR rain rates. 3.1. Data and RT model used

Algorithm Land Ocean In the present study, we utilize the radiative transfer
Correlation Standard error Correlation Standard error
model given by Liu (1998) for simulation of the
coefficient (mm h−1 ) coefficient (mm h−1 )
brightness temperatures. The model requires various inputs
Ferraro 0.59 1.08 0.64 1.84 pertaining to microwave radiometer specifications as well as
Present 0.63 1.04 0.66 1.81 atmospheric parameters such as profiles of temperature,
humidity, cloud liquid and hydrometeors and surface
parameters like wind speed and sea-surface temperature
for calculating the brightness temperatures at the top of the
In general there are some known major sources of error atmosphere. The environmental parameters are taken from
for the instantaneous rain retrievals using passive microwave National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
sensors, namely beam-filling, coastal boundaries, vertical numerical weather prediction (NWP) model analyzed fields.
and horizontal variability and the freezing level. These In order to carry out forward simulations of brightness
error sources are very critical and need to be followed temperatures using the above RT model, we used six-
continuously on their respective fronts. Notwithstanding, a hourly global NCEP model-derived environmental surface
more comprehensive global rain-retrieval algorithm along parameters and ◦
profiles up to 30 km in the vertical that are
with validation is needed, rather than a region-specific available in 1 × 1◦ latitude–longitude grids. Taking into
algorithm, to evaluate the efficacy of the methodology in consideration the latitudinal coverage of the MT,◦ we have ◦
working well in all possible climatic zones of the globe. This considered NCEP model fields confined to the 30 N–30 S
is planned as a next update with realistic data from the region. For testing purposes, ◦we use ◦DMSP-SSM/I brightness
MADRAS sensor. temperatures within the 30 N–30 S latitude region along
with the operational GPs provided by NASA/GHRC, known
as Wentz products.
3. Retrieval of geophysical parameters over the ocean
from MADRAS
3.2. Retrieval algorithms
In this section we describe the algorithms for deriving various
Inversion techniques employed here are essentially statistical
geophysical parameters (GPs), namely surface wind speed
techniques similar to those developed for the Multi-
(WS), total precipitable water (TPW) and cloud liquid
frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR),
water (CLW) over global tropical oceans under rain-free
launched on board the Indian satellite Oceansat-1 (Gohil
conditions from MADRAS. As a prelude to MADRAS, these
et al., 2000). The MADRAS retrieval algorithms for various
algorithms have been tested with SSM/I data by making use
geophysical parameters have the following general form:
of similar algorithms developed for SSM/I specifications very
similar to those of MADRAS. The SSM/I derived parameters

5

7
have been compared with SSM/I Wentz products (Wentz, G = co + ci ln(280 − TBi ) + di
TBi , (4)
1997). i=1 i=6

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c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
958 B. S. Gohil et al.

where G is the desired geophysical parameter (WS, TPW, Table 7. Retrieval coefficients and theoretical errors for various geophysical
CLW), TBi are the brightness temperatures for channel parameters from MADRAS.
frequencies of 18.7 GHz (V), 18.7 GHz (H), 23.8 GHz
(V), 36.5 GHz (V) and 36.5 GHz (H) channels,
TBi GPs co c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 d6 d7
are the differences of brightness temperatures of V and H CLW 2803.6 594.7 −1137.35 35.48 −30.78 −66.28 8.91 −0.41
polarizations at 18.7 GHz and 36.5 GHz channels and ci and (mg cm−2 )
di are the associated regression coefficients. TPW 55.68 −0.31 −11.56 −2.00 −1.98 3.49 0.08 0.002
Inversion coefficients are obtained using regression (g cm−2 )
analysis for each of the geophysical variables. Different WS 273.76 95.88 −210.66 13.02 −33.23 94.52 0.99 −1.12
(m s−1 )
combinations of channels and polarization are used for
different variables based on the dependence of brightness
temperature on these variables.
In order to establish relationships between GPs and TB Table 8. Statistical scores for retrieval of geophysical parameters from
as given by equation (4), we have used the brightness MADRAS.
temperatures simulated using NCEP NWP analyzed fields
and the sensor characteristics of MADRAS for generating GPs Statistical scores
a large database. We divide the database into equal parts N rms correlation F-test χ -square
for training and test purposes. We add a Gaussian random error coeff. (R)
noise of 1 K to all brightness temperatures of the training CLW(mg cm−2 ) 26756 5.32 0.95 39140 28.27
and test datasets. With the training dataset, we then TPW (g cm−2 ) 26264 0.48 0.93 25260 15.73
establish the retrieval coefficients for each of the parameters. WS (m s−1 ) 24668 1.60 0.79 5866 2.544
The theoretical accuracy of the retrieval is established by
comparison of the retrieved GPs with the corresponding
NCEP environmental parameters. Table 6 shows the range Table 9. Retrieval coefficients and theoretical errors for various geophysical
of each GP and the range of CLW values used for deriving parameters from SSM/I.
the retrieval coefficients as well as for the retrieval.
The presence of a high CLW value is not only often GPs RMS co c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 d6 d7
associated with precipitation but also affects the retrieval error
of the other GPs. GPs are not retrieved in the presence of CLW 4.69 2152.29 401.58 −783.42 20.85 32.67 −145.41 7.29 −0.01
precipitation determined by using the precipitation retrieval mg cm−2
algorithm described in this article. High values of CLW affect TPW 0.47 60.17 1.60 −18.60 −0.61 −5.39 9.41 0.16 −0.05
the retrieval of WS and TPW (Wentz, 1997), and hence we g cm−2
use 50 mg cm−2 and 18 g cm−2 as upper limits of the CLW WS 1.27 217.59 75.53 −180.16 13.94 −15.83 79.82 0.77 −1.10
value for the retrieval of TPW and WS, respectively. Table 7 m s−1
provides the retrieval coefficients for the GPs from MADRAS
over the oceans under rain-free conditions. Table 8 provides
the number of points used in Eqn (4) and the resulting Figures 3(b) and (c) are similar to Figure 3(a) but for TPW
theoretical accuracy and other statistical scores (correlation and WS, respectively, which are plotted on a linear scale.
coefficient, F-test and χ -square test) providing the quality To maintain statistical stability, the CNSD and bias are
of the regression fit. calculated in bins of the respective parameter with a variable
The rms error presented in Table 8 is provided for bin size, which is defined by nearly the same number of
the corresponding parameter range given in Table 6. The points in each bin.
rms and bias may, however, be corresponding parameter- Similarly, retrieval coefficients have also been developed
value dependent. Thus, we have analyzed and presented the for SSM/I, as shown in Table 9 using sensor characteristics
conditional normalized standard deviation (CNSD) and bias of SSM/I with a noise of 0.5 K. For testing purpose, the real
conditioned to parameter value. This is carried out using SSM/I observations are used, as described later.
a training dataset by calculating the normalized standard
deviation (i.e. standard deviation divided by mean value) 3.3. Results and discussion
and bias in bins of the corresponding NCEP parameter is
presented in Figure 3. Figure 3(a) provides the variation We have tested the retrieval algorithms with SSM/I F14
of CNSD and bias with respect to the value of CLW in observations of 24 June, 2008 and compared retrieved
the training dataset. The CLW values are not uniformly parameters with SSM/I Wentz products within latitude
distributed across the range. The natural variability of CLW of 30◦ N–30◦ S. The comparisons are shown in Figure 4(a),
is such that there are fewer values in higher ranges, thus in (b) and (c) for CLW, TPW and WS, respectively. The
Figure 3(a) we have plotted CLW on a logarithmic scale. corresponding comparison statistics are shown in Table 10.
The derived TPW for SSM/I shows better agreement with
Table 6. Range of geophysical parameters with the range of CLW used for the corresponding Wentz product (Table 10) compared
retrieval. with the theoretical error provided in Table 9. The retrieved
wind speed shows some bias with respect to the Wentz
GPs Range of the parameter CLW used product. The bias in the wind speed may be due to a
CLW 0–600 mg cm−2 Full range
mean difference of 0.3 m/s, with a standard deviation of
TPW 0.7–8.3 g cm−2 <50 mg cm−2 the difference of 1.3 m/s present in SSM/I F-14 operational
WS 0–25 m s−1 <18 mg cm−2 winds with respect to buoy measurements as reported by
Wentz (http://www.ssmi.com/ssmi/ssmi validation.html).

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 Algorithms for Retrieving Geophysical Parameters from Megha-Tropiques 959

(a) (a)

(b)

(b)

(c)

(c)

Figure 3. Normalized standard deviation and bias as a function of

parameter: (a) cloud liquid water, (b) total precipitable water and (c) wind
speed.

The other possible reason for this bias may be different

accuracies of the radiative transfer models, which could
lead to different biases. Removing the bias (Table 10)
improves the wind-speed comparison. The rms difference
in the comparison of CLW with the corresponding Wentz
product is higher compared with the theoretical error, which
could be due to the difference in the retrieval approach. This
could also be due to the differences in the RT models
used, the system noise values and the inherent errors in the
two products. The results given above are of preliminary
nature; however, the algorithm is subjected to fine tuning
with in situ and other data sets while the SSM/I operational
algorithms have undergone extensive validation and fine
tuning.
Copyright 
c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
Figure 4. Comparison of SSM/I derived GPs with Wentz products for
(a) CLW, (b) TPW and (c) WS.
4. Retrieval of humidity profiles from SAPHIR
This section deals with a new algorithm developed for
the retrieval of clear-sky atmospheric humidity profiles
from SAPHIR and Humidity Sounder of Brazil (Aqua-
HSB) microwave sounders operating at frequencies around
183.31 GHz. Atmospheric water vapour is a subject with
many facets. Water vapour is of fundamental importance
Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
960 B. S. Gohil et al.

Table 10. Statistics of comparison of SSM/I derived geophysical parameters the use of a combination of sounding channels for
with Wentz products. deriving the humidity profile due to altitudinal overlaps
of dominantly radiating layers. The standard (or normal)
GPs rms diff. Bias Unbiased rms diff algorithm, termed here as the NORM algorithm, statistically
CLW (mg cm−2 ) 11.63 −1.04 11.59 uses radiation data as the predictor, solely or along with
TPW (g cm−2 ) 0.29 −0.02 0.29 water-vapour content (WVC) as an additional predictor.
WS (m s−1 ) 2.65 −2.38 1.17 The present approach uses a WVC-dependent statistical
relationship utilizing radiation data as predictor and thus
named the water-vapour-dependent (WVD) algorithm,
Table 11. Channel frequencies of SAPHIR and HSB humidity sounders. improving humidity retrievals through indirectly restricting
the dynamic variability of the measurements. The algorithm
Channels SAPHIR (Megha-Tropiques) (GHz) ∗ HSB (Aqua) (GHz) has been tested with simulated TB data for Aqua/HSB and
1 183.31±0.15 (183.16) –
SAPHIR channels as well as limited HSB data, indicating
2 183.31±1.20 (182.11) 183.31±1 (182.31) improvements over the NORM algorithm.
3 183.31±2.80 (180.51) 183.31±3 (180.31) The algorithm for retrieving the humidity profile has
4 183.31±4.30 (179.01) – been developed based on sensitivity analysis using data
5 183.31±6.60 (176.71) 183.31±7 (176.31) simulated through an in-house emission-based radiative
6 183.31±11.00 (172.31) – transfer model (RTM) utilizing the absorption model by
Liebe et al. (1993) and windy ocean surface emissivity models
(Freq. used for simulations) ∗ Other channels are 89 and 150 GHz.
given by Hollinger (1973), Stogryn 1972) and Wilheit (1979),
using the simulated atmospheric profiles.
for climate, where it constitutes the single most important Based on the nature of the TB dependence on layer-
greenhouse gas (Spencer and Braswell, 1997). Its presence averaged relative humidity (LARH) and combined with
in the troposphere is responsible for more than 80% of the the simulated data (Sohn and Chung, 2003), the following
greenhouse effect. The vertical profile of moisture influences optimum relationship between LARH and TB has been
the development of clouds and precipitation. The vertical established:
profile of moisture or humidity is measured by balloon-

borne radiosondes or aircraft-based dropsondes over land ln(LARHp ) = A0,p + Ai,p TBi , (5)
and ocean with very limited spatial and temporal coverage.
Infrared sounders on board geostationary and polar-orbiting where A0,p is the retrieval constant for the pth pressure layer,
satellites measure humidity only under cloud-free regions, Ai,p is the retrieval coefficient for the ith channel and the
while microwave sounders can measure humidity under pth layer and TBi is the brightness temperature of the ith
cloud-free and very low cloudy conditions. Over the sounding channel. These coefficients have been established
oceanic regions, combined use of microwave radiometer using the simulated noisy TB from the simulated clear-sky
and sounders improves humidity retrievals in both clear atmospheres with WVC varying over the entire range. The
(Gohil et al., 2006) and partly cloudy areas. However, above algorithm is named here as the NORM algorithm.
situations with deep convective clouds and precipitating The WVD algorithm for retrieving LARH has the
regions still pose a real challenge in the retrieval of humidity following form:
profiles. Even for a clear sky, retrievals of humidity from

sounders with a limited number of channels need to be ln(LARHp ) = A0,p,δw + Ai,p,δw TBi , (6)
improved, specifically in the lower troposphere and over
tropical regions. where δw is a small range of WVC and the associated
At present, attempts for improving humidity retrievals retrieval coefficients are A0,p,δw and Ai,p,δw . These coefficients
have been made through the indirect use of total moisture are established separately for each δw varying over the entire
content over ocean and land. Described subsequently are the range. In order to retrieve LARH, the WVC information is
algorithm development and its testing based on simulated required externally either through microwave radiometers
data for MT/SAPHIR channels, followed by the retrieval or from the numerical weather prediction model output. In
of humidity profiles from the limited Aqua/HSB data and the absence of both of these, the WVC is taken from the
comparison with radiosonde data. climatology. Considering the radiometric errors as well as
the instantaneous deviation from monthly climatology in
4.1. Data used WVC measurements, a small overlap of WVC has been used
for three broad ranges of WVC for the WVD algorithm.
The technique has been developed based on simulated The improvements in retrievals obtained using the WVD
data for HSB as well as for the SAPHIR channels with algorithm have been studied in detail based on simulations
specifications summarized in Table 11. for HSB and SAPHIR channels with limited testing with
HSB data described later.
4.2. Algorithm
4.3. Simulation results
At frequencies around the water-vapour resonance line at
183.31 GHz having very high atmospheric absorption, the An instrument noise of 1 K for all channels of HSB as well
radiation is dominantly contributed by broad atmospheric as SAPHIR sounders has been introduced in the simulated
layers, the thickness and mean altitude of which vary data. Retrieval of humidity has been performed for seven
with operating frequency as well as with humidity and thick overlapping layers (TOL) between pressure levels
temperature conditions of the atmosphere. This necessitates 1000–550 mb, 1000–400 mb, 850–400 mb, 850–250 mb,

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c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
 Algorithms for Retrieving Geophysical Parameters from Megha-Tropiques 961

Table 12. Summary of humidity retrieval errors based on simulations. %) for NORM and WVD techniques, respectively, with an
improvement of 24.4% by WVD over NORM as depicted in
Algorithm Profile RMSS of RMS diff. of humidity (LARH in %) Table 13.
HSB sounder SAPHIR sounder Algorithms for SAPHIR tested with simulated data for six
Overlap. Isolated Overlap. Isolated
isolated layers yield aggregate profile errors of 8.78 (RH in %)
layers layers layers layers
and 7.28 (RH in %) for NORM and WVD, respectively, with
NORM 8.56 12.48 5.23 8.78 an improvement of 17.08% by WVD over NORM, as shown
WVD 6.43 10.82 3.95 7.28
% Imp. 24.9 13.32 24.4 17.08
in Table 14. It should be noted that improvement is greater
in the case of SAPHIR compared with HSB simulations, due
to the greater number of channels.

700–250 mb, 700–100 mb and 550–100 mb, respectively.
These pressure levels have been chosen based on the
simulations and observing the extreme shifts in the limits
of the weighting functions of all these channels. From the
LARH for the seven TOL, LARH for six thin isolated layers
(TIL) have been derived using pressure–LARH integral
differences for pressure limits 1000–850 mb, 850–700 mb,
700–550 mb, 550–400 mb, 400–250 mb and 250–100 mb,
respectively. For implementation of the WVD algorithm, the
chosen WVC ranges with minor overlaps are 0–3 g cm−2 ,
2–5 g cm−2 and 4–8 g cm−2 . In the case of the simulation
experiment the simulated WVC values have been used, while
for analyzing HSB data the monthly mean climatology of
WVC over a 1◦ × 1◦ spatial grid over the global regions
(land as well as ocean) has been used.
A summary of LARH retrieval errors for HSB and SAPHIR
sounders based on simulations is given in Table 12. The
aggregate (overall or profile) retrieval error is defined as the
root mean of sum-of-squares (RMSS) of the root-mean-
square (RMS) of differences in the two data sets.
4.4. SAPHIR simulation results
Simulation experiments have also been carried out for
the SAPHIR humidity sounder of Indo-French satellite
Megha-Tropiques, launched on 12 October 2011. The
aggregate profile RMSS errors for seven overlapping layers
have been found to be 5.23 (RH in %) and 3.95 (RH in
4.5. AQUA/HSB data analysis results
TB data from AQUA-HSB for 15 January 2003 for many
scenes around the Indonesia, Middle East, Eastern Africa
and Madagascar regions have been analyzed. Radiosonde
data over these regions have been used for comparison of
HSB-derived humidity, with these limited radiosonde data
indicating profile-aggregate humidity differences of 20.69
(RH in %) and 15.12 (RH in %) using NORM and WVD
techniques, respectively, with an improvement of 26.92%.
The profile of RMS difference from radiosonde data is
depicted in Figure 5, indicating improved retrievals by the
WVD algorithm over the NORM algorithm, specifically
over the lower troposphere. In the case of HSB, the errors
are relatively larger compared with simulations, possibly
due to inherent bias, sensor characteristics and cloud
contamination; however results still indicate better WVD
retrievals than NORM. Although the data are limited, the
present technique has been found to be useful in retrieving
improved humidity profiles from microwave sounders.
The WVD technique described above for deriving
humidity profiles using microwave sounders has been found
to be better when compared with the NORM technique, in
view of the results of simulated data for SAPHIR and
Aqua/HSB channels as well as the comparison of actual HSB
data-derived humidity with that of the radiosonde humidity
profile. This technique is planned for use with SAPHIR.

Table 13. Algorithm theoretical errors for TOL humidity: SAPHIR case.

Local Inc. Algo. WV rng SAPHIR retrieval errors of LARH (RH in %) Profl RMSS Aggr err
Ang. (Deg) (g cm−2 ) (Simulated data=3645) (TOL)
1000–550 mb 1000–400 mb 850–400 mb 850–250 mb 700–250 mb 700–100 mb 550–100 mb
0 NORM 0–8 5.80 5.11 6.39 4.36 4.69 4.03 4.68 5.07 5.07
WVD 0–3 4.33 3.82 5.31 3.36 3.77 4.08 4.73 4.24 3.84
2–5 4.76 3.62 3.53 3.04 3.30 3.08 3.38 3.57
4–8 4.55 3.90 4.33 3.23 3.30 3.14 2.88 3.67
16 NORM 0–8 5.84 5.15 6.41 4.40 4.72 4.00 4.64 5.08 5.08
WVD 0–3 4.28 3.81 5.29 3.36 3.77 4.03 4.67 4.22 3.87
2–5 4.91 3.72 3.56 3.07 3.31 3.08 3.38 3.63
4–8 4.57 3.94 4.46 3.28 3.35 3.26 2.97 3.73
32 NORM 0–8 6.09 5.34 6.48 4.52 4.80 3.97 4.54 5.18 5.18
WVD 0–3 4.22 3.79 5.21 3.39 3.77 3.89 4.48 4.14 3.98
2–5 5.35 4.11 3.86 3.23 3.40 3.16 3.40 3.85
4–8 4.47 3.99 4.86 3.45 3.57 3.64 3.28 3.93
48 NORM 0–8 7.09 5.98 6.76 4.81 5.00 4.20 4.60 5.59 5.59
WVD 0–3 4.49 3.89 4.99 3.50 3.83 3.71 4.23 4.12 4.12
2–5 5.94 4.77 4.93 3.67 3.75 3.69 3.70 4.43
4–8 3.81 3.63 4.70 3.53 3.82 3.58 3.37 3.80
Swath Perf. NORM 5.23
WVD 3.95
Imp. 24.4 percent

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c 2012 Royal Meteorological Society Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 139: 954–963 (2013)
962 B. S. Gohil et al.

Table 14. Testing of algorithm with TIL humidity: SAPHIR case.

Local Inc. Angle (Deg) Algo. SAPHIR retrieval errors of LARH (RH in %) (Simulated data=3645) (TIL) Prof. RMSS
1000–850 mb 850–700 mb 700–550 mb 550–400 mb 400–250 mb 250–100 mb
0 NORM 10.70 6.18 11.83 5.73 7.19 8.27 8.62
WVD 10.27 4.39 9.99 4.11 6.17 7.09 7.41

16 NORM 10.95 6.11 12.03 5.63 7.01 8.22 8.66

WVD 9.94 4.94 10.27 4.13 6.11 7.03 7.44

32 NORM 11.10 6.44 11.55 5.67 6.78 8.20 8.60

WVD 9.36 4.69 9.92 4.27 5.87 6.91 7.17

48 NORM 13.30 7.34 11.35 5.92 6.38 8.56 9.21

WVD 9.92 4.80 9.57 4.08 5.31 6.60 7.09

Swath Perf. NORM 8.78

WVD 7.28
IMP(%) 17.08

6 generation and dissemination of geophysical products to the

RMSS OF LAYERS' RMS-DIFF global scientific community.
WVD = 15.12, NORM = 20.69
5 PERCENTAGE IMP. = 26.92
Acknowledgements
LYR:1=1000-850 mb
LYR:2=850-700 mb
4 LYR:3=700-550 mb The authors thank the Director, Space Applications Centre
LAYER #

LYR:4=550-400 mb
LYR:5=400-250 mb for his keen interest and support and NOAA, NASA and
LYR:6=250-100 mb Remote Sensing Systems for the datasets of model, satellite
3 and geophysical parameters used in the study.
WVD Retrievals
2 NORM Retrievals
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